■GERMANY
Hitler paintings for sale
An auction house intends to sell three watercolor paintings attributed to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at the start of next month. The works, depicting cottages, mills and churches nestled in rural landscapes, will go under the hammer on Sept. 5, Weidler’s auction house in Nuremberg said on Thursday. “They’re very neutral paintings,” Kerstin Weidler said. “The white church picture is drawn very well in his style — of course he didn’t make it into the Academy of Fine Arts,” she said. The three paintings are dated from 1910 and 1911 and originate from Vienna, where Hitler spent several years as a struggling artist. The auction house is expecting a five figure sum for each picture. Weidler said the potential purchasers were people with an academic interest in Hitler or those with a business background and not neo-Nazis.
■UNITED STATES
Copperfield in assault case
A 22-year-old woman has accused magician David Copperfield of sexual assault in a federal lawsuit, the Seattle Times reported on Thursday. The suit alleging sexual assault, harassment and false imprisonment was filed at the US District Court in Seattle last month. Authorities are deciding whether to pursue a criminal case against Copperfield. The woman said Copperfield attacked her in 2007 while she was a guest at his private island in the Bahamas. She said she was held for three days against her will and forced to engage in sexual acts. She took the matter to police at the time but no charges were filed. Copperfield issued a statement saying the woman’s claims were an effort to extort money.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Bacteria help cells in gut
A genetically modified bacterium that turns into a drug-delivery vehicle in the presence of a type of sugar may offer a new way to treat bowel diseases, scientists said yesterday. The new approach uses an engineered form of Bacteroides ovatus to deliver a human growth factor called KGF-2 directly to damaged cells in the gut — but the process is only activated in the presence of xylan, a sugar that is rare in normal diet. This means patients will be able to control their medication by ingesting xylan. “This is the first time that anyone has been able to control a therapeutic protein in a living system using something that can be eaten,” said Simon Carding of the Institute of Food Research, who led the research. Inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn’s disease are notoriously difficult to treat.
■PERU
Dogs rescued from knife
At least two stolen dogs were found in an operating room used for dissections at the medical school of South America’s oldest university, but its dean denied relying on “dognappers” to collect specimens. The University of San Marcos in Lima does not have access to enough human cadavers for its students, so they sometimes cut open dogs. Carmen Valverde’s dog Tomas was stolen by two men while she was walking him. A friend who works at the school’s teaching hospital spotted him by chance in a surgery room where dogs are dissected. Valverde snuck into the hospital to rescue Tomas. Video her friend shot, aired on TV, showed him sedated and strapped to a stainless steel table — just moments away from the knife. Other people missing dogs rushed to the hospital and one owner found her dog, Chico. Ricardo Rubios, dean of the medical school, acknowledged that stolen dogs had wound up in the surgery room, but said the school only dissects strays.
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