AMSTERDAM — German prosecutors said Thursday they arrested a man after he allegedly tried to sell seven paintings taken in a Netherlands heist, including a Picasso and two Monets, back to their Dutch owner.

The 46-year-old German is suspected of blackmail for allegedly offering to broker the return of the paintings to the Triton Foundation, a collection of avant-garde art.

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The seven paintings, which also included a Matisse and a Gauguin, were grabbed in the early hours of Oct. 16 in a lightning theft from the Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam where they were on display. The paintings, worth tens of millions of dollars, have not been recovered.

Cologne's head prosecutor Ulrich Bremer, told The Associated Press that the man was arrested on a warrant from his office on Wednesday near the city of Freiburg in southwestern Germany. He would not release the man's name.

Three Romanian men suspected of carrying out the heist were arrested Jan. 22 in Bucharest and remain in custody there. A 19-year-old Romanian woman was arrested in Rotterdam on March 4 on suspicion of assisting the thieves.

Police believe the works were brought shortly after the theft to a home in Rotterdam where the young woman was staying and removed from their frames.

Rotterdam prosecution spokeswoman Babeth Knol confirmed Thursday that Dutch prosecutors are working with German and Romanian police in the case, but could not comment further.

The Triton Foundation collection was put together by multimillionaire Willem Cordia, an investor and businessman, and his wife, Marijke Cordia-Van der Laan. Willem Cordia died in 2011.

Experts on stolen art such as Britain's Art Loss Register say that thieves often don't understand how difficult it is to sell easily identifiable paintings by famous artists. After thieves are unable to dispose of them for anything resembling their value at auction, they frequently attempt to ransom them back to their owners.

But Bremer said there were still a lot of questions surrounding the German suspect — including whether he might be a scam artist with no connection to the paintings.

"He said he had access to the paintings but whether he was really part of the theft ring or had contact to them and to the paintings, or whether he was some sort of a free-rider, is part of our investigation," Bremer said.

Bremer said his office was involved because the suspect had contact with two lawyers in the Cologne area — both by telephone and in person. Both were "involved in offering the return of the paintings" but neither have been arrested. "What role the two attorneys played is part of the investigation," he said.

Dutch national broadcaster NOS news reported that representatives of the Triton Foundation had met with the lawyers in late 2012, then notified the police.

Bremer said the suspect will be transferred to Cologne within several days.

He said his office had been investigating the case since November 2012.

AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands raised its alert level for terrorist attacks to "substantial" on Wednesday, citing an increase in the number of Islamist militants traveling from the Netherlands to Syria, as well as a radicalization of Dutch youth.

"The chance of an attack in the Netherlands or against Dutch interests abroad has risen," the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) said in a statement.

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"Close to a hundred individuals have recently left the Netherlands for various countries in Africa and the Middle East, especially Syria."

The agency said individuals fighting for radical Islam abroad could return and "inspire others in the Netherlands to follow in their footsteps."

Political changes in the Middle East and North Africa have made space for an expansion of radical Islamic groups that are no longer under the control of security forces, the agency said.

Dutch police and intelligence services have deployed extra personnel to investigate suspect individuals and monitor sources, the agency said.

The Netherlands has not suffered a major terrorist attack, but a radical Dutchman of Moroccan origin murdered the provocative filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was critical of multiculturalism and of Islam, in Amsterdam in 2004.

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Morocco barred Dutch abortion rights activists Thursday from docking their campaign ship to spread awareness about safe abortion methods in a Muslim country that bans the practice.

Women on Waves announced last week its intention to send their ship into the Moroccan port of Smir after visits to traditionally Roman Catholic countries Spain, Portugal and Ireland at the invitation of local women's groups. Such visits began 11 years ago, the BBC reported.

The group says it intends to raise awareness about the use of pills for medical abortions and that it would carry out terminations of pregnancies aboard its own ship on international waters.

Earlier Thursday, Marlies Schellekens, a doctor from Women on Waves, said that Smir harbour was "totally blocked by warships so no one can get in," a day after Rabat said the activists would be barred from arriving by sea.

Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of Women on Waves, told the BBC the group planned to launch "a surprise" in response, but she did not provide further details.

But Moroccan sources later said Women on Waves had actually sent only a yacht into Smir several days ago rather than their usual larger main campaign ship in the apparent expectation that Morocco would not let the group in anyway.

"The yacht has now left Smir to head back home. It was a publicity stunt," an official source said.

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"The organizers took everyone for a ride ... The people (in the yacht) stayed aboard and did not complete immigration procedures that would have allowed them to enter Moroccan territory."

Women on Waves had been invited to Morocco by local rights group Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI).

According to the BBC, Women on Waves wanted to publicize the fact that an abortion-inducement drug is already available to women in Morocco, but most are unaware of it.

The group told the BBC it had also launched a hotline for women to obtain information about contraception and abortion.

In Morocco, as in other Muslim states, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But hundreds of illegal abortions are carried out daily in underground clinics or using herbal medicines, sometimes causing death or injury. Women on Waves told the BBC between 600 and 800 abortions take place every day in Morocco.

