XINHUA – A joint Egyptian-French archaeological mission uncovered tombs and buildings that reveal more history about the Ramesseum Temple in the southern city of Luxor, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement.
The mission uncovered a group of tombs dating back to the Third Intermediate Period (about 1069-525 BCE), and storage areas for olive oil and honey in the vicinity of the temple.
Excavations inside the temple revealed the ‘House of Life’ (a scientific school attached to the major temples), including the architectural layout of the educational institution and a rich archaeological collection that included the remains of school drawings and toys. It is the first evidence of the existence of a school within the Ramesseum Temple.
The team also found a group of buildings that were likely used as administrative offices on the eastern side of the temple.
Secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Mohamed Ismail Khaled said that the discoveries indicate a complete hierarchical system of civil servants within this temple, as it was not only a place of worship, but also a centre for the redistribution of stored or manufactured products, which benefited the inhabitants of the area, including the artisans of the city monastery, who were subject to royal authority within the system of provinces.
Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy commended the mission’s efforts in uncovering new secrets for the history of the Ramesseum temple and the religious and societal role in Ancient Egypt.
Ramses II, whose reign (1279-1213 BCE) was the second longest in Egyptian history, built the Ramesseum Temple during his reign.
In 27 BCE, an earthquake hit and damaged the temple.
Artefacts uncovered from a tomb in Luxor, Egypt. PHOTO: XINHUA
COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s leader rolled out the red carpet on yesterday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake welcomed Modi – the first foreign dignitary to visit Colombo since the leader swept elections last year – with a 19-gun salute.
Dissanayake and Modi signed agreements on energy, defence and health, but the visit’s highlight was the launch of an Indian-backed 120 megawatt solar power project.
The solar plant on the island’s northeastern Trincomalee district had been stalled for years, but reinvigorated with New Delhi’s backing as a joint project.
Modi, who praised his “spectacular welcome” to Sri Lanka after arriving in Colombo late on Friday evening, was given an honour guard parade in the capital’s Independence Square.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during an official welcome ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka. PHOTO: AP
Dissanayake’s first foreign visit was to New Delhi in December and a visit to Beijing in January. China has emerged as Sri Lanka’s largest single bilateral creditor, accounting for more than half of its USD14 billion bilateral debt at the time the island defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2022.
Beijing was also the first to restructure its loans to Sri Lanka, a move that cleared the way for the island to emerge from that year’s worst-ever economic meltdown.
Colombo also signed an agreement announced in January with a Chinese state-owned company to invest USD3.7 billion on an oil refinery in the island’s south.
It would be Sri Lanka’s largest single foreign investment and is seen as crucial for the island’s economy.
Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka comes after a summit in Thailand and a string of meetings with leaders of regional nations as he sought to shore up India’s relations with neighbours.
On the sidelines of the Bangkok BIMSTEC meeting – the grouping of the seven nations on the Bay of Bengal – Modi held a rare face-to-face meeting with Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
AP – Another round of torrential rain and flash flooding hit parts of the South and Midwest already heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that in some cases spawned deadly tornadoes.
Round after round of heavy rains have pounded the central United States (US), leading to rapidly rising waterways and prompting a series of flash flood emergencies in Missouri, Texas and Arkansas.
Meanwhile, many communities were still reeling from tornadoes that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and killed at least seven people earlier this week.
In Frankfort, Kentucky, floodwaters swept a nine-year-old boy away while he was walking to a school bus stop, Governor Andy Beshear said on social media.
Officials said Gabriel Andrews’ body was found about a half-mile from where he went missing.
Cars in a flooded street in Kentucky, United States. PHOTO: APA family walk through flood waters as they leave their home. PHOTO: AP
The downtown area of Hopkinsville, Kentucky – a city of 31,000 residents 116 kilometres northwest of Nashville – was submerged on Friday. A dozen people were rescued from homes, and dozens of pets were moved away from rising water, a fire official said.
Tony Kirves and some friends used sandbags and a vacuum to try to hold back rising waters that covered the basement and seeped into the ground floor of his photography business in Hopkinsville.
Downtown was “like a lake”, he said. “We’re holding ground,” he said. “We’re trying to maintain and keep it out the best we can.” Flash flood emergencies were issued on Friday night in at least seven cities in Missouri, Texas and Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service.
