TEHRAN: A gallery opening in northern Tehran, and a typical scene: silk scarves barely clinging to the backs of women’s heads, young hipsters, gentlemen in that most unrevolutionary of items — the tie.

Trendy, wealthy and in their element, the packed crowd edges around abstract sculptures, somewhat grotesque portraits and looped cartoons by US-based Iranian artist Pouya Afshar.

The work has clear Iranian and religious themes, drawing on traditional mourning ceremonies, yet the censorious rulers of the Islamic republic — still deeply ambivalent about the liberating and libertine tendencies of the art world — feel a world away.

Afshar, 33, himself epitomises the globe-trotting Iranian middle and upper classes. He teaches at a US university yet is still drawn back “like an itch I always need to scratch”.

“When I’m here, I’m not completely Iranian, and in the US I’m not completely American, but that helps me cook my own stew,” he said.

“I’m not trying to re-establish my roots with this work. I enjoy being lost.”

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Such return trips have become less fraught since 2013, when a new moderate government eased social pressures and rebuilt ties with the West.

“Even if I’m cynical, it feels more inviting when you have people from the government saying that Iranians from outside should come back and share something,” he said over coffee in a north Tehran cafe that looked like it had been airlifted in from Brooklyn.

The past decade has seen the number of galleries in the city explode from just a handful to more than 100.

The clerical establishment still meticulously monitors all art for anything deemed un-Islamic or obscene, but a public space has opened up for young creatives to live in a way that would have seemed impossibly daring just a few years ago.

Still, some worry they are just living in a bubble, trying to wish away Iran’s harsh censorship and disapproving authorities.

Some speak — off the record — of stints in prison and friends who fled the country for little more than their artistic tastes.

“When bad stuff happens we just ignore it. There’s no other way to deal with it,” said one Tehran-based curator, who asked not to be named.

“There are these 2,000 people who go from one gallery to another, from one pool party to another, living in LA while not really living in LA. It’s a psychosis,” he said.

“You’re sedated by thinking that you’re in a party when you’re really in a locked room.”

But even he admits the atmosphere is much lighter than in the past, and that this is an exciting time to be part of the art scene as Iran slowly reacquires its traditional status as a paragon of world culture.

The freer atmosphere has pushed ordinary artistic concerns to the fore: about authenticity and funding, and what it means to be an “Iranian artist”.

Nima Zaare-Nahandi, whose finely detailed abstract drawings feel unattached to any time or place, pushes back against the idea that his nationality should dictate his style.

“Art is universal. Can you say biology belongs to somewhere? The idea of creating an ‘Iranian school’ is what Westerners demand to make it exotic,” said the 34-year-old in his Tehran studio.

“Obviously local culture affects Iranian artists, but we are so exposed to world cultures today,” said Zaare-Nahandi, whose own influences lie more with Japanese cinema, and his time training in Paris and Madrid.

The challenge, he says, is not to create some single idea of Iranian art, but to build the institutions that can nurture future talent.

“We need more than just galleries, which are purely commercial. We need education, museums, a good review.”

Slowly, those elements are starting to emerge, funded by a booming interest from local and international collectors. But the numbers are still small and many obstacles remain, says Hormuz Hematian, who founded the Dastan Gallery in Tehran five years ago.

“Last year, the whole art scene in Iran made just $35-50 million. The entirety of the masterpieces of contemporary Iranian art cannot be worth the same as one painting at Sotheby’s,” he said.

“The problems are everything you can think of, including us — the galleries — the artists, the education system,” he added.

“We need writers, translators. We need visitors not to feel scared to come here; hotels, entertainment and restaurants.”

Hematian says the market could grow five or 10 times in the next decade if only the remaining US sanctions on Iran can be lifted.

“There’s such a rich history of visual culture to draw on — calligraphy, architecture, illustration.

“The minute the banking problems are solved and the American, French or British markets open up to Iranian art, the growth will be huge,” said Hematian.

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Of course, there is still the censorship issue to deal with, though many put that more on the level of “annoying” rather than repressive.

“It’s not fear — it’s more a question of uncertainty, which is… yes, annoying,” said a Tehran gallery manager, who also asked not to be identified.

“We have to be careful about how much skin we’re showing and things like that. It’s always an issue, although censorship can also make people more creative.

“But we are very optimistic these days. Life is getting easier. It’s blooming. This is the time to be here.”

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MONTREAL: Canadian police arrested a Somalian man early Sunday suspected of stabbing an officer and deliberately ramming pedestrians during a high-speed chase in a rented truck, injuring four in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced as a “terrorist attack.”