Each year hundreds of Moroccan single mothers are forced to abandon or give up their babies for adoption because of the stigma linked to abortion and pre-marital pregnancy.

"I understand that (the visit) is seen as a provocation by some religious groups. But this is about women's health. It has nothing to do with religion," Gomperts, told AFP by phone earlier this week.

On Wednesday Interior Minister Mohand Laenser, a secular member of the government led since December by moderate Islamists, said the Women on Waves would not be allowed into Morocco. "The organizers have never contacted us to seek permission to visit Morocco," Laenser told Reuters.

The Moroccan Association Against Clandestine Abortion said in June that legislation on abortion was out of step with social realities in the country and the number of unsafe abortions showed the need for a political commitment to legal reform.

Organizers of an all-gay cruise in June said Moroccan officials had canceled what would have been the first visit of its kind to a Muslim country.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Parts of Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport – one of Europe's busiest aviation hubs – were shut down Wednesday after workers found an undetonated bomb during routine construction work.

"This will most likely have an impact on flight routine at our airport and could lead to delays and cancellations," an airport official told NBC News.

 

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Workers found the explosive device during construction work on a new hydrant system to be used for re-fueling aircraft.

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Schiphol is one of Europe's busiest airports and handles approximately 50 million passengers annually.

A statement on its website said: "The bomb squad is investigating at the moment. This may have implications for air traffic in the form of cancellations and delays."

The Brussels-based main European air traffic control agency, Eurocontrol, posted on Twitter that passengers could expect "major delays."

The find comes only a day after experts in Munich triggered a controlled explosion of a 550-pound American WWII bomb in the center of Munich.

"A bomb disposal team with experts is presently assessing the situation, which will determine how long we will need to keep the section of the terminal closed," Cora Koopstra, from the airport's "action team," told NBC News.

The device was discovered at "Pier C," the wing of the terminal used mainly by flights to and from the European Union's passport-free Schengen zone. The terminal is a busy hub for European travelers and those connecting to Schengen destinations from international flights such as those from the U.S.

During World War II, Nazi Germany used the airport as a base for air raids on Britain. In 1943, the airport was destroyed by allied fighter aircraft; 400 tons of U.S. bombs were dropped on the complex.

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This country of canals and tulips is also famous for "coffee shops" where joints and cappuccinos share the menu. Now, the Netherlands' famed tolerance for drugs could be going up in smoke.

A judge on Friday upheld a government plan to ban foreign tourists from buying marijuana by introducing a "weed pass" available only to Dutch citizens and permanent residents.

The new regulation reins in one of the country's most cherished symbols of tolerance — its laissez-faire attitude toward soft drugs — and reflects the drift away from a long-held view of the Netherlands as a free-wheeling utopia.

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For many tourists visiting Amsterdam the image endures, and smoking a joint in a canal-side coffee shop ranks high on their to-do lists, along with visiting cultural highlights such as the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House.

Worried that tourism will take a hit, the city's mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, is hoping to hammer out a compromise with the national government, which relies on municipalities and local police to enforce its drug policies.

Relaxing outside The Bulldog, a coffee shop in downtown Amsterdam, Gavin Harrison and Ian Leigh of Northern Ireland said they hoped the city wouldn't change.

"I think it's going to be a shame for Amsterdam, I think it's going to lose a lot of tourists," Harrison said.

Leigh said he had been visiting Amsterdam for a decade and had noticed the erosion of tolerance over the years. "It's taking a step back," he said.

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Coffee shop owners have not given up the fight. A week ago they mustered a few hundred patrons for a "smoke-out" in downtown Amsterdam to protest the new restrictions.

A lawyer for the owners, Maurice Veldman, said he would file an appeal against the ruling by The Hague District court, which clears the way for the weed pass to be introduced in southern provinces on Tuesday.

If the government gets its way, the pass will roll out in the rest of the country — including Amsterdam — next year. It will turn coffee shops into private clubs with membership open only to Dutch residents and limited to 2,000 per shop.

The Netherlands has more than 650 coffee shops, 214 of them in Amsterdam. The number has been steadily declining as municipalities imposed tougher regulations, such as shuttering ones close to schools.

But the new membership rules are the most significant rollback in years to the traditional Dutch tolerance of marijuana use.

The government argues that the move is justified to crack down on so-called "drug tourists," effectively couriers who drive over the border from neighboring Belgium and Germany to buy large amounts of marijuana and take it home to resell. They cause traffic and public order problems in towns along the Dutch border.

Such issues do not exist in Amsterdam, where most tourists walk or ride bikes and buy pot for their own consumption.

The weed pass "doesn't solve any problems we have here and it could create new problems," said city spokeswoman Tahira Limon.

Many Amsterdam residents agree.

Barring tourists from coffee shops will only drive them into the hands of street dealers, warned Liza Roodhof, unwinding with a friend at an Amsterdam cafe that caters to artsy types.

"If you make it so that tourists can't buy weed in a coffee shop, then they're going to buy it on the street. So you add more problems than you solve," she said.