FLASH FLOOD THREAT LOOMS OVER MANY STATES
One was in Van Buren, Missouri, where there were at least 15 water rescues amid heavy rainfall and a rapidly rising Current River, said weather service meteorologist Justin Gibbs.
Another was in Texarkana, Texas, where the flooded streets resulted in several people having to be rescued from their vehicles, according to the city’s police department. “If you don’t have darn good reason for being out (like one that involves a visit to the emergency room), please stay home and off the roads!!” the police department said on social media.
Heavy rains were expected to continue in parts of Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky and elsewhere Saturday and could produce dangerous flash floods.
The weather service said 45 river locations in multiple states were expected to reach major flood stage, with extensive flooding of structures, roads and other critical infrastructure possible.
RAMALLAH (AFP) – The Israeli army said that its soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who threw stones at troops near the occupied West Bank village of Husan, whose mayor told AFP the boy was 17.
The army said that “several people hurled rocks toward Road 375 adjacent to Husan… Soldiers who were operating in the area responded with fire toward the terrorists, eliminated one terrorist and hit an additional terrorist”.
Husan mayor Jamal Sabateen said the army had opened fired on youngsters throwing stones in the village west of Bethlehem.
“The Israeli army opened fire on them – killed one and injured another. The army took them, and up until now, they haven’t been returned,” Sabateen told AFP.
The West Bank-based Palestinian Health Ministry reported the killing of the young man “by Israeli gunfire” and identified him as Yussef Zaoul.
Husan sits seven kilometres west of Bethlehem, in a region usually quieter than the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, bastions of Palestinian militancy where the Israeli military has been operating for months.
Palestinians carry the body of a victim after an Israeli strike in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. PHOTO: AFP
ATHENS (AP) – Greece’s coast guard said that a search and rescue operation off an eastern island near the Turkish coast had still not found any trace of a child reported missing after a rubber dinghy carrying migrants sank, leaving seven people dead and 23 rescued.
The search continued for a second day, after survivors told authorities there had been a total of 31 people in the small dinghy.
A coast guard patrol boat came across the vessel, measuring about five metres in length, in the early hours of Thursday morning when it was already taking on water and most of its passengers had fallen into the sea, the coast guard said.
The coast guard said that all those on board were from Afghanistan. One of the survivors, identified only as a 20-year-old man, was identified by other passengers as having piloted the boat and was arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling.
Turkish authorities had also reported the sinking of a boat carrying migrants in the same area.
The Canakkale governor’s office said the Turkish coast guard received an emergency call for help from a migrant boat on Thursday morning.
Nine bodies were recovered while one person was reported missing, and 25 people were rescued, the governor’s office said.
Greece is one of the main entry points into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with many making the short but often treacherous journey from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies or other small boats.
Many are unseaworthy, or set out in bad weather, and fatal accidents have been common.
Coast guard in a search and rescue operation off the coast on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece. PHOTO: AFP
PARIS (AFP) – Yodellers of the world, you never stood a chance: Monkeys will always be better at yodelling than humans because they have a “cheap trick” hidden in their voice box, scientists revealed.
When monkeys howl – or yodellers yodel – they rapidly switch back and forth between low and high frequency sounds.
This is in contrast to opera singers, who are trained to precisely control how they gradually move from note to note, in a way that is pleasing to listen to.
Yodellers and monkeys, however, make bigger jumps far more abruptly, creating vocal breaks that sound like Tarzan’s yell.
When yodelling, a human might be able to jump an octave, which doubles the frequency. Monkeys can manage three and half octaves, according to a new study. A “cheap trick” in their larynx means these monkeys will always beat humans, senior study author Jacob Dunn of the United Kingdom’s Anglia Ruskin University told AFP.
PHOTO: ENVATO
Both humans and monkeys have a pair of vocal folds in their larynx which vibrate to create sound.
But monkeys have an additional pair of membranes that gives them a far wider pitch range, the international team of researchers discovered.
This is thought to give monkeys, which are social creatures, a more complex way of communicating with each other.
All other primates, and even ancient human ancestors, appear to have this special tissue, Dunn said. At some during our evolution, humans seem to have lost these membranes, he added. But the shame of being inferior yodellers may have been worth the trade-off. To be able to speak clearly, humans needed a “streamlined” larynx – and these membranes would have gotten in the way, Dunn explained.
“If you put a human brain on the primate larynx” it would struggle to speak intelligibly because of the membranes and other things like air sacs, he said.
