THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JULY 9, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
PAKISTAN
Smugglers attempt to steal Buddha statues, caught by police
ISLAMABAD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police seized a large number of ancient Buddhist sculptures that smuggler were attempting to spirit out of the country and sell for millions of dollars on the international antiquities market, officials said Saturday.
The stash included many sculptures of Buddha and other related religious figures that experts say could be over 2,000 years old. The items were likely illegally excavated from archaeological sites in Pakistan's northwest, said Salimul Haq, a director at the government's archaeology department.
The northwest was once part of Gandhara, an ancient Buddhist kingdom that stretched across modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan and reached its height from the first to the fifth century.
Pakistani workers unload ancient Buddhist sculptures from a container seized by police Friday. Smugglers were attempting to transfer it out of the country, in Karachi, Pakistan.
Police seized the items Friday from a 20-foot (6-meter) container.
CONGO
Residents, aid agencies flee from rebels
KINSHASA — Rebels have seized a town on volatile eastern Congo after the army fled their advance, a local official said Sunday.
Omar Kavota says the M23 rebels seized the town of Rutshuru Sunday.
Kavota says the army looted during their retreat.
"We appeal to the international community to do something to protect the civilians who fled the fighting and are living in fear," he said.
Panicked residents were fleeing Rutshuru on Friday night amid reports that the rebels had advanced within shelling distance, according to a statement from the North Kivu Civil Society.
Fears were heightened by the evacuation of U.N. and independent aid agencies, followed in the late afternoon by the retreat of Congolese army soldiers, it said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colonel Makenga, center, commander of the M23 rebel movement, stands on a hill overlooking the border town of Bunagana, Congo, Sunday, July 8, 2012.
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