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NEW YORK (CNN) — “The Madonna and Child in a Landscape,” a 16th century painting by the German artist Lucas Cranach the elder, hung on a wall at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh for more than 15 years.

This year, it came down to be returned to the owner’s heirs after documents revealed the painting had once been looted by the Nazis.

The history of the North Carolina painting was heard Wednesday in New York by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, which is seeking to determine how much Nazi-looted art is held by U.S. museums.

During World War II, Adolf Hitler’s troops systematically plundered the art collections of Europe, especially Jewish collections, stealing an estimated 600,000 paintings, sculptures and other objects.

Allied troops recovered about two-thirds of the looted objects after the war, returning them to their countries of origin, which were expected to distribute the works to their rightful owners. But many victims of the Nazi plunder never got their art back.

U.S. museum directors testified Wednesday before the presidential commission. Glenn Lowry, director of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, said, “Will there be some (in U.S. collections)? Of course. There already have been. Will it turn out to be the vast number that others have suggested? I don’t believe so.”

Still, after 18 months of investigation, major museums identified hundreds of paintings with incomplete ownership information during the Nazi era.

Fifteen paintings at The Museum of Modern Art, including works by Klee and Picasso, are under review. The museum directors say the paintings they’ve identified are not suspect pictures, but rather red flags — paintings with gaps in their histories during and after the Nazi era.

“We have no reason to believe that any of these pictures were looted by the Nazis before or during the Second World War,” Lowry said in a statement, “but we have included them because we do not yet know where they were during all or part of the Nazi period.”

Related links: best museums

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) — Tired of your cat or dog running wild around the car while you’re trying to drive? A California couple may have a solution.

Myrt and Albert Edwards’ lovable pooch, Elmo, was such a pest on family outings that he sparked a promising — and profitable — idea for his owners.

Their solution? The Comfort Ride, a pet seat for small dogs or cats that fits easily in the front or back seat of many cars.

Offering a veritable royal ride for your pet, the seat has fur-lined padding for comfort and safety straps for those sudden stops.

Related sites: best pets

Online gambling is a lucrative multimillion-dollar industry worldwide that’s expected to grow to $10 billion in three years, according to Datamonitor PLC, a market researcher in London.
Hundreds of Web sites, mostly located outside the United States, currently lure surfers to virtual slot machines, craps and other Las Vegas-style games.

“This is a well-recognized and established form of entertainment that people enjoy,” says Alex Igelman of the Web casino GalaxiWorld.com. “Why not let them enjoy it through a new telecommunications medium, which is the Internet?”

Such forms of gambling may — or may not — be legal for U.S. residents under a federal law that bans wagering through telephone technology, a 38-year-old law written long before the Internet boom.

As Congress considers plugging that loophole by amending the law to cover newer technological transmissions, some gambling Web sites are playing it safe.

On some, a disclaimer in small type reads, “This site does not allow for gambling for money by persons within the United States.”

Risking too much is exactly what many Internet stock traders already have done. Some have even called agencies that specialize in gambling dependency.

Related links: How to Play Casino Games, Gambling Online, Casino Roulette

In this article we’ll discuss international marriage agencies. Lately, I, as a person who knows internet well and who knows how to seek, find and to sort information, have been asked by many people to reveal the problem of searching for your second half abroad. It happened in view of a successful marriage of my friend. And as the people asked the similar questions, I reminded myself of my journalist experience, and decided to write a little guide to history, analysis of the present situation and to the review of the living example, under the topic Marriage with Russian and Ukrainian women for dummies. (more…)

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (CNN) — Opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday in North Carolina in a cigarette smuggling trial that will test a 6-year-old federal antiterrorism law.

The trial of brothers Mohamad and Chawki Hammoud will test the 1996 law that prohibits support for terrorist organizations, the same law that accused American Taliban John Walker Lindh is charged with breaking. (more…)