For the study, the researchers put sensors on the necks of some monkeys at Bolivia’s La Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary.
This allowed them to see what was going on in the larynx of black and gold howler monkeys, tufted capuchins, black-capped squirrel monkeys and Peruvian spider monkeys.
The spider monkey was the best yodeller, managing around four octaves, Dunn said. The researchers also studied the larynges of dead monkeys and used computer modelling to analyse the frequencies.
NEW YORK (AFP) – An original model of E.T., created for Steven Spielberg’s beloved film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, did not find a buyer after being put up for auction, Sotheby’s auction house in New York said Thursday.
The piece, a little over a metre high and which had been estimated to fetch between USD600,000 and USD900,000, comes from the collection of Italian special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi.
The three-time Oscar winner – including one for E.T. – died in 2012 at the age of 86.
“Rambaldi’s beloved E.T. model is an extraordinary piece of film history,” Sotheby’s vice chair Cassandra Hatton told AFP.
“While it did not find a buyer during today’s auction, its significance remains undiminished.”
The model offered for sale is one of three used by Spielberg for his 1982 film.
In a statement before the auction, Hatton described the model as embodying “the artistry of an era before CGI (computer-generated imagery) took hold, a nostalgic and iconic piece of Hollywood history as captivating as the stories themselves.”
Sotheby’s said that a separate E.T. sketch made by Rambaldi had sold on Thursday for over USD53,000, well above its top-end estimate of USD18,000.
In 2022, a metallic automaton representing E.T. and also used during the shooting of the successful film was sold for USD2.56 million at an auction organised by the American house Julien’s.
The model of E.T. during the auction. PHOTO: AFP & IMDBA scene from the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. PHOTO: AFP & IMDB
WASHINGTON (AFP) – United States (US) President Donald Trump’s widest-ranging tariffs to date took effect yesterday, in a move which could trigger retaliation and escalating trade tensions that could upset the global economy.
A 10 per cent “baseline” tariff came into place past midnight, hitting most US imports except goods from Mexico and Canada as Trump invoked emergency economic powers to address perceived problems with the country’s trade deficits.
The trade gaps, said the White House, were driven by an “absence of reciprocity” in relationships and other policies like “exorbitant value-added taxes.”
Come April 9, around 60 trading partners – including the European Union (EU), Japan and China – are set to face even higher rates tailored to each economy.
Already, Trump’s sharp 34-per cent tariff on Chinese goods, set to kick in next week, triggered Beijing’s announcement of its own 34-per cent tariff on US products from April 10.
United States President Donald Trump. PHOTO: AFP
Beijing also said it would sue the US at the World Trade Organization and restrict export of rare earth elements used in high-end medical and electronics technology.
But other major trading partners held back as they digested the unfolding international standoff and fears of a recession.
Trump warned on Friday on social media that “China played it wrong,” saying this was something “they cannot afford to do.”
Wall Street went into freefall on Friday, following similar collapses in Asia and Europe.Economists have also warned that the tariffs could dampen growth and fuel inflation.
But Trump said on his Truth Social platform that his “policies will never change.”
Trump’s latest tariffs have notable exclusions, however.
They do not stack on recently-imposed 25-per cent tariffs hitting imports of steel, aluminium and automobiles.
Also temporarily spared are copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, alongside “certain critical minerals” and energy products, the White House said.
But Trump has ordered investigations into copper and lumber, which could lead to further duties soon.
He has threatened to hit other industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as well, meaning any reprieve might be limited.
Canada and Mexico are unaffected as they face separate duties of up to 25 per cent on goods entering the US outside a North America trade agreement.
While Trump’s staggered deadlines allow space for countries to negotiate, “if they can’t get a reprieve, they are likely to retaliate, as China already has,” Oxford Economics warned this week.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the bloc, which faces a 20-per cent tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks.
But he said it “won’t stand idly by.”
France and Germany have said the EU could respond by imposing a tax on US tech companies.
Japan’s prime minister called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump unveiled 24-per cent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.
Meanwhile, Trump said he held a “very productive” call with Vietnam’s top leader, with imports from the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub facing extraordinary 46-per cent US duties.
Since returning to the presidency, Trump has hit Canada and Mexico imports with tariffs over illegal immigration and fentanyl, and imposed an additional 20-per cent rate on goods from China. Come April 9, the added levy on Chinese products this year reaches 54 per cent.
