In the World

WARSAW, Poland - Police said early today that they had found the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign stolen Friday from the gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, now a memorial.

Police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo said that the sign was found in northern Poland and that five men had been held for questioning.

Padlo said the steel sign, which symbolizes to the world the atrocities and cruelty of Nazi Germany, was found cut into three pieces.

State authorities had made finding the sign a priority and appealed to all Poles for assistance. More than one million people, mostly Jews, died at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany built in occupied Poland during World War II. - AP

CAIRO - Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, said yesterday that he would demand the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti from a Berlin museum after confirming it was sneaked out of Cairo through fraudulent documents after it was unearthed in 1912.

Hawass, using threats to deny access to Egyptian archaeological sites to foreign museums, has been aggressively campaigning to reclaim treasures he says were stolen from Egypt. His campaign yielded a huge success last week with the return by the Louvre in Paris of painted wall fragments from a 3,200-year-old tomb.

The limestone bust of Nefertiti, wife of the 14th-century B.C. monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaton, tops a list Hawass has drawn for high-profile items he wants back.

Since the bust was displayed in Germany in 1924, Egypt has been demanding its return. German authorities have declined, saying the bust is too fragile to move.

- AP

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez yesterday accused the United States of violating Venezuela's airspace with an unmanned spy plane, and ordered his military to shoot down any such aircraft in the future.

During his weekly television and radio program, Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighboring Colombia. "These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela," he said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy said the mission had no information about any flyover and had not been contacted by Chavez's administration.

Chavez has accused Colombia of allowing the United States to use its military bases to prepare a possible attack against Venezuela. The United States and Colombia have denied such allegations in the past, saying the U.S. military presence is for the sole purpose of combating drug trafficking. - AP