14/10/2026

WEDNESDAY | OCT 14, 2026

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Hundreds queue to glimpse Van Gogh painting

Protest leaders held at observatory NEW DELHI: Protest leaders were detained yesterday after they jumped barricades to enter the grounds of a historic observatory, chanting slogans demanding the chief election commissioner’s resignation. Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition groups have held almost daily protests this month to demand commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over the revisions critics say favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes. Thousands joined a protest march by opposition groups on Monday, after a clampdown foiled CJP plans for a weekend demonstration, with police detaining thousands of protesters. Delhi Police announced on Monday that the Jantar Mantar open air observatory, in the national capital’s central business district, was no longer designated as an official protest site, and said three new venues had been identified. The CJP said its leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers who sneaked inside the observatory and were detained. A CJP livestream showed about a dozen volunteers jumping a gate and barricades to reach the site, where they waved the Indian flag and chanted slogans before police detained them. Delhi police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – Reuters WASHINGTON: Hackers compromised a regional organisation’s network based in Suva, Fiji, between July and August, the US Embassy in Fiji said. It informed the Fijian government and the organisation and provided technical recommendations to help secure networks. Hackers maintained access to the network over several days. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice seized seven internet domains to disrupt hackers that it accused of working with an IT firm, saying the domains were used to scan and hack US and foreign critical infrastructure. The government of Fiji did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. EIGHT HURT IN INCHEON SUPERMARKET STABBING SEOUL: Eight people were wounded in a stabbing incident at a supermarket in Incheon yesterday, with one person suffering cardiac arrest. Police arrested a male suspect and were investigating the motive and circumstances of the attack, a police spokesperson said. Incheon, west of Seoul, is home to South Korea’s main airport and forms part of the wider Seoul metropolitan area. South Korea was shaken by a series of stabbing rampages in 2023, including attacks that left multiple people dead and injured. In May, a 17 year-old girl was fatally stabbed and another teenager hurt in the southwestern city of Gwangju by a man in his 20s, who was later sentenced by a court to life in prison. – Reuters HACKERS BREACHED FIJI BASED NETWORK

BR I E F S

HONG KONG: Hundreds of people queued here yesterday to view a Vincent van Gogh painting never publicly exhibited in more than six decades, ahead of a Sotheby’s auction in New York where it is expected to fetch about US$180 million (RM735.5 million). The Nov 18 auction will test the strength of the high-end art market, in which collectors have continued to compete for scarce trophy works, undeterred by broader economic uncertainty. Painted in May 1890, Chataigniers en fleurs , or Chestnut Trees in Blossom , is one of the most important works from the Dutch artist’s final days in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where he died about two months later, aged 37. The painting is poised to set a new auction record for a Van Gogh work, said Scott Niichel, of Sotheby’s modern and contemporary art department in New York. “This is a moment of extraordinary optimism, frenetic energy, enthusiasm, passion and colour in the artist’s body of work,” he said. Paintings from Van Gogh’s final Auvers-sur Oise period, just after his release from a psychiatric asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, rarely come to market and the auction will draw the attention of collectors, museums and investors. “I’d never heard of this painting, so I wanted to see it,” said Li Shanshan, a 50-year-old art lover who travelled about 2-1/2 hours from the southern city of Shenzhen to view the artwork. The painting, which depicts a massive blossoming chestnut tree with a flowering canopy that dominates the composition, will be sold among part of a collection of 12 long unseen works, including items by Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet. Five unveiled at Sotheby’s in London in late September included Cezanne’s Arlequin and Monet’s Le Jardin des Tuileries . After Van Gogh’s death in July 1890, Chataigniers en fleurs was passed to his brother o Work not publicly exhibited for more than 60 years The Legally Blonde and Cruel Intentions star was detained at John F Kennedy Airport after her Delta Air Lines flight landed late on Sunday following reports of an abusive passenger. US media said that Blair punched one flight attendant and bit another. The 54-year-old then reportedly assaulted a police officer and nurse as she was transported to hospital. Blair was charged with two counts of second degree assault on the police officer and nurse at a New York state court late on Monday, according to court documents. She pleaded not guilty to both counts and was released on bail. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan 19. The FBI also issued a summons accusing Blair of assaults on the plane, according to a federal judicial source. A representative for Blair said that “Selma experienced a medical emergency .” “Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention and is in stable condition,” the representative said.

Sotheby’s staff handle the Chestnut Trees in Blossom painting by Vincent van Gogh at an auction preview in Hong Kong yesterday. – AFPPIC

collector Harriet Harris-Jonas, whose holdings were considered significant enough that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art organised visits for patrons to view works in her Fifth Avenue apartment. The painting was acquired by the Blaquier family from art dealer Wildenstein in 1975. – Reuters

Theo, and then to the latter’s widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger and their son Vincent Willem. Subsequently it was owned by German publisher Samuel Fischer, founder of S. Fischer Verlag, before entering the collection of George “Buddy” DeSylva, the American songwriter, film producer and co-founder of Capitol Records. In 1953, the painting was acquired by

Selma Blair charged with assault NEW YORK: Actor Selma Blair was charged with assault on Monday after an alleged altercation on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City, according to court documents.

Video grab of Blair leaving court. – REUTERSPIC/STRINGR.COM

A spokesperson for Delta said the airline “has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behaviour.” In 2016, Blair was removed from a plane on a stretcher after an outburst on a flight.

“I mixed alcohol with medication, and that caused me to black out and led me to say and do things that I deeply regret,” she told Vanity Fair after that incident. – AFP