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The man accused of attacking acclaimed author Salman Rushdie last week in New York state has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges, Aljazeera reported. Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old accusedof repeatedly stabbing Rushdie on stage during a US literary event, entered the not guilty plea on Thursday during an arraignment hearing in upstate New York. A grand jury indicted him earlier in the day on one count of second-degree attempted murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, and one count of second-degree assault. Dressed in a black-and-white jail uniform, Matar stayed quiet during the hearing while his lawyer unsuccessfully tried to persuade the judge that he should be released while he awaited trial. The judge ordered that Matar remain detained without bail. Last Friday’s attack against Rushdie, the 75-year-old author of books such as The Satanic Verses and an outspoken advocate of freedom of expression, at an event in Chautauqua, New York, spurred shock and condemnation around the world. Rushdie was hospitalised, but his agent has said that his condition is improving and he is in good spirits. Rushdie has faced more than 30 years of threats against his life, after The Satanic Verses was published in the late 1980s. Many Muslims around the world regard the book as blasphemous, and in 1989 Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a religious edict calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing the author to spend more than a decade in hiding.

Nepal reported 542 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 082 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 224 returned positive. Likewise, 2, 848 people underwent antigen tests, of which 318 were tested positive. The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 421 infected people recovered from the disease. As of today, there are 5, 265 active cases in the country.

As many as 25 students were injured when a boat capsized in Rapti river of Dang Thursday. According to District Police Office Chief Suresh Kafle, among the injured, three are being treated at Lamahi. The overloaded boat carrying students of Sikta Secondary School at Rajpur was en route to Rajpur-7 from Lamahi Municipality-9 when the incident occurred at around 9 am today. According to the police, the boat was carrying three to four times more people than its capacity. Those under treatment are Manish BK (grade six) (13) of Taruliya, Lamahi-9, Rima Ramjali (12) of the same grade and Sandip BK (grade nine) (16).  Condition of the remaining students is said to be normal.

At least 16 persons have been tested positive for Covid-19 in the district prison in Baitadi. Prison chief Radha Bhandari said that four were tested positive on Wednesday and 12 on Thursday. Bhandari said that those who have tested positive for Covi-19 have been kept in isolation. She said that they have been barred from meeting anyone from today. Despite its capacity to accommodate only 25 prisoners, 93 inmates are kept in the prison, Bhandari said. The prison was built in 1983 to house 25 inmates. The virus has spread at the community level in Baitadi. Yogesh Prasad Bhatta, Chief at the District Health Office, Baitadi, said that the Covid-19 was detected in the people coming from India a few days ago.