The crime spree began on Saturday evening outside a football stadium in the western city of Edmonton and ended hours later when the suspect’s U-Haul rental truck flipped onto its side with police in hot pursuit.

Local media named the attacker as 30-year-old Abdulahi Hasan Sharif as authorities confirmed he was a Somalian national who had applied for asylum and was known to the security services following a complaint in 2015.

“There was insufficient evidence to pursue terrorism charges,” Marlin Degrand, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at a press conference, adding: “The suspect was not deemed to pose a threat to Canada.”

Six killed in ‘terrorist’ attack on Canada mosque

The recovery of an Islamic State flag from one of the vehicles used in the attacks had led police to pursue the incidents as an act of terrorism.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a “terrorist attack,” and urged Canadians to be vigilant. “I am deeply concerned and outraged by this tragedy,” he said in a statement. “While the investigation continues, early reports indicate that this is another example of the hate that we must remain ever vigilant against,” he said.

“We cannot – and will not – let violent extremism take root in our communities. We know that Canada’s strength comes from our diversity, and we will not be cowed by those who seek to divide us or promote fear,” he said.

At approximately 0215 GMT on Sunday, a man in a speeding white Chevy Malibu crashed through police barricades outside Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, where a Canadian Football League game was being played.

The car struck a police officer standing in front of his patrol car, “sending him flying 15 feet through the air” before crashing into his car, according to a statement by local police.

“A male, believed to be 30 years of age, then jumped out of his vehicle and began viciously stabbing the officer with a knife, as a struggle ensued,” the statement added.

The suspect then fled on foot and the police officer was rushed to a hospital. The scene was captured on a surveillance video which was released by the police. Police set up roadblocks around the city of 800,000, and just before midnight police pulled over the U-Haul truck.

When police noticed that the name on the driver’s license was similar to that of the registered owner of the white Malibu, the man took off toward downtown Edmonton, according to the police account. “He deliberately tried to hit pedestrians in crosswalks and alleys” at two different places, Rod Knecht, chief of Edmonton police, told reporters.
“Currently, it is believed four pedestrians were struck by the truck and transported to hospital with multiple injuries.”

Witnesses described a scene of stunned panic when the truck plowed through pedestrians. “There were people flying and everything,” Kim Andressen told the Edmonton Journal. “I’m shocked – I just see people flying.” The chase ended when the suspect lost control of the truck, which flipped onto its side.

Canadian man found guilty of trying to join Islamic State group

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said he believed it was a “lone wolf” attack. “Terrorism is about creating panic and disrupting people’s lives,” he said, adding that Edmontonians would “rise above hatred and division.”

The incident was reminiscent of similar vehicle attacks by militants in Barcelona, London, Nice, Berlin and Stockholm.

In 2014, a Muslim convert ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, killing one of them. The assailant was shot to death after he tried to attack a police officer with a knife.
That incident came just two days before a soldier guarding the

National War Memorial in Ottawa was shot and killed by a Canadian Muslim in an incident that spilled into the nearby Canadian parliament before he, too, was killed by police.

Several Canadians have joined the ranks of Islamic State over the past five years, and others have been intercepted and jailed on terrorism charges under a law made tougher after the attack in Ottawa.

In March 2016, a Canadian who said he was acting on orders of Allah attacked two soldiers with a knife at a recruitment center in Toronto.
Canada is a member of the international coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria. Although it has withdrawn its combat aircraft from coalition operations, it still has special operations forces and trainers on the ground in Iraq.

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MARSEILLE: A knifeman killed two women at the main train station in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, before being shot dead by soldiers on patrol.

One of the victims had her throat slit by the assailant, a man with a criminal record believed to be in his 30s who witnesses said shouted “Allahu Akbar” [God is Greatest] at the start of his rampage.

Troops serving in a special 7,000-strong force known as Sentinelle set up to guard vulnerable areas in terror-hit France responded to the stabbings and shot dead the attacker, whose identity remains unknown.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said about a dozen witnesses were being questioned. “This act could be terrorist in nature but at this time we cannot confirm that,” he added.

Two dead in Marseille train station knife attack

“I was on the esplanade just in front of the station,” Melanie Petit, an 18-year-old student, told AFP. “I heard someone shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ and I saw a man who seemed to be dressed all in black.”

Later, Islamic State’s Amaq propaganda agency cited a “security source” saying: “The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Marseille… is from the soldiers of the Islamic State.”

Heavily armed police sealed off and evacuated the ornate rail terminus in the bustling heart of France’s second-biggest city, stopping all train traffic on some of the country’s busiest lines.

