CAIRO: Egyptian authorities announced Saturday the discovery of an ancient tomb in Luxor dating back around 3,500 years that archaeologists believe holds the remains of an 18th dynasty royal.
The tomb was unearthed by Egyptian and British researchers on the west bank of the River Nile, where the famous Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings lie, said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“The first elements discovered so far inside the tomb seem to indicate that it dates back to the 18th dynasty” of pharaohs Akhenaton and Tutankhamun, Waziri said in a statement.
The 18th dynasty, part of the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom, ended in 1292 BC and is considered among the most prosperous years of Ancient Egypt.
Piers Litherland of the University of Cambridge, head of the British research mission, said the tomb could be of a royal wife or princess of Thutmosid lineage.
Egyptian archaeologist Mohsen Kamel said the tomb’s interior was “in poor condition.”
Parts of it including inscriptions were “destroyed in ancient floods which filled the burial chambers with sand and limestone sediment,” Kamel added, according to the antiquities board’s statement.
Egypt has unveiled several major archaeological discoveries in recent years, most notably in the Saqqara necropolis south of the capital Cairo.
Critics say the flurry of excavations has prioritized finds shown to grab media attention over hard academic research.
But the discoveries have been a key component of Egypt’s attempts to revive its vital tourism industry, the crowning jewel of which is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids.
The country of 104 million inhabitants suffers a severe economic crisis.
Egypt’s tourism industry accounts for 10 percent of GDP and some two million jobs, according to official figures, but has been hammered by political unrest and the Covid pandemic.
Egypt unveils ancient royal tomb in Luxor
https://arab.news/nvf73
Egypt unveils ancient royal tomb in Luxor
- The tomb was unearthed by Egyptian and British researchers on the west bank of the River Nile
- Egyptian archaeologist Mohsen Kamel said the tomb's interior was "in poor condition"
Devastated father wonders why an Israeli strike killed his 4-year-old daughter
“She had a ball on her lap with a doll in her hand. Will she fight them with her football or doll?” her father said
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Massa Abed, 4, brought a rubber ball and her doll to play with friends on the street near her family’s home on Sunday. It was a mundane day in Zawaida, the central Gaza town where the Abeds returned weeks ago, with calm largely restored in the area.
But that afternoon, an Israeli strike hit a tent on the side of the road, killing Massa and some of the other children.
Her older brother, 16, grabbed Massa’s little body and rushed to the hospital on a donkey cart. When she was pronounced dead, he wailed, holding her.
Days later, Massa’s father, Samy Abed, turned the green ball in his hand, describing the incident to The Associated Press.
“She had a ball on her lap with a doll in her hand. Will she fight them with her football or doll?” he said. “She’s 4 years old. What can she do? She can’t even carry a rock.”
The Israeli army did not respond to requests for comment on the strike, and it remains unclear why the area — near the city of Deir Al-Balah — was struck or who was targeted. Israeli officials have often blamed Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Palestinian militant group regularly operates from residential areas and hospitals and accusing it using civilians as human shields.
Since Israel resumed attacksmore than a month ago, at least 809 children have been killed, said Zaher Al-Wahidi, a spokesperson with Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Overall, the ministry says, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, in October 2023. Ministry officials do not differentiate between civilians and militant deaths but say that more than half the dead have been women and children. Israel says it has killed over 20,000 militants, without providing details on those deaths.
On March 18, a surprise Israeli bombardment shattered a six-week ceasefire mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt; hundreds of Palestinians were killed. Mediation efforts to restore the ceasefire have faltered, and Israel has vowed more devastation if Hamas doesn’t release the remaining hostages kidnapped in its rampage on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
That Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others. Israel says 59 hostages remain in captivity, at least 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, not allowing food, medicine, or assistance to enter the strip. The United Nations World Food Program said its stockpiles that it used to feed over 600,000 people daily are empty. Israel says the blockade’s aim is to increase pressure on Hamas to release the rest of the hostages and to disarm.
At the hospital where Massa’s brother brought her, bodies of her young playmates lay nearby — a reminder, relatives said, of children in danger as attacks continue.
Massa had the confidence and bubbly personality of a teenager, socializing and conversing with everyone, her father said as he scrolled through photos and videos where she played and posed for the cameras.
He soon turned to photos of her body at the hospital.
“We see her when we’re asleep. When we wake up, we remember her,” he said.
Majdi Abed, Massa’s uncle, says he has regular visions of her. “I was sitting right here at 7 a.m., and I felt the girl coming toward me,” he said, describing how he frequently bursts into tears upon realizing it’s not really Massa.
The family still expects her to show up at their breakfast table.
But, her father said, “her spot is empty.”
Omani, Iraqi foreign ministers hold talks in Muscat
- Discussion focused on achieving greater benefits for the people of Oman and Iraq
LONDON: Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Hamad Al-Busaidi discussed regional and international developments with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Muscat on Thursday.
The ministers highlighted the need for continued coordination to enhance regional security, stability and peace through dialogue, diplomacy and respect for sovereignty and international law.
They also talked about securing common interests and achieving greater benefits for the people of Oman and Iraq.
Qais Saad Al-Amri, the Iraqi ambassador to Oman, and other senior officials attended the meeting.
