IPL broadcasting rights: Amazon plans to pull out of Rs 60,000 cr race

 Amazon’s surprise pullout leaves the field open to Ambani’s Reliance, Disney and Sony Group Corp

Amazon.com Inc. is planning to withdraw from a heated competition for the rights to stream Indian Premier League cricket matches, according to people familiar with the matter, ceding one of the world’s most popular sporting contests to rivals from Walt Disney Co. to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd.

The rights had been estimated to fetch an unprecedented $7.7 billion (nearly Rs 60,000 crore). The US giant is planning to throw in the towel rather than get into a bidding war, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. While Amazon has already invested more than $6 billion in the country, more spending merely for the online streaming rights to the league didn’t make business sense, they said.

Representatives for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon’s surprise pullout leaves the field open to Ambani’s Reliance, Disney and Sony Group Corp., who’re betting the game will help them dominate an Indian consumer market increasingly going online. Whichever company scores the deal could also bolster their position as a leading media player in a country of 1.4 billion where the English sport enjoys cult-like status.

At least 36 killed and 15 missing after landslide buries Chinese village

The state-run People’s Daily said rescue work is ongoing at the site in Shuicheng county, Guizhou province, where a thick torrent of mud buried 22 houses in the landslide on Tuesday

The death toll in a landslide which buried a village in southwest China rose to 36, state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday, with 15 still missing days after the disaster struck. The state-run People’s Daily said rescue work is ongoing at the site in Shuicheng county, Guizhou province, where a thick torrent of mud buried 22 houses in the landslide on Tuesday.

CCTV broadcast footage of rescue workers trying to reach survivors through a huge mound of earth, and excavators digging through the collapsed hill. Two children and a mother with a baby were among those dead. Official news agency Xinhua said Saturday night that 40 people had been rescued from the site, according to the local emergency rescue command.(Click Here: International News)

Xinhua said a local school had been set up as an emergency medical and rescue centre, with “multiple rescue teams and experts” still searching for those missing. The government has earmarked 30 million yuan ($4.35 million) for search and rescue efforts in the province, Xinhua reported, as well as the relocation of victims…