Months after being stabbed repeatedly as he prepared to give a lecture, Salman Rushdie is blind in his right eye, struggles to write and, at times, has “frightening” nightmares. But, he said during his first interview since the attack, he still has a feeling of gratitude. “Well, you know, I’ve been better,” he told The New Yorker’s David Remnick during an interview published Monday. “But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad.” “The big injuries are healed, essentially,” Rushdie went on to describe. “I have feeling in my thumb and index finger and in the bottom half of the palm. I’m doing a lot of hand therapy, and I’m told that I’m doing very well.” Remnick, who spoke with Rushdie both in person at his agent’s office in Manhattan and via Zoom, wrote that the Booker Prize-winning author had lost more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms) and mostly reads through an iPad so he can adjust the lighting and font size. READ: Salman Rushdie loses use of an eye and hand, says agent “There is scar tissue on the right side of his face,” Remnick wrote. “He speaks as fluently as ever, but his lower lip droops on one side. The ulnar nerve in his left hand was badly damaged.” Rushdie, 75, lived in hiding for years after Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death because of the alleged blasphemy of the novel “The Satanic Verses.” But he had long since moved about freely, with minimal security, and did not feel any sense of risk last August about appearing at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center in western New York. Rushdie was on stage when approached by a young man dressed in black and carrying a knife. The alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder. During his New Yorker interview, Rushdie referred to Matar as an “idiot,” but otherwise said he felt no anger. “I’ve tried very hard over these years to avoid recrimination and bitterness,” he said. “I just think it’s not a good look. One of the ways I’ve dealt with this whole thing is to look forward and not backwards. What happens tomorrow is more important than what happened yesterday.” The interview came out on the eve of the publication of Rushdie’s new novel, “Victory City,” which he completed a month before he was attacked. Featuring a protagonist who lives to be 247, “Victory” is a characteristically surreal and exuberant narrative about an imagined ancient poem that has received highly favorable reviews, with The Washington Post’s Ron Charles writing that “Rushdie’s magical style unfurls wonders.” Rushdie had been silent for months on social media, but now tweets on occasion and even responds to insults. When a tweeter last week told him he was living a “disgraceful life,” Rushdie answered, “Oh, another fan! So pleased.” READ: Iran denies involvement but justifies Salman Rushdie attack During his interview, he noted ruefully that sales for his book had soared after the stabbing, as if he were more popular when in danger. “Now that I’ve almost died, everybody loves me,” he said. “That was my mistake, back then. Not only did I live but I tried to live well. Bad mistake. Get 15 stab wounds, much better.” On Monday, he tweeted a picture of himself, staring directly into the camera lens — his face thinner than in photos from before the stabbing, his right eye covered by a dark lens in his glasses frame. He is otherwise still trying to recover. Rushdie has written that he initially had difficulty writing fiction after the fatwa, and he is having a hard time now, saying that he will sit down to work and “nothing happens,” just a “combination of blankness and junk.” One project he may attempt: a follow-up to his 2012 memoir “Joseph Anton,” which he wrote in the third person. “This doesn’t feel third-person-ish to me,” Rushdie said of a possible sequel. “I think when somebody sticks a knife into you, that’s a first-person story. That’s an ‘I’ story.”  

A Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) examinee was stabbed by some unidentified people in front of his exam centre in Patuakhali Thursday. Md Faisal Akon, 18, is from Hajikhali village in Madarbunia union of Patuakhali Sadar upazila and a student of Patuakhali Government College. He is taking this year's HSC examination from the Science group. The incident took place in front of the Abdul Karim Mridha College exam centre in Patuakhali municipality around 12:45pm and Faisal was taken to Patuakhali Medical College Hospital with serious injuries. Read: Rohingya leader shot, stabbed to death in Cox’s Bazar Faisal said he went to the test centre to sit for his Biology Second Paper exam. "When I came out after the exam, five to six people forcibly took me from the gate of the centre and started beating me up as I tried to scream. At one point they stabbed me with a knife." Although the 18-year-old said he managed to flee the scene to the college principal's room, he could not tell the reason behind the attack. Md Moniruzzaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Patuakhali Sadar Police Station, said: "Police visited the spot. No one has filed a complaint over the incident. We will take action if anyone files a complaint." Read: Chandpur teen stabbed to death after argument over World Cup match Acting principal of Patuakhali Abdul Karim Mridha College ANM Saifuddin said: "Foysal's hands were badly wounded in the attack that happened outside the college. He ran to my room to take shelter and was bleeding profusely." "Foysal has an exam on Sunday. We will make an alternative arrangement, as per the rules, if he cannot write with his hands," Gazi Jafar Iqbal, secretary of the Teachers' Association of Patuakhali Government College, said. "Also, the college will take action against the attackers."

A 55-year-old woman was stabbed to death allegedly by her son-in-law in Sabar village of Faridpur district early on Saturday. The deceased was identified as Rahima Begum of the village. Habil Hossain, officer-in-charge of Nagarkanda Police Station, said that Rahima stepped out of her house to answer the call of nature around 1am. "It was then that Yunus Molla, her son-in-law, stabbed her with a knife, leaving her critically injured." Later, she was taken to a local hospital where doctors declared Rahima dead on arrival. Read: Man stabbed dead ‘by wife’ in Kushtia The motive behind the killing is yet to be ascertained, the OC said. "Efforts are on to nab the accused, who is on the run."   “The body has been kept at the morgue of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College and Hospital," he added.

A youth was stabbed to death by miscreants in front of his house in Fatikchhari upazila of Chattogram district on Thursday night. The deceased was identified as Anwarul Azim, 33, a resident of Dharmapur union parishad (UP) under the upazila. He used to live with his family in the port city Chattogram but visit home sometimes. Morshedul Alam, member of the UP, said Azim went out of his house for Esha prayer on Thursday night and didn’t come back after a long time. Later, the family members found the bloodstained body of Azim in front of the gate of their house when they were searching for him, he said. Read: Youth stabbed dead in Faridpur, one detained He was rushed to a local hospital where physicians pronounced him dead on arrival, the UP member continued. Kazi Ibne Anowar Masud, Officer-in-charge (OC) of Fatikchhari Police Station, said on information they recovered the body from the hospital and sent it to Chattogram Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.   Filing a case related to the incident is underway, added the OC.

Israeli police said Sunday that forces captured two Palestinian attackers who killed three people in a stabbing attack last week. Israel launched a massive manhunt for the assailants, who after carrying out the stabbing rampage, fled the scene. Residents were asked to be on alert and not to pick up hitchhikers. The stabbing on Thursday, Israel’s Independence Day, was the latest in a series of deadly assaults deep inside the country in recent weeks. It came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions were already heightened by violence at a major holy site in Jerusalem sacred to Jews and Muslims. Police did not immediately offer details of where and how the assailants were captured. Police identified the attackers as 19- and 20-year-old men from the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which has re-emerged as a militant bastion in the latest wave of violence — the worst Israel has seen in years. Several of the attackers in the recent violence have come from Jenin. READ: Palestinians facing eviction by Israel vow to stay on land At least 18 Israelis have been killed in five attacks since March, including another stabbing rampage in southern Israel, two shootings in the Tel Aviv area, and a shooting last weekend in a West Bank settlement. Nearly 30 Palestinians have died in violence — most of whom had carried out attacks or were involved in confrontations with Israeli forces in the West Bank. But an unarmed woman and two apparent bystanders were also among those killed and rights groups say Israel often uses excessive force.

Police are investigating the stabbing death of a transgender woman in Cumilla.

A woman was charged with attempted homicide in a Pittsburgh stabbing that critically injured former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who is also facing a charge, police said.