New York: Kamala Shrestha, a woman of Nepali origin, was attacked at a local underground metro station and thrown on to the rail track, but was saved when two people pulled her to safety before a train came along. She received a head injury and was taken to a hospital. Police described the attacker "as a black man in his 20s. He walked out of the subway station and escaped. Her husband, Nam Lal Srestha, said that they want to find the two men who rescued her. "They saved my wife's life," he said.
Boy detained for dancing on the streets
Jeddah: The Saudi police said that they detained a 14-year-old teenager in Jeddah after he was filmed dancing to the famous 1990s song 'Macarena' at a crossing in the city. The video clip has gone viral with many people sharing it on social media. The teenager was questioned because he had displayed "improper public behaviour" and also disrupted traffic following a "confidential investigation", the police said. The name and identity of the teenage boy was not revealed. The video clip shows the teenager wearing a striped t-shirt, grey shorts and shoes dancing in the middle of a crossing on Riyadh's Prince Mohamed bin Abdulaziz Road with his headphones covering his ears while standing in front of five lanes of cars, which had stopped at a traffic signal.
71 killed as Rohingya clash with Myanmar army
Yangon: Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, and at least 59 of the insurgents and 12 members of the security forces were killed, the army and government said. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the early morning offensive, and warned of more. The Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence.
500 bodies found in Iraq mass graves
Baghdad: Iraqi military investigators discovered two mass graves containing the remains of some 500 decapitated bodies near the city of Mosu. The two graves were found near Badoush prison site in the northwest of Mosul, where one contained 470 bodies and the other contained 30, the Joint Operations Command said. The bodies are believed to be prisoners executed by Islamic State (IS) militants. The Badoush prison is known as the site of an IS massacre of more than 600 inmates on June 10, 2014, when the terrorist group was sweeping the northern province of Nineveh.
30 killed in Kabul mosque attack
Kabul: At least 30 people were killed and over 80 others were injured after militants attacked Kabul city's Imam Zaman mosque. A blast was followed by gunfire as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers at the mosque in Qala-Najara. After the suicide blast, gunmen attacked the mosque in Qala-e-Najarha area in Kabul's PD11, the Ministry of Interior confirmed. "The attack was carried out by three or four men and one of them blew himself up outside the mosque," Tolo News quoted Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish as saying. Many explosions were later heard from the area during the clearance operation by the Crisis Response Unit of the Afghan National Police, the news agency added.
57% surge in Pak population in last 19 years
Islamabad: Pakistan's population has surged to 207.8 million, a 57% spike since the last census in 1998, according to provisional census data. Pakistan has 106.45 million males, 101.31 million females and 10,418 transgenders, the provisional data shows. Compared with the results of the fifth census, there was a 57% increase in the population at an annual rate of 2.4%. The 1998 census found that Pakistan had a population of over 132 million. Pakistan's population has risen to 207.8 million with an increase of 75.4 million people within 19 years.
Maldives jails last opposition leader
Colombo: The Maldives' last remaining opposition leader in the country was handed a prison sentence as President Abdulla Yameen stepped up a crackdown on political dissent in South Asia's troubled tropical paradise. Qasim Ibrahim, who heads the Jumhooree Party (JP) and lost his bid for president in 2013, was accused of leading a failed bid in March to impeach Speaker Abdulla Maseeh, a close ally of Yameen. He was convicted of bribing lawmakers to impeach the Speaker and given 38 months in jail. The verdict also disqualifies Ibrahim, 65, from holding a seat in Parliament.
Hospital worker wins $759m in record US jackpot
NEW YORK: A 53-year-old Massachusetts mother of two who scooped the largest single jackpot in US history - $758.7 million - said it was a dream come true and immediately quit her hospital job of 32 years. Mavis Wanczyk said she had played the lottery as a "pipe dream," never believing that it would one day be possible for her to retire early from the Mercy Medical Center, where she worked in patient care. Wanczyk, who has a 31-year-old daughter and 26-year-old son, said she had been "OK" financially and had yet to work out how to spend her millions.
Sharif family files plea to review Panamagate verdict
Islamabad: The family of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has filed a review petition against the Supreme Court's July 28 verdict, which disqualified him from holding any office. On behalf of Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz, sons Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz and son-in-law Captain Safdar, lawyer Salman Akram Raja filed the review petition. The five-member bench of the top court had disqualified Sharif from holding any public office for failing to declare a salary which he had not withdrawn as an executive director of a Dubai-based company as an asset when filing his nomination papers in 2013. The petitioners have said the final order of the court is 'coram non judice' as the five-member bench did not have jurisdiction in the matter and so claimed that the court's directions to NAB are violate of the principle of trichotomy of powers.
Qatar restores diplomatic ties to Iran
DUBAI: Qatar restored full diplomatic relations with Iran, disregarding the demands of Arab nations now locked in a regional dispute with the energy-rich country that it lessen its ties to Tehran. In announcing its decision, Qatar did not mention the diplomatic crisis roiling Gulf Arab nations since June, when Qatar found its land, sea and air routes cut off by its neighbours over Doha's policies across the Middle East. "Qatar has shown it is going to go in a different direction," said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University who lives in Seattle. "It could very well be calculated toward reinforcing the point that Qatar will not bow to this regional pressure placed upon it."
Thailand's ex-PM Yingluck flees to Dubai
BANGKOK: Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled to Dubai, senior members of her party said, a day after she failed to show up for a negligence ruling in which she faced up to 10 years in prison. Puea Thai Party sources said Yingluck left Thailand last week and flew via Singapore to Dubai where her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for corruption, has a home. "We heard that she went to Cambodia and then Singapore from where she flew to Dubai. She has arrived safely and is there now," said a senior member of the party who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Deputy national police chief General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said police had no record of Yingluck, 50, leaving the country and were following developments closely.
