USA NEWS: Bangladeshi cabdriver Ahmed H. Sharif was stabbed by a passenger at the corner of Second Avenue and East 24th Street, wanting to go to 42nd and Second. It was 6 p.m. on Tuesday; the traffic was dense. He said his attacker asked him if he was Muslim. Michael Enright, 21, was charged with hate crimes on Wednesday. Mr. Enright stabbed him in his face, on his arm and on his thumbs. Mr. Sharif received more than two dozen stitches at Bellevue Hospital Center and was released.[nggallery id=35]

Mr. Sharif,44, who lives in Jamaica, Queens, with his wife and four children, came to the United about 25 years ago and was a cook before becoming a cabdriver 15 years ago. Once the fare, Michael Enright, a 21-year-old film student who had been recently trailing Marines in Afghanistan, settled in the back.

The Manhattan district attorney charged Mr. Enright with second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned on Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court, appearing in cargo shorts and a polo shirt, and ordered held without bail. If convicted of the top charge, he would face up to 25 years in prison.