Damascus sectarian killings ‘unacceptable,’ says UN envoy
- Geir Pedersen appeals for calm after clashes involving Druze minority
- Israel threatens further attacks after series of strikes on Syrian capital
NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s special envoy for Syria condemned a spate of sectarian violence in Damascus as well as Israeli strikes on the capital as “unacceptable.”
It follows a week of killings and tensions in the predominantly Druze towns of Ashrafiyat Sahnaya and Jaramana, on the outskirts of Damascus.
Fighting broke out earlier this week in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya when gunmen attacked a security checkpoint.
A second clash occurred a day earlier in Jaramana, with at least 30 people, including civilians, being killed in the two attacks.
“The reports of civilian casualties, and casualties among security personnel, are deeply alarming,” Special Envoy Geir Pedersen said in a statement. “Immediate steps must be taken to protect civilians, de-escalate tensions and prevent any further incitement of communal conflict,” he added.
Syrian security forces intervened in an attempt to quell tensions, closing off roads and sending armed personnel, the interior ministry said.
Tensions were compounded by Israel’s intervention with a series of strikes on the outskirts of Damascus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces had launched attacks on an “extremist group that was preparing to attack the Druze population south of Damascus.”
A second Israeli strike in the Damascus countryside killed a Syrian security officer.
Maj. Gen Eyal Zamir, Israel’s chief of staff, threatened to carry out strikes on Syrian government sites “if the violence against the Druze does not stop.”
Pedersen condemned the Israeli attacks and said that “Syria’s sovereignty must be fully respected.”
He called on Syrian parties to engage in “genuine inclusion, trust-building and meaningful dialogue” in a bid to reduce tensions.
The condemnation came a week after Pedersen’s appearance before the UN Security Council alongside Asaad Al-Shaibani, Syria’s foreign minister.
There, Pedersen hailed the “opening of a new chapter in Syria’s history” and praised the Syrian people, “who, amidst continued suffering, and many uncertainties and dangers, show overwhelmingly that they want this political transition to succeed.”
The events in Damascus follow months of sectarian violence around Latakia and the Syrian coast, involving clashes between members of the Alawite minority and other groups.
“The people of Syria have suffered too much for too long,” Pedersen said. “They deserve peace, dignity, and a future built on dialogue, not destruction.”
PKK claims Iraq attacks on Kurdish security forces
- The post would close a road between two regions “in an attempt to destroy and besiege our forces,” the PKK said
- It is one of many posts that the peshmerga have started building in an area considered “strategic” to the group
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed on Thursday two attacks in northern Iraq that wounded five Kurdish security personnel earlier this week.
The attacks occurred on Monday and Tuesday, targeting peshmerga bases in Dohuk province in the northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which has seen repeated clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK.
The regional authorities, who have close ties with Ankara, said on Tuesday that two separate drone attacks targeted its security forces, blaming them on a “terrorist group.”
The PKK said in a statement that it launched “minor” attacks to avoid casualties in response to the Kurdistan security forces — the peshmerga — building a new post in the area.
The post would close a road between two regions “in an attempt to destroy and besiege our forces,” the PKK said.
It is one of many posts that the peshmerga have started building in an area considered “strategic” to the group, the PKK added.
Kamran Othman of the US-based Community Peacemakers Teams, which monitors Turkish operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, told AFP Tuesday that the peshmerga were establishing a new post in a “sensitive area” long marked by tensions between the PKK and Turkish forces.
Blacklisted as a “terrorist group” by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, the PKK has fought the Turkish state for most of the past four decades.
The group maintains rear bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, where Turkish forces have also long operated bases.
The drone attacks came weeks after the PKK announced a ceasefire with Turkiye in response to their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s historic call to the group to dissolve and disarm.
Despite the ceasefire, skirmishes between the foes continue in several areas of northern Iraq.
The regional authorities said the attacks aimed to “obstruct the peace process and the stability of the region.”
The PKK said in their statement that they “don’t want to enter a war with any side.”
Police arrest 400 in Istanbul: lawyers group
- “The number of arrests that have been reported to us exceeds 400,” the Istanbul branch of the CHD lawyers group wrote on X
- There was no immediate comment on the detentions from city authorities
ISTNABUL: Police arrested more than 400 people in Istanbul on Thursday, with parts of Turkiye’s biggest city paralyzed in a bid to prevent May Day demonstrations, a lawyers group said.
On Wednesday city authorities closed metro, bus and ferry services in the metropolis and arrested 100 people who were allegedly planning to protest in the city’s central Taksim Square, where demonstrations have been banned since 2013.
This year’s May Day comes as the government is embroiled in a showdown with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CPH), following the detention of its presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu, who is Istanbul’s mayor, is the biggest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The number of arrests that have been reported to us exceeds 400,” the Istanbul branch of the CHD lawyers group wrote on X on Thursday.
There was no immediate comment on the detentions from city authorities.
AFP journalists witnessed several dozen people arrested in neighborhoods on the European side of the city.
Several thousand people assembled in sanctioned protests called by labor unions on the Asian side of the city, according to local media and an AFP journalist.
On Wednesday, rights group Amnesty International urged Turkiye to lift the ban on demonstrations in Taksim.
“The restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square are based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and... must be urgently lifted,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, an Amnesty’s specialist on Europe.
As happens every year, the square has been sealed off with metal barriers for several days, with a heavy police presence.
