In brief: IS claims responsibility for museum attack

Tunis, Tunisia – The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility Thursday for an attack on a major museum in Tunisia’s capital that killed 23 people and injured scores of others, including many foreign tourists.

Tunisian officials did not confirm the group’s role but said they had identified two gunmen killed in a firefight with police and arrested nine other suspects in connection with Wednesday’s attack.

The bloody rampage at the National Bardo Museum dealt a blow to Tunisia’s tourism industry, a critical source of jobs and revenue in a country widely seen as North Africa’s best hope for a functioning democracy. Two Mediterranean cruise lines, Costa Crociere and MSC Cruises, announced they were canceling all upcoming stops in Tunisia after 17 of their passengers were killed in the attack.

Arrest made in threat against U.S. base

Tokyo – Japanese police said they arrested a man on Thursday accused of making bomb threats against the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and media reports said he is also a possible suspect in recent death threats against Ambassador Caroline Kennedy.

Tokyo police arrested Mitsuyoshi Kamiya, a resident of the southern island of Okinawa, for making the bomb threats from a pay phone in downtown Okinawa, a police spokesman said. He said the suspect also threatened to bomb Camp Schwab, a U.S. military base on the island.

Kamiya admitted to police that he made the bomb threats, but his motive was not immediately known, the police spokesman said.

Public broadcaster NHK said police also suspect Kamiya made phone calls threatening to kill Kennedy and the U.S. consul general on Okinawa.

Polar bear pulls tourist from tent

Longyearbyen, Norway – A polar bear dragged a Czech tourist out of his tent as he slept on a remote Arctic island, clawing his back before being driven away by gunshots.

“It was going for my head. I used my hands to protect my head,” Jakub Moravec said from his hospital bed in the Svalbard archipelago’s main town. He turned over to reveal shallow gashes on his back.

Moravec was among a group of six on a combined ski and snow scooter trip on the remote islands more than 500 miles north of the Norwegian mainland. The group was camping north of Longyearbyen. The attack happened as thousands of tourists descended on Svalbard and the Faeroe Islands ahead of a rare total solar eclipse today.

The bear was eventually found and killed by authorities.