Salman Rushdie stabbed in neck at New York event, rushed to hospital

Agencies
August 12, 2022

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New York, Aug 12: Controversial author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck at an event in New York, US, on Friday. Details were scarce about his condition and the attacker, who has been detained. The 75-year-old author's writings have in the past led to threats.

The New York State Police confirmed the stabbing and said he was taken to an area hospital by helicopter. The attacker is in custody, police said. Social media posts showed people rushing to his aid on stage at Chautauqua Institution, about 100 km from the city. A person interviewing him suffered minor head injuries in the attack. 

Mr Rushdie fell to the floor immediately after the attack, and the attacker was restrained. A small group of people surrounded the author, holding up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest, AP reported. Hundreds of people in the audience gasped at the sight of the attack and were then evacuated.

Rabbi Charles Savenor, who was in the audience, told AP: "This guy ran on to platform and started pounding on Mr Rushdie. At first you're like, ‘What's going on?' And then it became abundantly clear in a few seconds that he was being beaten." He said the attack lasted about 20 seconds. 

The attack happened around 11 am local time (8.30 pm IST) as Mr Rushdie was being introduced before he was to speak. The Chautauqua Institution, located in a rural part of New York, is known for its summertime lecture series. Mr Rushdie has spoken there before.

Delhi-based British writer William Dalrymple was among the first to react, hoping that Mr Rushdie wasn't hurt. "A terrible day for literature, for freedom of speech and for authors everywhere. Poor poor Salman: I pray he's not hurt and recovers quickly," he tweeted.

Mr Rushdie, 75, faced threats particularly in the late 1980s over his book, The Satanic Verses, which is banned in Iran since 1988 as it is alleged to be blasphemous towards Islam. There was also a reward out on his head by the Iranian top leader, though by 1998 the Iranian government said it wasn't seeking to enforce that 'fatwa' or edict. It wasn't clear if the attack is linked to that.

A British citizen of Indian origin, Mr Rushdie has lived in the US for the past 20 years. After the controversy over his fourth book, The Satanic Verses (1988), he remained out of the public eye, mostly living in the UK. Despite the threats, he produced several novels throughout the 1990s.

His first novel came out in 1975, but one of his seminal works is about modern India, Midnight's Children (1981), for which he won the Booker Prize. 

In 2007, he was knighted — given the ceremonial title of 'Sir' — by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature. He has produced over a dozen works, including non-fiction.

In 2012, after an Iranian religious outfit renewed the bounty on him, he dismissed that threat, saying there was "no evidence" of people being interested in the reward, said the AP report. That year, he published a memoir, Joseph Anton, about the fatwa. The title came from the pseudonym he had used while in hiding.

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News Network
March 10,2024

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At least five people have been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, according to first responders and local media, amid exchanges of near-daily fire between the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement and Israel since the latter launched its assault on Gaza.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that a family of four, including a father, his pregnant wife and their two sons, and another individual, were killed in the Israeli strike on a house in the al-Ain neighborhood of Khirbet Selm village in southern Lebanon early on Sunday.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, were quoted as saying that Israeli fighter jets launched two air-to-surface missiles at the residential building, reducing it to rubble.

Ambulance crew and relief teams recovered the bodies from under the debris and transported them to the Tibnin Governmental Hospital morgue.

The Israeli air raid also resulted in the injury of nine other people and caused serious damage to several surrounding houses.

Israel has been striking Lebanon since the beginning of the regime’s hostilities in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has prompted retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in support of the Palestinians in the blockaded area. The Lebanese movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.

Hezbollah fighters have recently targeted Israeli troops near the border with southern Lebanon and rained down rockets on Israeli military sites, including those in Ruwaisat al-Qarn, Zibdin, and Jabal Nader regions.

Also on Saturday, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the southern Lebanese town of Majdal Zoun, destroying it. An Israeli drone fired a missile at an empty house in the border town of Blida as well.

In mid-February, an Israeli strike knocked down part of a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, killing seven members of the same family, including a child. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble.

In a separate Israeli attack, a woman and her two children were killed in the village of as-Sawana in southern Lebanon.

The occupying regime has also killed close to 31,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, most of them women and children.

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News Network
March 14,2024

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The high-level committee on simultaneous elections, chaired by Ram Nath Kovind, on Thursday met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted its report on 'One Nation, One Election'. The report comprises 18,626 pages.

Home Minister Amit Shah was also present at Rashtrapati Bhawan when Kovind led panel submitted the report.

"Simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be held in first step, followed by local body polls within 100 days in second step," reported PTI quoting the panel.

"Synchronised polls for all three tiers of government to improve governance architecture, in line with quest of aspirational India," it added.

The report has been submitted 191 days after the constitution of the panel on September 2, 2023.

It's further reported that the proposal also puts focus on having a singular electoral roll for holding Lok Sabha, state assembly and local body polls.

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News Network
March 7,2024

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Thiruvananthapuram: Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of late Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran, is joining the BJP.

Amidst rumours in this regard, Padmaja told a news channel that neglect from Congress leadership and attraction towards Narendra Modi's leadership led her to take the decision to join the BJP.

She is scheduled to formally join the party today itself.

Congress is already facing much embarrassment over many leaders and workers joining the BJP. Senior leader A K Antony's son Anil Antony, who joined the BJP last year, is now contesting as the BJP candidate at Pathanamthitta in Kerala.

Padmaja's elder brother K Muraleedharan, who is Congress MP from Vadakara in Kozhikode, told reporters that his sister ditched the Congress despite the hardships faced by their father in building up the party in Kerala.

Karunakaran, who died in 2010, is still popularly known as 'leader' in Kerala. He served as Chief Minister for four terms and also as a union minister.

Padmaja, who is a member of Congress Political Affairs Committee in Kerala, contested twice in assembly polls and once in Lok Sabha polls, but got defeated in all.

Padmaja alleged that a section in the Congress itself worked for her defeat in 2021 assembly polls in Thrissur. Even as she complained to party leadership in this regard there was no action taken, she said.

Sources said that Padmaja was expecting a Rajya Sabha seat, which was not considered by the Congress. She was also unhappy that the work on the Karunakaran Foundation building in Thiruvananthapuram was getting delayed

CPM has been campaigning that Congress and BJP are two sides of the same coin as many Congress leaders are joining the BJP.

CPM state secretary M V Govindan said that many Congress leaders in Kerala would be joining the BJP in due course and that could be the reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently expressed hopes that BJP will win double digit number of seats in Kerala this time.

Padmaja is based in Thrissur and hence her decision to join the BJP could be a boost to BJP's hopes of winning the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat where actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi is in the fray.

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