LOS ANGELES: “Baywatch” actress Pamela Anderson retweeted a smiling selfie of Julian Assange on Friday after Sweden dropped its investigation into the Wikileaks founder, reviving intrigue around the couple’s rumored romance.
Anderson’s blog posts about her numerous trips to the Ecuadorean embassy in London to visit Assange have proved one of the more fascinating aspects of the Australian’s five-year bid to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape and molestation allegations, which he denies.
Assange, 45, is a cyber hero to some for exposing government abuses of power and championing free speech. To others, he is a criminal who has undermined the security of the West.
To Anderson, he is “the most intelligent, interesting and informed man in existence,” the 49-year-old actress and animal rights campaigner said in a March blog post.
Photographers have snapped Anderson, often carrying take-out food, making numerous visits to the Ecuadorean embassy in the past six months.
Anderson is not Assange’s only celebrity supporter. Pop singer Lady Gaga visited him in 2012 and filmed him for a video that was distributed this week to mark the release from a US prison of Chelsea Manning, who provided Wikileaks with more than 700,000 classified US army documents.
“You may be an enemy of the state but you are not an enemy of humanity,” Lady Gaga told Assange in the video interview, which was released by Wikileaks on Wednesday.
Assange has said nothing about his closer relationship with Anderson, and she has been coy about characterizing it as dating or romantic.
“Let’s see what happens when he’s free. But you know I spend probably more time with him than any other man socially, which is very odd,” Anderson said in a Swedish TV talk-show appearance in March.
Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga rally to cause of Julian Assange
Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga rally to cause of Julian Assange
Makkah museum displays world’s largest Qur’an
MAKKAH: The Holy Qur’an Museum at the Hira Cultural District in Makkah is showcasing a monumental handwritten copy of the Holy Qur’an, recognized as the largest Qur’an of its kind in the world.
The manuscript measures 312 cm by 220 cm and comprises 700 pages, earning the museum recognition from Guinness World Records for displaying the world’s largest Qur’an, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The manuscript is a magnified reproduction of a historic Qur’an dating back to the 16th century, the SPA stated.
The original copy measures 45 cm by 30 cm, with the chapters written primarily in Thuluth script, while Surah Al-Fatiha was penned in Naskh, reflecting the refined artistic choices and calligraphic diversity of the era.
The Qur’an is a unique example of Arabic calligraphy, gilding and bookbinding, showcasing Islamic art through intricate decorations, sun-shaped motifs on the opening folio, and elaborately designed frontispiece and title pages that reflect a high level of artistic mastery.
The manuscript was endowed as a waqf in 1883. Its original version is currently preserved at the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries, serving as a lasting testament to Muslims’ enduring reverence for the Qur’an and the richness of Islamic arts across the centuries.
