London: Officials ban export of Michelangelo work

The British government on Thursday blocked the export of an early drawing by Michelangelo, saying it didn’t want the important work of art to be sold abroad.

The drawing, a study of a mourning woman, was discovered in the library of Castle Howard in northern England. It apparently had been there for 250 years.

It was sold last year for $8.4 million to British art dealer Jean-Luc Baroni, who now wants to sell it.

Arts Minister Tessa Blackstone said the ban “reflects the drawing’s outstanding aesthetic quality and importance for study,” citing its status as “one of Michelangelo’s rare earlier works and its unusually excellent state of preservation.”

The ban will remain in place until June 28, 2003.

Government officials expect the drawing, a delicate work in two shades of brown ink, to fetch at least $12 million. Potential buyers include the National Galleries of Scotland.

Saudi Arabia: Carcinogens found at Saudi air base

Cancer-causing chemicals have been found at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where for a decade U.S. airmen have been sent to help patrol the southern no-fly zone over Iraq.

Air Force researchers found nine confirmed or suspected carcinogens in air and water samples taken at the sprawling U.S. base 70 miles southeast of Riyadh. Five more contaminants considered potential cancer-causers also were detected, according to a study based on data collected between 1996 and 1999.

Some of the chemicals found at Prince Sultan have been linked to liver, lung and skin cancers.

Pakistan: Troops begin retreat from border with India

In a sign of easing tensions over Kashmir, Pakistan said Thursday it pulled troops back from some border areas after India made a similar move last month.

Gen. Rashid Quereshi, Pakistan’s military spokesman, said troops were moving back “from those areas where India no longer poses a threat to us.”

Quereshi would not say how many soldiers were withdrawn or when the pullback would be complete. But he said Pakistani troops would remain in areas where India’s army was deployed and where a threat existed along the countries’ border.