MUMBAI: A man thought to be a citizen of Bangladesh was arrested in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Sunday and is considered the prime suspect in the stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, police said.
Thursday’s attack on Khan, one of India’s most bankable stars, shocked the nation’s film industry and Mumbai residents, with many calling for better policing and security. He was out of danger, doctors said, and has left the hospital.
“Primary evidence suggests that the accused is a Bangladeshi citizen and after entering India illegally he changed his name,” Dixit Gedam, a deputy commissioner of police, told a press conference.
The suspect, arrested on the outskirts of Mumbai, was using the name Vijay Das but is believed to be Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad and was working with a housekeeping agency after having come to the city five or six months ago, Gedam said.
The police will seek custody of the suspect for further investigation, he added.
Khan, 54, was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt at his home. He had surgery after sustaining stab wounds to his spine, neck and hands, doctors said.
Police in Mumbai detained a first key suspect in the attack on Friday, while police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh detained a second person on Saturday.
Suspected Bangladeshi arrested in stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan
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Suspected Bangladeshi arrested in stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan
- Attack on Khan, one of India’s most bankable stars, shocked the nation’s film industry
- Bollywood star was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt at his home
Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment
- Deal calls on DRC and Rwanda to aunch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days
- Trump aims to end years of fighting, warns of ‘severe penalties’ if deal is violated
WASHINGTON/PARIS/KINSHASA: Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year.
The agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by US President Donald Trump’s administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
At a ceremony with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, the two African countries’ foreign ministers signed the agreement pledging to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern Congo within 90 days, according to a copy seen by Reuters.
Kinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.
“They were going at it for many years, and with machetes — it is one of the worst, one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen. And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled,” Trump said on Friday, ahead of the signing of the deal in Washington.
“We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They’re so honored to be here. They never thought they’d be coming.”
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the agreement a turning point. Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said it must be followed by disengagement.
Trump later met both officials in the Oval Office, where he presented them with letters inviting Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to Washington to sign a package of agreements that Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, dubbed the “Washington Accord.”
Nduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged.
Trump warned of “very severe penalties, financial and otherwise,” if the agreement is violated.
Rwanda has sent at least 7,000 soldiers over the border, according to analysts and diplomats, in support of the M23 rebels, who seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier this year.
The gains by M23, the latest cycle in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, sparked fears that a wider war could draw in Congo’s neighbors.
Economic deals
Boulos told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace agreement and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.
Rubio said on Friday that heads of state would be “here in Washington in a few weeks to finalize the complete protocol and agreement.”
However, the agreement signed on Friday gives Congo and Rwanda three months to launch a framework “to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains.”
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that another agreement on the framework would be signed by the heads of state at a separate White House event at an unspecified time.
There is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha — a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 — is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.
The agreement signed on Friday voiced “full support” for the Qatar-hosted talks.
It also says Congo and Rwanda will form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed last year to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months.
Congolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe. Reuters reported on Thursday that Congolese negotiators had dropped an earlier demand that Rwandan troops immediately leave eastern Congo, paving the way for the signing ceremony on Friday.
Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.
Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including the FDLR.
“This is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws,” said Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who specializes in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Similar formulas have been attempted before, Stearns added, and “it will be up to the US, as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms.”
The agreement signed on Friday says Rwanda and Congo will de-risk mineral supply chains and establish value chains “that link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US and US investors.”
The terms carry “a strategic message: securing the east also means securing investments,” said Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at Congo’s Ebuteli research institute.
“It remains to be seen whether this economic logic will suffice” to end the fighting, he added.
War-torn nations face growing poverty and hunger crisis
- World Bank warns that 39 fragile states are falling further behind as conflicts get deadlier
WASHINGTON: The world’s most desperate countries are falling further and further behind, their plight worsened by conflicts that are growing deadlier and more frequent.
That is the sobering conclusion of the World Bank’s first comprehensive study of how 39 countries contending with “fragile and conflict-affected situations’’ have fared since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
“Economic stagnation — rather than growth — has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability,” said Ayhan Kose, the World Bank’s deputy chief economist.
Since 2020, the 39 countries, which range from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen their economic output per person fall by an average 1.8 percent a year. In other developing countries, by contrast, it grew by an average of 2.9 percent a year over the same period.
FASTFACT
The World Bank finds that countries involved in high-intensity conflict — which result in more than 150 deaths per million people — experience a cumulative drop of 20% in their gross domestic product, or the output of goods and services, after five years.
More than 420 million people in the fragile economies are living on less than $3 a day — the bank’s definition of extreme poverty. That is more than the combined total of everywhere else, even though the 39 countries account for less than 15 percent of the world’s population.
Many of these countries have long-standing problems with crumbling infrastructure, weak governance, and low educational standards.
People in the 39 countries get an average of just six years of schooling, three years fewer than those in other low- and middle-income countries. Life expectancy is five years shorter, and infant mortality is twice as high.
Increasing conflicts have made things worse.
In the 2000s, the world saw an annual average of just over 6,000 conflicts — in which organized groups used armed force against other groups or civilians and caused at least one death. Now the yearly average exceeds 20,000.
The conflicts are more lethal, too: In the 2000s, they took an average of fewer than 42,000 lives a year. From 2000 through 2024, the number averaged almost 194,000.
Of the 39 countries, 21 are involved in active conflicts, including Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Gaza.
The World Bank finds that countries involved in high-intensity conflict — which result in more than 150 deaths per million people — experience a cumulative drop of 20 percent in their gross domestic product, or the output of goods and services, after five years.
More conflict also means more hunger: The World Bank estimated that 18 percent — around 200 million — of the people in the 39 countries are “experiencing acute food insecurity’’ compared with just 1 percent in other low and middle-income countries.
