The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Just finally get serious and do what you have promised the opposition.”

Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling for Ukrainian authorities to stop playing for time after President Viktor Yanukovych took sick leave Thursday, leaving negotiations hanging Article, this page

Firefight leaves 8 dead in Baghdad hub

BAGHDAD - Gunmen and suicide bombers staged an assault on a government building in Baghdad, officials said, killing two people and leaving 6 attackers dead, in the latest such attack in the heart of the Iraqi capital by militants trying to undermine further the Shiite-led government’s authority.

The firefight at a state-run transportation company was one of several attacks that left 11 dead across the city, and came as Iraq grapples with a stubborn insurgency in the country’s western Anbar province. Government troops are trying to oust al-Qaida-linked fighters and their allies from cities in the area.

At least six gunmen were involved in Thursday’s attack, said Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan Ibrahim. The attackers stormed the state-run Company for Transportation in Baghdad’s Canal Street, where numerous government offices are located.

The police shot and killed four of the militants inside the building while the other two blew themselves up at the entrance, Maan said in a phone interview. He also said that the stand-off ended with at least one employee and a police officer killed in the attack, but gave no details on how they died.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

Bombers who hit Russian city identified

MOSCOW - Russia’s counter terrorism agency identified Thursday the two suicide bombers who struck the southern city of Volgograd and announced the arrest of two suspected accomplices.

The bombings of a train station and trolley bus in Volgograd in late December, which killed 34 people and wounded many more, heightened security fears before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which start next week.

The suspected bombers, Asker Samedov and Suleiman Magomedov, were members of a terrorist group based in Dagestan, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said.

Two brothers, Magomednabi and Tagir Batirov, were detained as suspected accomplices Wednesday in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic that has become the center of an Islamic insurgency. The brothers were thought to have helped the suicide bombers travel to Volgograd, about 400 miles to the north, the agency said in a statement.

Panama to free 32 on N. Korean ship

PANAMA CITY - Panama’s judicial authorities have ordered the release of 32 of 35 crew members of a North Korean ship detained last July for carrying hidden arms from Cuba, and they were working Thursday on paperwork needed to leave.

Prosecutor Nahaniel Murgas said the captain and two other crew members will remain to face arms-trafficking charges.

He said a search of the ship turned up documents that showed “that the ship’s captain, first officer and political officer had been given instructions about what to do if the illegal shipment was detected. There were certain recommendations.”

“Together with that were the statements by the rest of the crew, who said they were employees on the vessel, but not responsible” for the shipment, he said. “It was based on that the decided to free the other 32.”

Panama’s top prosecutor, Ana Belfon, said the 32 crew members had been turned over to immigration officials, who would decide whether to repatriate them or deport them.

The Chong Chon Gang was carrying Cuban fighter jets and missiles. The owners agreed to pay a $670,000 fine this month to release the ship.

Germany urged to find, return stolen art

BERLIN - Germany must make a stronger effort to identify and return thousands of looted art pieces the Nazis took from Jews, the president of the World Jewish Congress said Thursday as he met with top government officials in Berlin to push his case.

Ronald Lauder said Nazi-looted art still hangs in German museums, government offices and private collections. He said the country’s legislation needs to be changed in order to facilitate its return.

The art pieces stolen from the Jews “are the last prisoners of World War II,” Lauder said. “They should be returned to the victims of the Holocaust and their heirs.”

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/31/2014

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