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BAGHDAD — Iraq's National Museum recovered on Sunday 701 artifacts stolen in the wake of Saddam Hussein's ouster, raising hopes of restoring the nation's rich cultural heritage after five years of war.

Syrian authorities, who seized the looted treasures smuggled across the border, turned them over to the Iraqis, who carefully packed them in 17 boxes and flew them back to Baghdad on Saturday, said Muna Hassan, head of an Iraqi committee working to restore the artifacts.

The golden necklaces, daggers, pots and other artifacts were displayed for journalists during a ceremony attended by Syrian and Iraqi officials at the museum, which remains closed to the public, in central Baghdad.

Widespread looting in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities following Saddam's ouster in April 2003 depleted the Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled some 7,000 years of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia.

Iraqi and world culture officials have struggled to retrieve the treasures with little success because of fears they could be lost again amid the rampant violence and the difficulties in documenting the extent of the damage.

Some of the artifacts stolen from Baghdad's museum by looters during the invasion have been returned, including a prized statue of an ancient king — the oldest known representation of the king Entemena of ancient Iraq — in July 2006.

But Hassan said Syria was the first country to return such a large quantity of stolen antiquities and officials hoped others countries would follow its lead.

Syrian authorities said the artifacts were seized from traffickers over the past five years. They said some of the smugglers were arrested but did not say how many.

Mohammad Abbas al-Oreibi, the acting state minister of tourism and archaeology, said he plans to visit Jordan soon to try to persuade authorities to turn over more than 150 items seized there.

"The treasures contain very important and valuable pieces," al-Oreibi said. "This was a positive initiative taken by Syria and we wish the same initiative to be taken by all neighboring countries."

Some of the returned artifacts were copies, while the originals bore serial numbers from the national museum, Hassan said. Other items apparently were unearthed recently in Iraq.

Dr. Emina Idan, the head of state board of antiquities and heritage, said 701 pieces had been returned. The head of the Syrian Antiquities Department, Bassam Jamous, said some of the objects were from the Bronze Age and early Islamic era.

"The most interesting thing is that some of these items contain the IM, Iraqi Museum, number," Idan told reporters.

Between 3,000 to 7,000 pieces are still believed missing, including about 40 to 50 that are considered to be of great historic importance, Laurent Levi-Strauss, chief of the section of museums and cultural objects at U.N. cultural body UNESCO, said last month.

Hassan said negotiations were under way with several countries, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Italy for the return of more looted antiquities.

Meanwhile, the museum remains closed to the public because of unrelenting violence and continued insecurity and the need for renovation.

The smuggling of stolen antiquities from Iraq's rich cultural heritage is allegedly helping finance Iraqi extremist groups, according to the U.S. investigator who led the initial probe into the looting of Baghdad's National Museum.

Last month, Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and Shiite militias were receiving funding from the trafficking.

It was not clear whether factions in Iraq were actively engaged in smuggling or simply forcing payments from traffickers, whose networks often follow overland routes to Jordan and Syria and then onto cities such as Beirut, Dubai or Geneva.

Although such suspicions of insurgent links to antiquity smuggling has drawn mixed opinions in the past from experts, U.S. Marines in 2006, arrested a group of suspected insurgents in underground bunkers where they found weapons, ammunition and uniforms alongside vases, cylinder seals and statuettes that had been stolen from the National Museum.

The U.S. military was intensely criticized for not protecting the National Museum's treasure of ancient relics and art in the weeks after Baghdad's capture, when looters roamed the city looking for anything of value.

Thieves smashed or pried open row upon row of glass cases and pilfered — or just destroyed — their contents. The museum in the northern city of Mosul also was pillaged, along with Baghdad's National Library.

VIENNA, Austria — A woman has told police that she was held prisoner in a cellar for almost 24 years by her father, who repeatedly raped her and fathered at least six children.

Lower Austria police said in a statement that the 42-year-old woman, identified as Elisabeth F., had been missing since Aug. 29, 1984. She was found by police in the town of Amstetten on Saturday evening following a tip.

Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, told reporters that the 73-year-old father, identified in a separate police statement as Josef F., had been taken into custody.

In a chronology of events outlined in a statement, police said a letter written by Elisabeth F. had apparently surfaced a month after her disappearance asking her parents not to search for her.

Police said that, during questioning, Elisabeth F. told them her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11. Police said she alleged that he sedated, handcuffed and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984 in the Lower Austrian town of Amstetten.

During the 24 years that followed, she said she was continually abused by her father and gave birth to six children, the statement said. In 1996, she said she gave birth to twins but one died several days later because it was not appropriately cared for; police are investigating. Josef F. had then apparently removed the corpse from the cellar and burned it, the police statement said. It was not immediately clear if the twin who allegedly died was included in the police tally of the number of children.

Sunday evening, police said investigators found the area where the woman had been held captive along with three of her children.

In an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF, Polzer said the area had "several" rooms and a "very narrow" hallway.

Police found it after Josef F. gave them a code to unlock a hidden door, Polzer said.

On its Web site, ORF reported that the rooms also were very narrow and at most 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) high.

Police picked up Elisabeth and her father on Saturday close to the Amstetten hospital after they received a tip.

According to the police statement, Josef F. had freed Elisabeth and two of her three children from the cellar, and had told his wife that she had come back to them. The third child in the cellar, Kerstin F., was found unconscious on April 19 in the apartment building where the grandparents live, along with a note from Elisabeth asking that she be taken care of. She was then hospitalized.

Police said Elisabeth F. appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be cared for.

One of her children, identified as 19-year-old Kerstin F., is currently hospitalized in Amstetten in very serious condition.