Some countries have managed to escape the cycle of conflict and economic fragility. Kose cites Nepal; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Rwanda; and Sri Lanka as relative success stories.
And the World Bank report notes that the 39 countries do enjoy strengths, including natural resources such as oil and natural gas, and a lot of young, working-age people at a time when many economies are aging.
“Some of them are very rich when it comes to their tourism potential,’’ Kose said.
“But you need to have security established. You and I are not going to go and visit these places unless they are safe, even though they might be the most beautiful places in the world.’’
Man pleads not guilty to hate crimes in attack on Colorado demonstration for Israeli hostages
- Mohamed Sabry Soliman was indicted earlier this week on 12 hate crime counts in the June 1 attack
- Soliman’s attorney, David Kraut, entered the not guilty plea on Soliman’s behalf during a quick hearing
DENVER: A man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people who were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages pleaded not guilty Friday to federal hate crime charges.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman was indicted earlier this week on 12 hate crime counts in the June 1 attack. He is accused of trying to kill eight people who were hurt by the Molotov cocktails and others who were nearby.
Soliman’s attorney, David Kraut, entered the not guilty plea on Soliman’s behalf during a quick hearing.
Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella noted that lawyers had acknowledged that a plea agreement in the case was possible later.
Soliman, wearing a khaki jail uniform, entered the courtroom smiling and holding an envelope in his handcuffed hands. His right hand and arm were wrapped in a thick bandage as they were when he appeared in court last week, when an investigators testified that Soliman had burned himself as he threw the second of two Molotov cocktails at the group.
He listened to a translation of the hearing provided by an Arabic interpreter through headphones. He did not speak during the hearing.
Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. But he threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine.”
Soliman, who is also being prosecuted in state court for attempted murder and other charges, told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a “legal citizen.”
He posed as a gardener, wearing a construction vest, to get close to the group before launching the attack, according to court documents. He was also indicted for using fire and an explosive to attack the group and for carrying an explosive, which were included in the hate crime counts.
Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the US illegally with his family.
Soliman is being represented in state and federal court by public defenders who do not comment on their cases to the media.
Prosecutors say the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual national origin.
At a hearing last week, Kraut, Soliman’s defense attorney, urged Starnella not to allow the case to move forward. Kraut said the alleged attack was not a hate crime. He said it was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants
- Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, headed a network that brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the US
- District Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas sentenced Orduna-Torres to life in prison
HOUSTON: The leader of a human smuggling ring convicted of involvement in the deaths of 53 migrants in a sweltering truck in Texas in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, headed a network that brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the United States between December 2021 and June 2022, according to prosecutors.
He was convicted in March of transporting aliens within the United States resulting in death, causing serious bodily injury, and placing lives in jeopardy.
District Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas sentenced Orduna-Torres to life in prison on Friday and a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Another convicted member of the smuggling ring, Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 55, was sentenced to 83 years in prison for his involvement in the deaths of the 53 migrants.
“These criminals will spend the rest of their lives in prison because of their cruel choice to profit off of human suffering,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “Today’s sentences are a powerful message to human smugglers everywhere: we will not rest until you are behind bars.”
Five other defendants have pleaded guilty to their roles in the fatal smuggling operation and are to be sentenced later this year.
Another alleged member of the smuggling ring, Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, 48, was extradited to the United States from Guatemala and is scheduled to go on trial in September.
According to the US authorities, the smugglers charged $12,000 to $15,000 per person to bring the migrants, who mostly hailed from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, into the United States.
At least 64 migrants including eight children and a pregnant woman were loaded into a 53-foot (16-meter) tractor-trailer on or around June 27, 2022 to be moved across the US-Mexico border.
The trailer’s air conditioning was not working properly and the temperature inside the truck soared as it drove north to San Antonio.
Forty-eight people were dead when the trailer reached San Antonio and five more died later in hospital. Six children and the pregnant woman were among the dead.
Surge in conflicts fuels extreme poverty: World Bank
- Development lender says 39 economies are classified as facing conflict or instability, including Gaza, West Bank and Iraq
- Report concludes moves to prevent conflict are far more cost-effective than responding after violence erupts
WASHINGTON: Conflicts and related fatalities have more than tripled since the early 2000s, fueling extreme poverty, the World Bank said Friday.
Economies in fragile and conflict-affected regions have become “the epicenter of global poverty and food insecurity, a situation increasingly shaped by the frequency and intensity of conflict,” the bank added in a new study.
This year, 421 million people get by on less than $3 a day in places hit by conflict or instability — a situation of extreme poverty — and the number is poised to hit 435 million by 2030.
Global attention has been focused on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East for the past three years, said World Bank Group chief economist Indermit Gill.
But “half of the countries facing conflict or instability today have been in such conditions for 15 years or more,” he added.
Currently, 39 economies are classified as facing such conditions, and 21 of them are in active conflict, the Washington-based development lender said.
The list includes Ukraine, Somalia, South Sudan and the West Bank and Gaza.
It also includes Iraq although not Iran.
The report flagged that moves to prevent conflict can bring high returns, with timely interventions being “far more cost-effective than responding after violence erupts.”
It also said that some of these economies have advantages that could be used to reignite growth, noting that places like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo are rich in minerals key to clean tech like electric vehicles and solar panels.
“Economic stagnation — rather than growth — has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability over the past decade and a half,” said Ayhan Kose, World Bank Group deputy chief economist.
The bank’s report noted that high-intensity conflicts, which kill more than 150 per million people, are typically followed by a cumulative fall of around 20 percent in GDP per capita after five years.
