Greenpeace Says 2 Activists Held in Russian Arctic

The environmentalist group Greenpeace says two of its activists have been arrested after climbing onto an oil platform in Russia’s Arctic waters. It claims warning shots were fired across the organization’s ship.

A Greenpeace statement says the arrests were made Wednesday in the Pechora Sea, a section of the Barents Sea. The activists, who climbed a platform belonging to state gas company Gazprom, are being held on a Russian Coast Guard ship, according to Greenpeace.

The statement said the Coast Guard fired 11 shots across the Greenpeace ship that brought activists to the area.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Security Service, which includes the Coast Guard, said she had no immediate information on the incident.

Pickpockets Who Targeted Paris Tourists Arrested

French police have arrested a gang of pickpockets who dressed like tourists in order to target visitors — mostly Asian tourists — to Paris’ most famous museums and monuments.

The group was sophisticated, dangling cameras from their necks to blend in, always buying entry tickets and slipping away unnoticed. They operated at the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and the Chateau de Versailles, bringing in as much as 2,000 euros ($2,700) per day by grabbing the wallets of tourists, according to Commissioner Stephane Gouaud.

He said a group of fewer than 10 people was arrested Tuesday after a weekslong investigation. But he warned that other pickpockets are no doubt still at large.

The group arrested this week loitered in the most visited areas of the attractions they targeted, hanging out near the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo in the Louvre, Gouaud said.

Between language and cultural barriers and the fact that many tourists are only in town for a short period, Gouaud said the thefts were almost never reported, complicating the investigation.