In brief: Hunters of riches-laden Nazi train tell of search
Two men who claim to have located a Nazi train laden with treasure that reportedly went missing in the last days of World War II came forward Friday in a Polish television interview and disclosed new details of their alleged feat.
Andreas Richter, a German, and Polish citizen Piotr Koper appeared on TVP-Info, identifying themselves for the first time as the men whose lawyer last month contacted authorities in Lower Silesia with an offer to guide them to the train in exchange for 10 percent of the value of its cargo.
Polish soldiers from a sapper unit were seen combing a forested area near the rail line into Walbrzych from Wroclaw, the regional capital that was known as Breslau and part of Germany before the Nazi defeat in 1945.
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said Thursday that a military reconnaissance team will survey the site after the de-mining team’s visual inspection of the area, TheNews.pl website reported.
Police have cordoned off the area.
Richter and Koper located the train by using their “own resources, eyewitness testimony and our own equipment and skills,” the men said in a statement read by Koper.
Legend holds that the train was loaded with looted gold, jewels, artworks and weapons that the Nazis were trying to evacuate out of Breslau to more secure German territory to the west.
United Arab Emirates suffers loss of 45 troops to missile
SANAA, Yemen – Forty-five troops from the United Arab Emirates were killed in Yemen while taking part in Saudi-led operations against Shiite rebels, the Gulf nation said Friday, in the deadliest day for its military in its 44-year history.
The UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the troops were killed when a rebel missile struck an ammunition depot. On his official Twitter feed, he said the “cowardly attack will not deter us.”
Pro-government Yemeni security officials said the missile strike took place in the province of Marib, about 75 miles east of the capital, Sanaa. Officials from the media office of the Shiite rebel movement known as the Houthis confirmed they fired a Soviet-era Tochka missile in the area.
Ex-Guatemala president denies role in customs corruption
GUATEMALA CITY – Otto Perez Molina sat in a defendant’s chair Friday and declared his innocence in a customs corruption scandal that forced him to resign a day earlier as president of this Central American nation.
The former leader denied prosecutors’ allegations that he was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the state by letting businesses evade import duties in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
Prosecutors argued that Perez Molina was, in fact, aware of the conspiracy, and formally asked the judge to order a trial on charges of illicit association and graft. They presented 77 wiretapped conversations that totaled more than five hours and were recorded over multiple days, as well as documents seized in raids that detailed how the bribes were divvied up.
Town evacuated after tsunami, meltdown deemed safe again
NARAHA, Japan – The Japanese town of Naraha near the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant is marking a fresh start since the 2011 tsunami by lifting an evacuation order and inviting its 7,400 residents to return.
Naraha was the first among seven municipalities forced to evacuate entirely due to radiation contamination following a massive earthquake and tsunami that sent the reactors into meltdown.
The government says radiation levels in town have fallen to levels deemed safe following decontamination efforts, and overnight lifted the 2011 evacuation order.
Alternative, homeopathic practitioners fall ill at meeting
BERLIN – Authorities say emergency workers called to a conference center in northern Germany found some 30 people staggering and suffering from cramps, apparently as a result of amphetamine poisoning.
The local government said 15 ambulances and a helicopter were sent to the scene Friday in the small town of Handeloh, south of Hamburg, the dpa news agency reported.
Fire service spokesman Matthias Koehlbrandt told broadcaster NDR the group was between 25 and 55 years old. NDR reported they were alternative and homeopathic practitioners, and that they were taken to the hospital.
Authorities said their preliminary finding was that the group was poisoned with amphetamines, but Koehlbrandt said they didn’t knowingly take the substance.