The latest deaths came with France still on high alert and under a state of emergency following a string of attacks in recent years by extremists linked to the Islamic State group or al-Qaeda.

Since 2015, a total of 239 people have been killed in France by militants, according to an AFP count before Sunday’s incident.
After the lunchtime attack, anti-terror prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into “killings linked to a terrorist organisation” and the “attempted killing of a public official”.

Travellers around the station described “controlled panic” as security forces evacuated passengers and looked for possible accomplices, while another witness said white sheets were placed over the bodies of the victims.

The two victims remained unidentified but were both “around 20 years old,” a police source said. Their assailant was known to the authorities for a string of common law offences and had “no papers on him,” the source added. He was identified by his fingerprints after being shot dead.

Collomb said that video surveillance footage showed the assailant attacked the first victim, then fled – only to return and kill the other woman.

The incident came only days after the IS released a recording of what it said was its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urging his followers to strike their enemies in the West.

A timeline of terror in France

France has deployed troops and its air force to the Middle East and is a leading partner in the US-led international coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, where the militants are being driven back.

The country has suffered several major terror attacks since 2015, including on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January of that year followed by an assault on Paris bars and the Bataclan concert hall by gunmen 10 months later.

In Nice in July 2016, 86 people were killed when an extremist drove a truck into crowds after a fireworks display on Bastille Day. A minute’s silence was observed in Nice on Sunday evening, ahead of a football match between Nice and Marseille.

Since November 2015, the country has been in a state of emergency which gives the government and security forces greater powers to combat extremists and launch anti-terror raids.

New centrist President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to end the state of emergency with a new and controversial security law that will make many of the provisions of the emergency regime permanent.

He tweeted that he was “deeply angered by this barbaric act,” and shared the pain of the families of friends of the victims.

Despite criticism from rights groups that the law reduces judicial oversight over the actions of the police, the lower house of parliament is set to vote on a first draft of the legislation on Tuesday. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe vowed: “We will not lower our guard.”

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Bollywood diva Celina Jaitly announced the “bittersweet” arrival of her second set of twins, but shared with a heavy heart that one of the two sons succumbed to a serious heart condition.

In a social media post titled “Announcing the bittersweet arrival of our second set of twins” on Saturday, Celina shared her sentiments.

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“The Gods above have blessed us yet again with another set of very handsome twin boys Arthur Jaitly Haag and Shamsher Jaitly Haag in Dubai on September 10, 2017. However, life is not always how we plan it to be. Our son Shamsher Jaitly Haag succumbed to a serious heart condition and could not continue his journey in this world,” she wrote.

“Heartbreaking as that is we are very fortunate that a part of him still lives with us through Arthur, whose face will always remind us that an angel who looks exactly like him looks upon us from the arms of his grandfather, my father, in the heavens above, whom we also lost two months ago,” added Celina, who is married to hotelier Peter Haag.

They are already parents to five-year-old twin sons, Winston and Viraaj.

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For the couple, the last two months have been tumultuous.

“From loosing my beloved father and now baby Shamsher, however there is always a light at the end of a tunnel, and that light for us is our handsome son Arthur Jaitly Haag who seeks your blessings and love in his journey that he commences in this world.

“We thank you all in advance for your love and continued support.”

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below. 

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Facebook Inc founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg asked for forgiveness for ways his work was used to divide people in a Facebook posting marking the end of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement on Saturday.

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“For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better,” Zuckerberg said in the post. He did not refer to specific issues in the message, which comes as Facebook and other technology companies are under increased scrutiny amid a US investigation into potential Russian involvement in the 2016 US Presidential election campaign.

Facebook said on September 6 it had found that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of US ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. Facebook, the dominant social media network, said 3,000 ads and 470 ‘inauthentic’ accounts and pages spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights.

Facebook has launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements, after US lawmakers threatened to regulate the world’s largest social network over secretive ads that run during election campaigns.

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Probes being conducted by several congressional committees along with the Department of Justice, have clouded US President Donald Trump’s tenure since he took office in January and have threatened his agenda, which has yet to secure a major legislative victory.

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SHAH ALAM: Two women pleaded not guilty Monday to murdering the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, at the start of their trial in Malaysia over the Cold War-style assassination that shocked the world.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, who arrived at the heavily guarded court in handcuffs and wearing bulletproof vests, entered their pleas through interpreters as proceedings got under way. The defendants were arrested just days after the killing of Kim Jong-Nam on February 13 as he waited to board a plane to Macau at Kuala Lumpur airport.

