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- For decades, scientists have been perplexed by the marvelous preservation of bronze weapons associated with China’s famed Terracotta Warriors, retaining shiny, almost pristine surfaces and sharp blades after being buried for more than two millennia.
- Research by an international team of scientists published on 4th April may solve the mystery while putting to rest an intriguing hypothesis: that ancient Chinese artisans employed an unexpectedly advanced preservation method using the metal chromium.
- The fine preservation of weapons including swords, lances and halberds was due to serendipity - factors such as the bronze’s high tin content and favorable soil composition, the scientists decided after examining 464 bronze weapons and parts.
- Chromium found on the bronze surfaces, they determined, was simply contamination from chromium-rich lacquer applied by the artisans to the terracotta figures and weapons parts. Chromium played no role in their preservation.
- The Terracotta Army consists of thousands of life-sized ceramic warriors and horses alongside bronze chariots and weapons, part of the vast 3rd century BC mausoleum near the city of Xi’an for Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of a unified China. Found in 1974, it represents one of the 20th century’s greatest archaeological discoveries.
- Scientific analyses almost four decades ago detected chromium on the surface of some of the weapons, spurring the hypothesis that the weapon-makers used a chromium-based treatment to prevent corrosion.
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- Archaeologists on 5th April unveiled a well preserved and finely painted tomb thought to be from the early Ptolemaic period near the Egyptian town of Sohag.
- The tomb was built for a man named Tutu and his wife, and is one of seven discovered in the area last October, when authorities found smugglers digging illegally for artefacts, officials said.
- Its painted walls depict funeral processions and images of the owner working in the fields, as well as his family genealogy written in hieroglyphics.
- Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, described the burial chamber as a “beautiful, colourful tomb”.
- “The tomb is made up of a central lobby, and a burial room with two stone coffins. The lobby is divided in two”, he said.
- “It shows images of the owner of the burial room, Tutu, giving and receiving gifts before different gods and goddesses”.
- “We see the same thing for his wife, Ta-Shirit-Iziz, with the difference that (we see) verses from a book, the book of the afterlife”, he added.
- Two mummies, a woman aged between 35-50 and a boy aged 12-14, were on display outside the shallow burial chamber, in a desert area near the Nile about 390 km (242 miles) south of Cairo.
- Around 50 mummified animals, including mice and falcons, were also recovered from the tomb.Ptolemaic rule spanned about three centuries until the Roman conquest in 30 B.C.
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- Senior US Treasury official David Malpass selected as World Bank President. Mr. Malpass was a senior economic adviser to the U.S. President during his 2016 election campaign.
- Senior US Treasury official David Malpass has been selected as President of the World Bank.
- The World Bank's executive board unanimously selected 63-year-old Malpass as the bank's 13th President for a five-year term last night.
- The World Bank President is Chair of Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association.
- Malpass has served on the boards of the Council of the Americas, Economic Club of New York, and the National Committee on US-China Relations.
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- The UN Security Council on 5th April called on Libyan forces under Khalifa Haftar to halt their advance on Tripoli, warning the military move was putting Libya's stability at risk
- Haftar, the commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, launched an offensive on 4th April to take the capital, held by a UN-backed unity government and an array of militias.
- The members of the Security Council expressed deep concern at the military activity near Tripoli which risks Libyan stability and prospects for UN mediation and a comprehensive political solution to the crisis.
- The appeal for Haftar to halt his offensive was unanimously backed by the council, including Russia, which has supported the strongman.
- Armed clashes broke out earlier Friday south of Tripoli between a pro-government alliance and forces loyal to Haftar, raising fears of an assault on the city.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who met with Haftar in Benghazi earlier, said he hoped that a bloody confrontation could be avoided.
- UN envoy Ghassan Salame told the council that Haftar made clear to Guterres that he had no intention of halting his campaign to take the capital.
- Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi that has seen a bitter rivalry emerge between the Tripoli-based authorities and Haftar's supporters scrambling for control in the oil-rich country.
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- Egypt will remove subsidies on most energy products by June 15, it told the International Monetary Fund in a January letter released by the IMF on Saturday as part of a review of Cairo’s three-year, $12 billion loan programme with the lender.
- This will mean increasing the price to consumers of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil, which are now at 85-90 percent of their international cost, said the letter, which is dated Jan. 27.
- The letter from Egypt’s finance minister and central bank governor was included in an IMF staff report dated Jan. 28 and published following the disbursement in February of the fifth out of six tranches of the loan.
- The loan programme began in 2016 and is tied to reforms that have included a sharp devaluation of the Egyptian pound and the introduction of a value-added tax. They have helped steady Egypt’s economy but also put millions of Egyptians under increased economic strain.
- Fuel prices have increased steadily over the past three years. LPG and fuel oil used for electricity generation and bakeries are not included in the commitment to reaching full cost recovery through subsidy cuts, the letter said.
- The government said in its letter that after starting to link less-used Octane 95 petrol to international prices - which it accomplished in April - it would introduce similar indexation mechanisms for other products in June, with the first price adjustments expected in mid-September.
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