Other stories from around the world in brief
Stolen Munch masterpieces recovered
OSLO - The Scream and another stolen masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch were recovered by police yesterday afternoon, two years after gunmen seized the paintings from an Oslo museum.
"The Scream and Madonna are now in police possession," police chief Iver Stensrud told a news conference. "The damage is much less than we could have feared."
He said the pictures were recovered in "a successful police operation" but dodged questions about how it was done. No ransom had been paid "as of today".
The Scream, Munch's most famous work, is an icon of existential angst showing a terrified figure against a blood-red sky. - (Reuters)
Grass to keep Polish honour
GDANSK - Lack of support forced Poland's ruling party yesterday to drop an attempt to strip German author Günter Grass of his Gdansk honorary citizenship because of his second World War membership of the Waffen SS. Grass, a Nobel Prize laureate and for decades a leading German moral voice, caused consternation in Poland and Germany this month when he revealed he had joined the SS at the end of the second World War. - (Reuters)
Attempt to block Senegal migrants
MADRID - Three patrol boats from Spain and Italy were heading towards Senegal yesterday to try to stop vessels bringing migrants into Europe via the Canary Islands.
The boats, which will team up with three Senegalese patrol vessels, are moving into place along the African coastline as Spanish authorities report that as many migrants have reached the Canary Islands in August as in the whole of last year. - (Reuters)
Journalist jailed in China for spying
HONG KONG - A Chinese court jailed Ching Cheong, a reporter for Singapore newspaper the Straits Times, for five years yesterday on a charge of spying, the latest in a series of high-profile cases underscoring China's curbs on the media and dissent. - (Reuters)