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The women are accused of rubbing toxic VX nerve agent, a chemical so deadly it is listed as a weapon of mass destruction, on his face.
Kim died an agonising death about 20 minutes after the hit, which was caught on airport CCTV as the VX rapidly shut down his central nervous system. The defendants – who face the death penalty if convicted – claim they were duped into believing they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show.

The murder sparked an angry row between North Korea and Malaysia with both countries expelling each other’s ambassadors. The women were led into Sham Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur, in handcuffs for the start of the trial.

Activists to send Kim murder leaflets to North Korea by balloon

Aisyah, 25, was wearing traditional Malaysian dress and Huong, 29, a blue jumper. The murder charge was read to them in their native languages and interpreters assigned to the defendants indicated they were pleading not guilty.

Prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad then read a statement giving details of the murder and said the prosecution had sufficient evidence to prove the women’s guilt.

“We will provide evidence that the dead victim was at (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) departure lounge when Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong approached the dead victim and swiped a poisoned liquid on the face and eyes of the victim,” he told the court.

“The evidence clearly showed that their action to swipe the poison known as VX caused the death of the victim. Expert evidence will be shown that the VX was the cause of death and the chances to save him were extremely slim.”

He said the women had carried out exercises with four other people before the murder to ensure they succeeded in their “common intention” of killing Kim. Defence lawyers immediately demanded the court reveal the names of four other people charged over the murder.

The four were formally accused in March of the assassination alongside Aisyah and Huong but authorities said they were still at large and have not disclosed their names. Police have said four North Korean suspects fled Malaysia on the day of the murder, and the women’s defence teams insist these individuals are the main suspects.
About 200 police officers had been deployed to guard the court.

The defendants arrived in a convoy of police cars with their sirens blaring. The trial could at last shed light on the many unanswered questions surrounding the murder. These range from how two women living precarious existences among Malaysia’s army of migrant workers allegedly became involved in a high-profile assassination, to how a lethal nerve agent was deployed in an airport and killed Kim but harmed no one else.

South Korea accuses the North of being behind the murder of Kim Jong-Un’s estranged half-brother, who had voiced criticism of the regime after falling from grace and going to live in exile overseas.
The North denies the allegation. The run-up to the trial has been marked by fierce criticism from the women’s lawyers who say the accused are the fall guys in the case. As well as the North Koreans who fled immediately after the assassination, several others allegedly linked to the murder plot were allowed to leave the country later to ease the diplomatic crisis.

The women’s legal teams also accuse prosecutors of dragging their heels on handing over key material required to mount a defence.
Prosecutors – who insist the women will get a fair trial – will lay out their case over two months and call 30 to 40 witnesses. The defence is then likely to be called.

Prior to the murder, Malaysia had been one of Pyongyang’s few allies amid a global outcry over the country’s atomic weapons programme.
After the assassination sent diplomatic relations plummeting between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur, tensions only eased when Malaysia agreed to return Kim’s body in March.

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BARCELONA: Playing Sunday’s La Liga match against Las Palmas behind closed doors was a protest against violent clashes between police and activists in Catalonia rather than a security issue, Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said.

At least 91 people have been injured as Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets and forced their way into activist-held polling stations over an independence referendum for Catalonia deemed illegal by the Spanish government.

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Bartomeu insisted the club tried to have the match abandoned, but instead settled for showing their opposition by playing the match in an empty 99,000 capacity Camp Nou.

“It wasn’t done for security, the security was guaranteed. We wanted to do it due to the exceptional circumstances,” Bartomeu told BeIN Sports Spain. “We have decided instead of abandoning the game, which is what we all wanted, to play the game in an exceptional manner, which is to say behind closed doors.

“Today there will be a game of football played but it has nothing to do with normality.”

A section of Barcelona fans’ groups had threatened a peaceful pitch invasion to show their disgust at events at the polling stations if the game was not suspended. Had Barca refused to play the game they could have faced a three-point deduction from La Liga on top of forfeiting the match against Las Palmas.

Catalonian independence vote would not hurt Spain’s rating

“La Liga’s refusal to cancel the game and play it another day… would mean the loss of six points for the team,” added Bartomeu. “We talked with the directors, the team and management team and we decided to play the game.

“We have done it behind closed doors so that everyone can see our opposition at what is happening.”

In a strongly-worded statement Barca condemned the actions of the police “to prevent its citizens exercising their democratic right to free expression”. “We send our support to all those who are suffering that lack of freedom of expression,” added Bartomeu.

According to Spanish media reports, Barca vice-president Carles Vilarrubi has resigned over the club’s decision to play the game. “It is normal there are discrepencies in our club because it is a cross-sectional club where all opinions are well considered,” continued Bartomeu.

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