Trump’s 25-per cent auto tariffs also took effect this week, and Jeep-owner Stellantis paused production at some Canadian and Mexican assembly plants.
Trump’s new global levies mark “the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression,” said the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Oxford Economics estimates the action will push the average effective US tariff rate to 24 per cent, “higher even than those seen in the 1930s.”
BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI – Japanese video game company Nintendo has postponed pre-order start date for its new game console, the Nintendo Switch 2, in the United States (US) due to the imposition of tariffs on imported goods by the US administration, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti, citing NHK broadcaster yesterday.
Nintendo initially planned to open pre-order of the new console on April 9, but the date has been changed.
The company explained that it needs time to assess the potential impact of tariffs and changing market conditions, the broadcaster said. The new date of the pre-order will be announced later, NHK added.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10 per cent base tariff on all imports to the US starting April 5, while higher, reciprocal tariffs on countries and territories with which the US has the largest trade deficits will take effect on April 9.
Some countries have already announced their intentions to retaliate against the tariff increases.
China, for example, said it would impose a 34 per cent tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10.
A Nintendo Switch 2 video gaming console on display at a media preview event in New York. PHOTO: APA person plays games on the new Nintendo Switch 2 video gaming console at a media preview event. PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) – Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear on Friday. The S&P 500 lost six per cent after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced earlier this week.
The move increased the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Not even a better-than-expected report on the United States (US) job market, which is usually the economic highlight of each month, was enough to stop the slide.
The drop closed the worst week for the S&P 500 since March 2020, when the pandemic ripped through the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,231 points, or 5.5 per cent and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 5.8 per cent to pull more than 20 per cent below its record set in December.
So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell on Friday. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for economic growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide on worries the trade war will weaken the global economy.
China’s response to US tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on imports from China with its own 34 per cent tariff on imports of all US products beginning April 10. The US and China are the world’s two largest economies.
PHOTO: ENVATOTrader Christopher Lagana works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. PHOTO: AP
Markets briefly recovered some of their losses after the release of Friday morning’s US jobs report, which said employers accelerated their hiring by more last month than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the US job market has remained relatively solid through the start of 2025, and it’s been a linchpin keeping the US economy out of a recession.
But that jobs data was backward looking, and the fear hitting financial markets is about what’s to come. “The world has changed, and the economic conditions have changed,” said chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock Rick Rieder.
The central question looking ahead is: Will the trade war cause a global recession? If it does, stock prices may need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down 17.4 per cent from its record set in February. Trump seemed unfazed.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) could cushion the blow of tariffs on the economy by cutting interest rates, which can encourage companies and households to borrow and spend. But the Fed may have less freedom to move than it would like.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that tariffs could drive up expectations for inflation. That could prove more damaging than high inflation itself, because it can drive a vicious cycle of behaviour that only worsens inflation. US households have already said they’re bracing for sharp increases to their bills.
“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.
That could indicate a hesitance to cut rates because lower rates can give inflation more fuel.
Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is holding onto hope that Trump will lower the tariffs after prying “wins” from other countries following negotiations.
Trump has given mixed signals on that. On Friday, he said Vietnam “wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the US”.
Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the US, are worth it.
On Thursday, he likened the situation to a medical operation, where the US economy is the patient.
“For investors looking at their portfolios, it could have felt like an operation performed without anaesthesia,” said chief economist at Annex Wealth Management Brian Jacobsen.
But Jacobsen also said the next surprise for investors could be how quickly tariffs get negotiated down. “The speed of recovery will depend on how, and how quickly, officials negotiate,” he said.
On Wall Street, stocks of companies that do lots of business in China fell to some of the sharpest losses.
DuPont dropped 12.7 per cent after China said its regulators are launching an anti-trust investigation into DuPont China group, a subsidiary of the chemical giant. It’s one of several measures targeting American companies and in retaliation for the US tariffs.
GE Healthcare got 12 per cent of its revenue last year from the China region, and it fell 16 per cent.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 322.44 points to 5,074.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,231.07 to 38,314.86, and the Nasdaq composite fell 962.82 to 15,587.79.
In stock markets abroad, Germany’s DAX lost five per cent, France’s CAC 40 dropped 4.3 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.8 per cent.
In the bond market, Treasury yields fell, but they pared their drops following Powell’s cautious statements about inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.01 per cent from 4.06 per cent late Thursday and from roughly 4.80 per cent early this year. It had gone below 3.90 per cent in the morning.
