US museum to return Turkish bust

22 July 2011 Last updated at 15:35 GMT The stunning piece portrays the demigod Hercules The top half of the Weary Herakles statue, which was bought by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1982, is to be returned to its native Turkey.

After an ongoing dispute, the MFA will reunite the bust with its lower half at the Antalya Museum later this year.

The announcement is seen as a victory for Turkey which is trying to retrieve artefacts it believes have been looted throughout the years.

It is thought the full statue will return to Boston on a short-term loan.

The top half of the sculpture of weary demigod Hercules was purchased in 1981 from a German dealer, by the MFA and late New York art collecter Leon Levy.

A year later, it was displayed at the US museum before being put into storage in 2007.

Turkish archaeologists were convinced the bust had been looted and taken from the country. At the same time, the lower half of the statue was discovered in 1980 at Perge in southern Turkey.

The MFA always denied that was the case, insisting the bust could have been found "any time since the Italian Renaissance".

Speaking to the Times newspaper, Katherine Getchell from the Boston Museum, said: "It's only in the last couple of years that they've presented us with photos and other evidence of looting from that site."

This is the latest victory for Turkey's campaign to track down lost antiquity.

In May, the Peramon Museum in Germany agreed to return a Hittite sphinx after the Turkish Culture Minister threatened to ban German archaeologists from digs in the country.

Ertugrul Gunay told the Times that the country plans to "fight in the same way for all our other artefacts".

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Vatican finances return to profit

2 July 2011 Last updated at 13:47 GMT The Vatican has been making financial reports public since 1981 The Vatican has announced its finances have returned to profit - after three consecutive years in the red.

Its report said the Holy See saw revenues of 245.2m euros (?222m; $356m) against expenses of 235.3m in 2010.

But annual donations from churches worldwide - known as Peter's Pence - were down nearly $15m to $67.7.

The separately administered Vatican City State also made a 21m-euro profit due to strong ticket sales at the Vatican Museums.

The Vatican lost 4m euros in 2009 and was also in the red in 2008 and 2007.

Most of the Vatican's outlay is to cover the activities of Pope Benedict XVI, and services such as Vatican Radio which is broadcast on five continents in 40 different languages.

The Vatican began publishing annual financial reports in 1981 when Pope John Paul II set out to challenge perceptions that the Vatican was rich.

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Freed hostages return to France

30 June 2011 Last updated at 08:46 GMT The two men were greeted by a warm welcome when they arrived

Two French journalists held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan for 18 months have arrived in France, flying into an airport near Paris.

Cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere were freed in circumstances that remain unclear.

The pair were kidnapped with Afghan colleagues near Kabul in December 2009 while on assignment for French TV.

Mr Ghesquiere said they were both in good health. "We were never threatened with death, never beaten," he said.

The two Frenchmen, who were working for French state television network France-3, had become some of the longest-held Western hostages in Afghanistan.

"There are lots of hostages in the world, I feel for those who are held hostage, and those who died in operations when they tried to save them," the forty-seven-year-old added.

"Until you have been a hostage, you can't understand but I really feel for them because it is over for us but still going for them."

'No regrets'

The pair, who had been embedded with French troops in Afghanistan, decided to gather material from an area known locally as "the Black Hole", according to the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.

In April 2010, after posting a video of the hostages on the internet, the Taliban said they had submitted a list of prisoners to French authorities that they wanted freed in exchange for the two journalists.

Mr Taponier, 46, and Mr Ghesquiere and one of the three Afghan colleagues with whom they were seized, interpreter Reza Din, were released on Wednesday. French officials have said that no ransom was paid for the men.

The other two Afghan translators had been released some time ago, French officials said.

After stepping on to the tarmac, the two embraced waiting relatives and shook hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife.

Mr Ghesquiere, who was held in solitary confinement for the last eight months, said he did not regret his decision to work in Afghanistan.

"It's what I always wanted to do. I don't want to go back to Afghanistan tomorrow but [...] I want to do this job now more than ever."

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