US adds Pakistan group to its list of terrorists

Washington DC: The United States has added a key Pakistan militant group and a branch of al Qaeda to its list of global terrorists.

The move triggered sanctions against the groups amid a resurgence of militant violence in the Islamic nation.

The move by the US State Department comes days after the Tehrik-e-taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended a months-long ceasefire with Pakistan and resumed attacks across the country.

The threat issued by the TTP forced Pakistani authorities to take additional measures, and security was tight yesterday on orders from the interior ministry outside worship and other public places amid fears of more attacks.

TTP has asked its fighters to target security forces across the country.

The Pakistani Taliban were behind the 2014 attack on a Peshawar school that killed 147 people, mostly children.

Athens: An arson attack early yesterday destroyed a car used by a senior official at the Italian embassy.

The official was identified by Italian authorities as Susanna Schlein, a career diplomat and the sister of a prominent Italian legislator, Elly Schlein.

No-one was hurt in the incident outside the official’s home in a suburb of the Greek capital.

Fire service officials said a crude incendiary device exploded in the garage of the diplomat’s home, burning one car and damaging a second.

Though less frequent in recent years, arson attacks by anarchist and far-left groups are common in Greece, often targeting banks and vehicles belonging to foreign embassies.

Berlin: A self-portrait painted during the Second World War by German expressionist artist Max Beckmann has sold for €20 million (£17m), which appears to be a record for an art auction in Germany.

The buyer of Beckmann’s Self-portrait Yellow-pink at the Grisebach auction house in Berlin was not identified. Factoring in additional costs, the buyer will have to pay out €23.2 m(£19.9m).

Beckmann was born in Leipzig in 1884. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he was among the artists whose work was classified as “degenerate art”, and hundreds of his works were seized from German museums.

He emigrated to Amsterdam, where in 1943 he painted the sombre self-portrait that was sold.

Beckmann gave the painting to his wife, Mathilde Kaulbach, who kept it until her death in 1986. He moved to the US in 1947 and died in New York in 1950.

New York City: A man found dead on a pavement has been identified as Frank Vallelonga Jnr, an actor who appeared in the Oscar-winning movie Green Book.

Vallelonga, 60, was the son of one-time nightclub bouncer Frank Vallelonga Snr, known as Tony Lip, who was portrayed by Viggo Mortensen in the 2018 film.

Vallelonga Jnr played a relative of Mortensen’s character in the movie.

The cause of death has not been determined.

A 35-year-old man was charged with concealment of a human corpse a day after the body was found. The investigation is continuing.

Vallelonga has more than half a dozen acting credits since 1994, including an appearance on The Sopranos.