Nine people have been arrested in northern Cyprus for the theft of what has been described as a 2,000-year old Syrian Orthodox Bible, believed smuggled into Cyprus from southeastern Turkey. Police intercepted the Bible at a bus terminal on Friday before it could be sold to a (presumably waiting) buyer. Authorities said that a "Christian prayer statue and a carving of Christ were found in the Karpas village home of one of the suspects. Five sticks of dynamite were also found, which police believe were to be used for later excavations by the suspects."
The smuggler and another suspect fled the bus terminal during the raid and remain at large.
