The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The United States does not stand in the way of other countries that made a decision

to provide arms, whether it’s France or Britain or others.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, lending support to British and French plans to arm Syria’s rebels Article, this page

Painting of Rembrandt done by him

LONDON - A painting donated to Britain’s National Trust by the estate of a wealthy supporter has been identified as a Rembrandt self-portrait worth $30 million, the heritage body said Monday.

The painting was given to the trust in 2010 by the estate of Edna, Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, whose property developer husband was a major collector of Dutch and Flemish art. It hangs in Buckland Abbey in southwest England.

The portrait of the artist wearing a cap with a large white feather was long thought to have been done by one of Rembrandt’s pupils and was credited as in the “style of” the 17th-century Dutch master.

But the National Trust said an investigation led by Ernst van de Wetering, the world’s leading Rembrandt expert, had determined it was by Rembrandt himself.

“It’s amazing to think we might’ve had an actual Rembrandt hanging here on the walls at Buckland Abbey for the past couple of years,” said Jez McDermott, the National Trust property manager at the house.

Sex claims false, Dominican police say

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Three women were paid to falsely claim in videotaped interviews that they had sex for money with a U.S. senator in the Dominican Republic, a spokesman for the police said Monday.

The women, whose claims generated media attention in the United States, were hired by a Dominican lawyer to make the videotaped statements, spokesman Maximo Baez told reporters. Two of the women received about $425 and the other was paid about $300, he said.

Authorities are seeking to interrogate the lawyer, Melanio Figueroa, about the payments and have not determined his motive or whether he was in turn paid by someone else to set up the interviews, Baez said.

The women have not been detained.

The police spokesman was making his most detailed comments to date on an investigation into the source of allegations that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez had sex with prostitutes, including two who were underage at the time, while in the Dominican Republic with his friend and campaign contributor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, a south Florida doctor, and with Vinicio Castillo Seman, a lawyer whose family is politically prominent in the Dominican Republic. Castillo and Menendez have denied hiring prostitutes.

Russia unmoved by canceled missiles

MOSCOW - A top Russian diplomat says the United States’ cancellation of a critical part of its European missile-defense system plan doesn’t mollify Moscow’s opposition.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week announced that plans to place long-range missile interceptors in Poland in the final stage of its European system are being abandoned.

The long-range interceptors were to have been the final phase of a program that Russia contends aims to counter its own missiles. Washington says the system is meant to stop missiles from Iran and North Korea.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the Kommersant newspaper Monday as saying: “We feel no euphoria in connection with what was announced by the U.S. defense secretary, and we see no grounds for correcting our position.”

Hagel’s announcement made no reference to Russia’s objections to the plan, but the move initially raised expectations it could boost prospects for U.S.-Russian arms control negotiations.

10 die in Somalia suicide car bombing

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ten people died and more than 15 were wounded in a suicide bombing close to the presidential palace in Somalia’s capital, officials said.

The attack in central Mogadishu targeted a vehicle carrying Somali intelligence chief Khalif Ahmed Ilig and other officials. But most of the dead were traveling in a commuter minibus that took the brunt of the blast when it passed between the suicide bomber’s car and a government vehicle just as the bomb exploded, according to the officials.

Ilig survived the blast, suffering minor injuries, they said.

Al-Shabab, a group of al-Qaida-linked insurgents fighting the Somali government, posted an online statement claiming responsibility.

The bombing was one of the worst attacks since President Hassan Sheik Mohamud took office last year. It took place in a major thoroughfare lined with popular restaurants and cafes, injuring some people in a nearby cafe.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/19/2013

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