Antiquities dealer caught smuggling Egyptian artefacts

October 9th, 2009 US sues to return stolen Egyptian artifactMIAMI — The U.S. is taking legal steps to return a stolen 3,000-year-old sarcophagus to Egypt.

September 24th, 2009 FBI paying wrongly detained Egyptian man $250,000NEW YORK — The FBI has paid $250,000 to an Egyptian man detained when a pilot's aviation radio was found after the Sept. 11 attacks in his hotel room overlooking the World Trade Center.

September 14th, 2009 Egypt defends shootings along Israel borderCAIRO — Egypt defended its use of lethal force against African migrants trying to cross illegally into Israel, saying Monday that it does so only as a last resort and to fight criminal activity in the politically sensitive area. Hundreds of Africans seeking political asylum or jobs in relatively prosperous Israel try to sneak across the border each year.

July 9th, 2009 CAIRO - Archaeologists have unearthed a cache near the Western gate of the National Museum in Cairo, which contained a table made of limestone, a fragment of a slab with hieroglyphic inscriptions, some stones, and the base of a pharaonic pillar, which date back to the pharaonic period around 1,300 years BC. "This type of slab was quite widespread during the era of the Pharaohs, who used it to mark a special occasion," Hawass told The Egyptian Gazette.

May 20th, 2009 LONDON - Former England Test cricketer Chris Lewis was Wednesday jailed for 13 years for smuggling more than 140,000 pounds worth of cocaine into Britain. The fast bowler was caught at Gatwick airport December 2008, hiding the drug in liquid form in five tins of fruit and vegetable juice inside his cricket bag.

April 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian artefact, has allowed 19th century scholars to translate symbols left by an ancient civilization thus enabling them to decipher the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics. But the symbols found on many other ancient artefacts remain a mystery, including those of a people that inhabited the Indus valley between Pakistan and India.

April 15th, 2009 Al-ARISH - In two separate incidents, Egyptian security forces Wednesday found an estimated 900 kg of explosives in the Sinai peninsula and arrested three Palestinians for entering Egypt illegally, police said. The explosives, which were discovered in the Jafjafa region of central Sinai, included 50 kg of TNT and 18 mobile phones that could have been used to detonate the explosives remotely, a source in Egypt's interior ministry told DPA on condition of anonymity.

April 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at the Derry and Donegal Archaeological Society have found an 8000 year-old axe head on Inch Island in Ireland. According to a report in the Derry Journal, the discovery was made in the Baylet area of Inch Island and is believed to date from the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, which in Ireland commenced about 7000 BC and continued until 4000 BC.

February 25th, 2009 CAIRO - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old statue as they carried out routine cleaning work at one of the Giza pyramids. The 149-centimetre-long statue was found Tuesday buried just 40 centimetres below the surface of the sand in the northern part of the King Men-Kau-Re's pyramid (2551-2523 BC).

February 24th, 2009 TORONTO - Top Indian Canadian leader and former Canadian health minister Ujjal Dosanjh has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene to stop the auction of Mahatma Gandhi's artefacts in New York next month. Dosanjh, who in 2000 created history by becoming the first non-white premier of any Canadian province, told IANS Monday: 'I am writing a letter to Dr Singh to impress upon him the importance of acquiring these artefacts.' Gandhi's possessions - sandals, a pair of metal-rimmed glasses, a pocket watch, and a bowl and plate - are set for auction in New York early next month.

February 11th, 2009 CAIRO - Archaeologists in Egypt discovered a 'perfectly preserved' mummy inside a 2,600-year-old lime sarcophagus north of Cairo Wednesday, Egypt's antiquities authority said. Scientists said they believed the mummy, one of 30 discovered in a previously forgotten tomb near the step pyramid of Saqqara, could have been a nobleman from the time of the 26th Dynasty.

February 9th, 2009 CAIRO - An Egyptian archaeological team has found about two dozen mummies in a tomb dating back to the 3,000-year-old Pharaonic era. The mummies were unearthed in the tomb which lies to the west of Zoser's step pyramid in the Saqqara area.

January 13th, 2009 BERLIN - Technical experts from Germany's federal police and interior ministry are to travel to Egypt in the coming days to help Egypt secure its border with the Gaza Strip, the state secretary in the ministry has said. August Hanning said late Tuesday the move would fulfill a request from the Egyptian government 'to support securing Egypt's border area with German expertise'.

January 6th, 2009 JERUSALEM - Israel said Wednesday that it viewed as 'positive' the Egyptian-French attempts to advance a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the Gaza Strip. A terse official statement said: 'Israel is working to improve the security reality in the south of the country.

January 2nd, 2009 WAYANAD - Three men have been arrested for allegedly selling six specimens of a protected species of barn owls near here. 'One man was arrested early Dec 25 while the other two were trapped when they were trying to sell six juvenile owls.