Her friend Nina Fokker, an actress, also worried about what the ban portends for the Netherlands' image as an open-minded society.

Tolerance "is something beautiful, it has something special, it has something that's authentic about the Netherlands," she said.

It is not just hardcore pot heads taking a toke in the city. Limon said 4 million to 5 million tourists visit Amsterdam each year and around 23 percent say they visit a coffee shop during their stay.

Therese Ariaans of the Dutch tourism board said it was hard to judge the effect on tourism — it could reduce visits from people wanting to smoke pot but increase tourists previously kept away by Amsterdam's seedy side.

"If the result is that there will be fewer visitors to the Netherlands we would regret that," she said.

Amsterdam argues that the reasons coffee shops were first tolerated decades ago are still relevant today — they are well-regulated havens where people can buy soft drugs without coming into contact with dealers of hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

Coffee shops also are banned from serving alcohol and from selling drugs to people under 18.

The government in The Hague said Friday there would be no exceptions to the new rules.

"Amsterdam will also have to enforce this policy," said Job van de Sande, a spokesman for the Ministry of Security and Justice.

The conservative Dutch government introduced the new measures saying it wants to return the shops back to what they were originally intended to be: local shops selling to local people.

However the Dutch government collapsed this week and new elections are scheduled for September. It's unclear whether the new administration will keep the new measures in place.

Coffee shop lawyer Veldman called Friday's ruling a political judgment.

"The judge completely fails to answer the principal question: Can you discriminate against foreigners when there is no public order issue at stake?" he asked.

Coffee shop owners in the southern city of Maastricht have said they plan to disregard the new measure, forcing the government to prosecute them in a test case.

Back in Amsterdam, Leigh hoped the weed pass was a marketing stunt to drum up business.

"It's a recession," he said. "Maybe it's a publicity stunt as well — get people to come over in a mad rush before it happens."

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The Dutch government, one of the most vocal critics of European countries failing to rein in their budgets, quit Monday after failing to agree on a plan to bring its own deficit in line with European Union rules. 

The government information service announced Queen Beatrix had accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Cabinet after a meeting in which Rutte told her talks on a new austerity package had failed over the weekend. 

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Rutte is to address parliament Tuesday to discuss interim measures to keep public finances in order and schedule new elections. No date for elections was immediately announced, but opposition lawmakers called for a vote as soon as possible. 

The Dutch government collapse came a day after the first round election victory of France's soft-on-austerity socialist candidate Francois Hollande. It calls into question whether austerity policies that are causing trauma in countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal can be enforced even in "core" European countries such as France — or the Netherlands, one of the few along with Germany to maintain an AAA credit rating. 

Rutte's hopes to clinch a deal to cut the target below the EU's 3 percent target evaporated on Saturday, when his most important political ally, populist euroskeptic Geert Wilders walked out of the talks, saying a slavish adherence to European rules was foolish and would harm the Dutch economy.

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That view is shared by some, such as the government's own Central Plan Bureau, and opposed by others, such as Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot. 

"We don't want our pensioners to suffer for the sake of the dictators in Brussels," Wilders said. 

Opposition lawmakers say they are prepared to work with Rutte to draw up a 2013 budget. 

However, Diederik Samsom, leader of the opposition Labor Party, signaled he would not insist on bringing the Dutch deficit back in line with EU norms next year. 

Although the Netherlands has relatively low levels of national debt, its economy is in recession and it is expected to post a deficit of 4.6 percent in 2012. 

The package Rutte had been negotiating with Wilders would have slashed foreign aid and hastened a planned increase in the retirement age to 66 from 65. 

Wilders, who is publishing a book in the U.S. next week about his struggle against Islam, said abruptly Saturday he could not support the package because it was unfriendly to the elderly. 

Ratings agency Fitch last week warned the Netherlands stands to lose its AAA credit rating depending on the outcome of the budget talks that failed Saturday. 

Central Bank President Knot has predicted Dutch interest rates will increase by around 1 percent if the country's rating is cut, making budget reform vital. 

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AMSTERDAM -- Almost 125 people were injured, many seriously, when two Dutch commuter trains crashed head-on in Amsterdam on Saturday, police said.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but of those injured, 13 suffered major injuries while 43 or 44 were badly injured, a spokesman said. About 70 suffered minor injuries.

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A trauma helicopter was used to bring the injured to hospital, a spokesman for railways group NS said.

The trains did not serve Schiphol international airport, the NS spokesman added, but the accident disrupted airport train service.

Some people were lifted from the wreckage by cranes while others were led away from the crash site in protective wraps to dozens of waiting ambulances, while police cars and fire trucks stood by.

"We heard a loud bang. I went outside and saw people on the street in panic," a woman at the scene told broadcaster AT5.

"We then saw what had happened. Quite quickly there were emergency services at the scene. It was managed well. Some people had head wounds, others were limping."

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One of the trains involved in the crash serves the cities of Den Helder and Nijmegen, while the other runs between Amsterdam and Uitgeest, the railways spokesman said.

Netherlands public broadcaster NOS aired video footage showing two trains that had collided.

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