Police said three of the children were registered with authorities and lived with the grandparents.

According to the police statement, Josef F. and his wife, Rosemarie, had told authorities they had found those children outside their home in 1993, 1994 and 1997, each time with a note from the mother. In the first letter, Elisabeth F. had apparently said she already had a daughter and son. In another letter, she said she gave birth to another son in December 2002, according to the statement.

The other three children were apparently held captive in the cellar with their mother, Polzer told reporters in broadcast remarks.

"Elisabeth F. taught them how to speak," Polzer was quoted as saying by the Austria Press Agency.

The agency quoted police as saying Josef F. has been arrested but had not confessed.

The agency also quoted Gerhard Sedlacek, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in St. Poelten, as saying that the surviving children — three boys and three girls — are aged between 5 and 20.

DNA tests are expected to determine whether Josef F. is the father of the children.

Sunday's developments are reminiscent of the case of Natascha Kampusch, which shocked Austrians less than two years ago.

Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. She was held for the next 8 1/2 years by Wolfgang Priklopil, who largely confined her to a tiny underground dungeon in his home in a quiet Vienna suburb. Priklopil threw himself in front of a train just hours after Kampusch's dramatic escape on Aug. 23, 2006.

EASLEY, S.C. — An 18-year-old man gunned down his father, stepmother and two siblings at the home they shared in suburban South Carolina, authorities said Saturday.

Nathaniel Dickson, 18, was arrested 8:30 p.m. Saturday at a home in Belton about 20 miles from where the bodies of his family members were found, Anderson County Sheriff's spokeswoman Susann Griffin said. He was charged with four counts of murder.

Less than 12 hours earlier, a 911 call led paramedics to find the father dead in the yard. Inside the home they found the other three victims, all shot to death.

The youngest victim, Dickson's 14-year-old brother, was apparently trying to hide behind a clothes dryer when he slain, authorities said.

Investigators have not determined a motive for the killings, Griffin said.

Griffin said Dickson does not have a lawyer. She would not say if he is cooperating with investigators.

The coroner's office identified the victims as Dickson's 46-year-old father, Samuel Andrew Dickson Jr.; his 46-year-old stepmother, Martiza Hurtado Dickson; his 19-year-old stepsister, Melissa Giliam Salazar; and his 14-year-old brother, Taylor Alex Dickson.

Neighbor Melissa Funk said Nathaniel Dickson moved out of his family's home after graduating from high school last year, but had moved back in the past few weeks. She said the teen played video games with her 16-year-old son and never appeared to cause any problems.

Authorities were called to the scene at about 9:30 a.m. by a 911 caller who reported someone had possibly fallen from a car.

Fred Gilbert, who has lived in the neighborhood for about 20 years, said most of the houses along the quiet, dead-end street near Easley are on one or more acre tracts.

"I've never had any problems, and I bought this house from my parents," said Gilbert, who lives about a quarter-mile from where the bodies were found.

Located in northwestern South Carolina, Easley is a city of about 19,000 people some 15 miles west of Greenville.

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. — Fear and shock turned to wary relief as a golden Southern California beach weekend unspooled with no sign of the great white shark that killed a swimmer in a rare attack near San Diego.

Thousands fled record inland temperatures for the relative cool of the coast, though 17 miles of San Diego County's coast remain under advisory closure Sunday, patrolled by helicopters and lifeguard trucks keeping an eye on unwitting swimmers.

Only a hardy few paddleboarders on Saturday ignored posted signs warning that the shark could still be lurking below the Pacific's calm surface.

"It's like going to see 'Jaws' — getting in the water the next day, all you could think about was the music," said Bob Rief, 63, who was teaching a friend how to stand up on a paddleboard. "But if you're afraid of the ocean, you shouldn't be in it."

The San Diego-area native was worried that the attack would scare away vacationers or weekend beachgoers and hurt businesses. Solana Beach is 14 miles northwest of San Diego.

Beaches were emptier than usual Saturday near where triathlete David Martin was killed Friday. Farther north, Orange and Los Angeles county beaches were packed with people on a bright, hot day. Lifeguards were more concerned with crowds and riptides than sharks.


"The most dangerous part of the day, if you're going to the beach, is getting on the freeway to come here," said Garth Canning, section chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division.

A shark, presumed to be a great white, lifted Martin, 66, out of the water with his legs in its jaws, leaving deep lacerations and shredding the retired veterinarian's black wetsuit.

An autopsy on Saturday confirmed that Martin had bled to death as authorities had believed, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office said.

The beaches in San Diego will be patrolled throughout the weekend, according to city and county officials. A weekend surfing competition in Encinitas, a seaside town north of the attack, was canceled because of safety concerns.

Few surfers dotted the typically crowded breaks off Tide Beach Park or Cardiff State Beach — perhaps as much because of shark fears as weak swells.

"I thought twice only because the waves are so small," said Lynn Richardson, 63, a retiree who nosed his orange kayak straight out toward Tabletop Reef, where the shark struck. A lifeguard with a megaphone called Richardson in for a stern talking-to but shrugged after Richardson said he was willing to play the odds.

Shark expert Richard Rosenblatt said Friday that, judging by Martin's wounds and the nature of the attack, the shark probably was a great white 12 to 17 feet long. Experts said the likelihood of finding the shark that attacked Martin was slim.

Great white sharks are rare in Southern California, though female great whites sometimes come south from their usual territory in the cooler waters of the central and northern coast to pup. Few make the mistake of attacking humans instead of seals or sea lions, their usual prey.

Martin was the first shark fatality in San Diego County since 1994, when a woman's body was found with bites off Ocean Beach, near downtown San Diego.

And I thought my dad's shepard's pie was malicious.