NEW DELHI – A university professor on his way to work in Bangladesh was hacked to death Saturday in an attack similar to other killings by suspected Muslim militants, police said.
A.F.M. Rezaul Karim Siddique was attacked on his way to the state-run university in the city of Rajshahi, where he taught English, deputy police commissioner Nahidul Islam said. The attackers used sharp weapons and fled the scene immediately, Islam said.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Siddique of calling for atheism, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.
JOHANNESBURG – Nearly 50 starving, dehydrated monkeys were rescued from cages at a garden nursery near Johannesburg on Saturday.
Spider, capuchin and squirrel monkeys were among the 49 primates taken away by the International Primate Rescue organization.
The monkeys had been kept in cages for the entertainment of people coming to buy plants at the Little Falls Garden Center. Visitors notified the primate rescue group of the poor conditions.
Some of animals were so malnourished that their heads were disproportionally large for their bodies and their bones were protruding from their fur. Many were suffering from rickets.
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Saturday fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile from a submarine off its northeast coast, South Korean defense officials said, Pyongyang’s latest effort to expand its military might in the face of pressure by its neighbors and Washington.
The South Korean officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules, could not immediately confirm where the projectile landed. The Saturday evening launch of what the officials said was presumably a submarine-launched ballistic missile took place near the North Korean coastal town of Sinpo, where analysts have previously detected efforts by the North to develop submarine-launched ballistic missile systems.
MADRID – Spain celebrated the 400th anniversary of the death of its best-known writer, Miguel de Cervantes, on Saturday.
Events took place throughout the country for the author of “Don Quixote,” one of the most influential books in world literature and regarded as the precursor of the modern novel.
The Cervantes award is handed out each year on April 23. It coincides with UNESCO’s World Book Day, which promotes literature and commemorates Cervantes and English playwright William Shakespeare, who died on that date in 1616.
Some artists and academics have been critical of Spain’s central government for not allocating funds to organize events on a scale similar to those celebrating Shakespeare’s life in Britain.
Associated Press
