World news in brief
Stolen Van Gogh paintings turn up in mafia country house
Two stolen Vincent Van Gogh paintings were found in an Italian country house belonging to an alleged mafia drug smuggler, 14 years after they disappeared in an Amsterdam heist. Italian investigators displayed the recovered artworks – a sea scene and a church where the painter's father was minister – to reporters, saying each artwork was worth an estimated 50m euros (£43m).
The paintings were wrapped in cloth inside a safe in the house near Naples. Prosecutors said the property belonged to Raffaele Imperiale, a 41-year-old businessman accused in January of running an international cocaine trafficking ring together with high-ranking mobsters from a clan made famous in the 2008 film "Gomorra". Imperiale is a fugitive and Italian suspect he is living and running a construction business in Dubai.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said the paintings had been removed from their frames, but appear
to have suffered only slight damage.
World's deepest underwater cave found in Czech Republic
A team of explorers say they've discovered that a cave in the eastern Czech Republic is the world's deepest flooded fissure, going at least 404 metres (1,325 feet) deep. Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, who led the team, said that he felt like a "Columbus of the 21th century" to have made the discovery.
Starnawski, 48, determined that the flooded limestone Hranice Abyss, which divers have explored for decades in its upper parts, was at least 404 meters deep. He scuba dived to a narrow slot in the rock formation at 200 meters down, then sent a remotely operated underwater robot that went to the depth of 404 meters, or the length of its cord, but still did not hit the bottom.
A cross-section map he made of the cave ends with question marks in an unexplored area where he believes the fissure goes deeper.
Colombia rebels pave road to peace with apologies
For the third time in a week Colombia's largest rebel movement has asked forgiveness for its role in the country's decades-long conflict. Leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia travelled to the Gulf of Uraba region to meet residents in the town of Apartado, where a rebel unit in 1994 killed 35 people during a street party. What came to be known as the massacre of La Chinita, for the poverty-stricken neighborhood where the killings took place, was one of the bloodiest of the era.
The apology, made during a ceremony also attended by government officials, comes just two days before Colombians vote on whether to ratify a peace deal between the FARC and the government – ending 52 years of hostilities. Polls show the referendum will pass by a wide margin but turnout is expected to be low, a sign of how many Colombians continue to distrust the rebels, who under the terms of the accord will be spared jail time if they confess their crimes.
Five soldiers killed in attack on Mexican convoy
The sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are suspects after a brazen ambush on a military convoy using grenades and high-powered guns that left five soldiers dead and 10 wounded, officials said. The attack in Mexico's northern Sinaloa state left two military vehicles completely burned out, and was apparently launched to free a wounded drug suspect being transported in an ambulance guarded by the convoy.
The pre-dawn ambush was the worst attack on military personnel since 2015, when drug cartel gunmen in the state of Jalisco shot down an army helicopter with a rocket launcher, killing 10 people.
South African rangers kill three suspected poachers
South African authorities used a helicopter to recover the bodies of three suspected poachers shot by rangers in a wildlife park where rhino poaching has increased in recent weeks. Richard Schouten of IPSS Medical Rescue says authorities told him that the rangers acted in self-defence.
National officials say protection efforts in Kruger National Park, South Africa's biggest wildlife area, have reduced rhino poaching there. They say poaching syndicates may be moving operations to other parks, including in KwaZulu-Natal, where the deaths happened.
Let displaced Georgians return home, says visiting Pope
Pope Francis arrived in Georgia and immediately backed the government's demand that Georgians displaced by a 2008 war with Russia be allowed to return home, as geopolitical issues overshadowed a visit aimed at improving ties with Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
The Pope received an unexpectedly warm welcome from the leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, who called him a "dear brother" and "Your Holiness" — a sign that once-frosty relations between the two churches appeared to have warmed as Georgia seeks to enhance its European aspirations.
Greece says Erdogan’s remarks on islands ‘dangerous’
Greece accused neighbouring Turkey of endangering ties between the two Nato allies by questioning the wisdom of an almost century-old treaty that established the modern boundaries between the two countries. At a speech in Ankara on Thursday, the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the Treaty of Lausanne was essentially a defeat for Turkey because it "gave away" islands to Greece.
The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was yesterday quoted by his office as saying: "Questioning the Treaty of Lausanne, which established norms in Greco-Turkish relations (and) the status quo in the Aegean and its islands, is dangerous to relations between the two countries and to the broader region."