Fri, Aug 18, 2023 page5

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  SAUDI ARABIA

  US man executed

  The Kingdom on Wednesday executed a US citizen who had been convicted of killing his father. The Ministry of the Interior identified the executed man as Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef, and said he beat and then strangled his father to death. It also said Naseef used narcotics, mutilated his father’s body after his slaying and attempted to kill another person before his arrest. The statement did not specify how Naseef was executed. The Kingdom beheads those sentenced to death. A lawyer for Naseef could not be immediately identified and it was not known if he had a home address in the US. Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the US Department of State, said that US diplomats visited Naseef last month and that he had not been identified as being wrongfully detained prior to his execution.

  UNITED STATES

  Museum sues employees

  A Florida art museum that was raided last year by the FBI over an exhibit of what turned out to be forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings has sued its former executive director and others, claiming they were part of a scheme to profit from the eventual sale of the fake artwork. The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) filed the lawsuit on Monday in state court against former chief executive officer Aaron de Groft and others who the museum says were involved in the scheme, seeking undisclosed damages for fraud, breach of contract and conspiracy. The 99-year-old museum was left with a tattered reputation that resulted in its being put on probation by the American Alliance of Museums, the lawsuit said. “OMA spent hundreds of thousands of dollars — and unwittingly staked its reputation — on exhibiting the now admittedly fake paintings,” the lawsuit said. “Consequently, cleaning up the aftermath created by the defendants has cost OMA even more.” Basquiat, who lived in New York, found success in the 1980s. The OMA was the first institution to display the more than two dozen artworks said to have been found in an old storage locker decades after Basquiat’s death in 1988 from a drug overdose at age 27. Questions about the artworks’ authenticity arose almost immediately after their reported discovery in 2012. The artwork was purportedly made in 1982, but experts have pointed out that the cardboard used in at least one of the pieces included FedEx typeface that was not used until 1994, about six years after Basquiat died, the federal warrant from the museum raid said.

  PERU

  Snake named after actor

  Scientists working in Peru have named a new species of snake after Harrison Ford in honor of the Indiana Jones actor’s support for conservation work. The 40cm reptile was first discovered in May last year in the jungle mountains of Otishi National Park, National University of San Marcos said on Wednesday. However, it was not until now that researchers concluded it was indeed a previously unknown species. This creature is a yellowish-brown color, with black spots, a black belly and copper eyes. It has been given the scientific name Tachymenoides harrisonfordi. The snake was first found by a team led by US-German biologist Edgar Lehr. It is now named after Ford because he is active in environmental issues, Lehr said. “I found out that Harrison Ford agreed to have his name used via a consultation that Conservation International made,” he added. The snake was discovered in an area that is only accessible by helicopter, he said.
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