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Egypt says that it will retry two journalists working for Al-Jazeera English who have been jailed for more than a year on charges of "giving a platform" to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The announcement of the new trial, set to begin on Feb. 12, comes days after the journalists' colleague, Australian Peter Greste, was suddenly released and deported.

Following Greste's release on Feb. 1, Mohamed Fahmy, a dual citizen of Canada and Egypt, and Baher Mohamed remained in detention. The trio were arrested in December 2013 and convicted in June.

The three had been charged with "spreading false news," and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood of former Prime Minister Mohammed Morsi. Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years and Mohamed was given an additional three years on weapons charges.

Outside of Egypt, the convictions were widely viewed as a sham.

The Associated Press reports that:

"Canada's now-former Foreign Minister John Baird said earlier this month, just prior to his recent resignation, that ... Fahmy could be imminently released after renouncing his Egyptian nationality."

"It was not immediately clear how the retrial would affect that process."

Peter Greste

Al-Jazeera English

Egypt

Hoping to salvage something of a widely ignored truce in eastern Ukraine that was forged just months ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders are set for another summit in Minsk this week.

If all goes to plan, Merkel will join Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande in the capital of Belarus on Wednesday.

In a flurry of activity in recent days that has surrounded a security conference held in Munich, Merkel and Hollande have led an effort to resuscitate the peace deal and forestall a possible U.S. move to provide arms to Kiev to fight Russian-backed separatists.

The Associated Press says: "The plan for a meeting Wednesday in the Belarusian capital emerged from a phone call between ... [Merkel, Hollande, Putin and Poroshenko]. Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, described the call as 'intensive.'"

Seibert said the four parties had discussed "a package of measures" aimed at reaching "a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," the BBC says.

The AP adds: "The aim is to draw up a package of measures that breathes new life into a much-violated September peace plan. Seibert and the French government said preparations for the summit will take place Monday in Berlin, without elaborating."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Reuters as saying "important decisions" would be taken at the summit. Poroshenko said in a statement that the meeting will lead to a "swift and unconditional cease-fire," according to Reuters.

Lavrov's professed optimism, however, was dampened by Agence-France Presse reports that Putin might be hedging. AFP quotes the Russian leader as saying the summit would only take place if the leaders agreed on a "number of points" before Wednesday.

"We will be aiming for Wednesday, if by that time we manage to agree on a number of points which we've been intensely discussing lately," Putin told Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, according to the French news agency.

Despite reports to the contrary, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denied that there was a rift developing between the U.S. and Europe on how to settle the Ukraine conflict. Washington is said to be considering arms shipments to Kiev, something Merkel, in particular, has strongly opposed.

"There is no division, there is no split," Kerry said, according to the AP. "I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together."

Meanwhile, Britain, which has remained largely on the sidelines in the peace negotiations, accused Putin of acting like a "tyrant" over Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also rejected the suggestion that the U.K. had become irrelevant to the talks. Speaking with Sky News, referring to Moscow's backing of the rebels, he acknowledged that "Ukrainians can't beat the Russian army."

"This man (Putin) has sent troops across an international border and occupied another country's territory in the 21st century acting like some mid-20th century tyrant. Civilized nations do not behave like that," Hammond told Sky, according to Reuters.

crisis in Ukraine

Secretary of State John Kerry

Germany

Russia

France

Brian Williams — the NBC Nightly News anchor who apologized earlier this week for misremembering that a military helicopter he was in during the 2003 invasion of Iraq had been fired upon — says he has temporarily taken himself off the air over the controversy.

In a statement released today, Williams said that "it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions.

"I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days," Williams wrote, adding that colleague Lester Holt would be taking over his nightly anchoring duties during his absence.

"Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us," he said.

The move by Williams comes a day after news organizations reported that NBC had launched an internal investigation of the anchor's claim, which he backed away from when challenged by veterans. Despite having publicly recounted the false story several times over the years, Williams now acknowledges that he was in fact aboard a helicopter that came in behind the one that was hit by enemy fire.

As NPR's Krishnadev Calamur reported on Friday:

"Williams and his network, until this week, had said the helicopter had been hit by an RPG and forced down during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Following pushback from soldiers who were there, Williams apologized Wednesday."

"The story is the latest twist to the scandal that has tarnished the reputation of the NBC news anchor, and it comes the same day The New Orleans Advocate raised doubts about Williams' claim during his reporting of Hurricane Katrina. Williams had said he saw a body float by in the French Quarter, a part of the city that had remained largely dry during the 2005 storm that devastated the city."

Brian Williams

NBC

Iraq

A work by French painter Paul Gauguin, who died penniless in 1903, has reportedly smashed the record books as the most expensive ever sold. The piece, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), is believed to have fetched $300 million.

The oil-on-canvas was produced in 1892 during Gauguin's first visit to French Polynesia. It features a pair of Tahitian girls seated next to a tree.

The painting was sold by Swiss collector Rudolf Staechelin, a retired Sotheby's executive. Although Staechelin has declined to name the buyer or the price, The Telegraph reports that is believed to have been purchased by the state-financed Qatar Museums and to have topped the previous record, also set by Qatar, which reportedly bought Cezanne's The Card Players in 2011 for $259 million.

"The market is very high and who knows what it will be in 10 years. I always tried to keep as much together as I could. Over 90% of our assets are paintings hanging for free in the museum." Staechelin told The New York Times.

The Times reports: "In recent years the Qatar royal family and the museums authority have been reported to be expansive buyers of trophy quality Western modern and contemporary art by Mark Rothko, Damien Hirst and Czanne."

Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist, visited Tahiti twice.

According to The Guardian:

"His first trip was in 1891 after becoming estranged from his wife and was facing financial difficulties given the unpopularity of his art.

"He came up with the idea of making the voyage to paint illustrations for the most popular novel at the time, Pierre Loti's The Marriage of Loti."

"He portrayed the natives as living only to sing and to make love," Nancy Mowll Mathews, the author of Paul Gauguin, An Erotic Life, told the Guardian in a 2001 interview. "That's how he got the money from his friends and raised the public's interest in his adventure. But, of course, he knew the truth, which was that Tahiti was an unremarkable island with an international, Westernized community."

Gauguin's efforts failed and on his return to France two years later, "what should have been a triumphant return turned into a morass of misunderstanding and disappointment as his paintings remained unsold," the newspaper says.

Within a few years, Gauguin returned to French Polynesia, where he eventually died of a morphine overdose.

"Gauguin seems to have fallen for the myth of Tahiti he created," Mathews told the Guardian in 2001.

"He returned expecting the erotic idyll that was only ever a figment of his imagination. Of course, he didn't find it and the disappointment was profound: he died a twisted and bitter man, having alienated everyone both at home and in Tahiti. It's a sad story of a man who believed his own fiction," the author said.

Paul Gauguin

painting

South Pacific

France