Egypt unveils two pharaonic military men’s tombs

SAQQARA: Egypt unveiled Thursday the 3,000 year-old tombs of two senior pharaonic military men in the famed Saqqara necropolis, one of them decorated with well-preserved reliefs depicting the afterlife.

Saqqara, roughly 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Cairo, was the burial ground for the neighbouring city of Memphis.

Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told reporters at the site that the burial in Saqqara confirmed that Memphis remained important in the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC), after the capital shifted to Luxor.

"The burial of these people here shows that Memphis preserved its importance as an administrative and military centre when (the southern city of) Luxor became the effective capital," he said.

Both tombs were designed in the form of a temple, in the fashion of burial sites for noblemen during the New Kingdom.

The first, built from limestone, dates back to the end of the New Kingdom, said Ola el-Aguizy, head of the Cairo University archaeological team that discovered them.

It belonged to Paser, head of army archives and a royal emissary to foreign countries.

The tomb contains well-preserved reliefs, with some remaining paint in blue, red and yellow.

In one scene, Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, presides over a tribunal for the deceased.

Other sculptures show Paser´s wife crying for her deceased husband, and Paser and his children presenting offerings to the gods.

The tomb, discovered earlier this year, appears to be unfinished, suggesting that Paser may have died before it could be completely decorated, Aguizy said.

The second tomb, of mud brick, belonged to Ptahmes, an army chief and treasury head under Seti I and Ramses II, Aguizy said.

Ramses II, one of the best-known pharaohs of the New Kingdom, was renowned for his military prowess and the monuments he left behind.

The tomb´s existence was known to archeologists, with some of its columns and reliefs being found in the 19th century and displayed in the Egyptian Museum or sent abroad. But the tomb itself was uncovered by excavators only three years ago, Aguizy added.

It contains reliefs of fishing scenes painted in red, and hieroglyphic inscriptions detailing the titles of the deceased. (AFP)

Tug of war over stolen lion in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: A male lion named Rawell is at the center of an ownership dispute in Brazil after the creature was abducted from his sanctuary and surfaced later hundreds of kilometers away.

The 300 kilo (650 pound) feline was knocked unconscious Thursday with a tranquilizer dart and spirited away from the Monte Azul Paulista sanctuary in Sao Paulo state, local media reported.

On Saturday, Folha de Sao Paulo and Globo dailies reported on their websites that Rawell was found in a shelter some 500 kilometers (312 miles) away at Maringa, in neighboring Parana state.

The site belongs to Rawell´s former owner, Ary Marcos Borges da Silva.

Oswaldo Garcia, who has cared for the nine-year-old creature for the past five years at Monte Azul, said the day Rawell went missing he found its cage damaged and the lion gone.

The animal was "like a son to me," Garcia told Globo television.

Da Silva´s lawyer told Folha that his client had tried unsuccessfully to take the animal back some months ago, and had now "tried to resolve the situation in his own way."

Police detained one worker at the site where Rawell was found for initially refusing to allow police access to the site, Globo reported.

Police delegate Leandro Roque said that Garcia and Da Silva were now disputing ownership.

A Sao Paulo police official told Globo that Da Silva ceded ownership of the lion in 2009, and was unaware of any documentation contradicting that. (AFP)

Landmark urethane igloo in Alaska for sale

ANCHORAGE: The embodiment of an Alaska cliche is for sale.

The massive urethane igloo that's a must-stop for summer tourists heading up the Parks Highway en route to Denali National Park and Preserve can be had for $300,000.

The 80-foot high structure was erected more than four decades ago over a shell of plywood and two-by-sixes, and was never completed on a 38-acre site, which is part of the sales package. The igloo, which shows its age, has never been anything more than a magnet for cameras and vandals, who set off firecrackers in its cavernous interior before it was boarded up.

But for someone with lots of money to spare, property owner Brad Fisher sees great possibilities for the picturesque location in Alaska's interior. The site, 20 miles from the nearest community at Cantwell, is prime snowmobiling country in winter and hiking in summer, a land of rolling hills and willows surrounded by mountains and splendid views.

Fisher, 55, envisions the igloo as an eye-catching seasonal restaurant and hotel run on green power.

Here's the catch: Creating a viable business could run a new owner at least a couple million bucks to get it ready and up to code.

For one thing, there is no available electricity around, which demands additional costs. According to an estimate 15 years ago, putting in a utility substation would cost $1.3 million. Fisher thinks powering it with such innovations as solar panels and windmills is the more affordable way to go.

It sure would be a shame to see the igloo go to waste, he said.

"If you had the money to get it going, I have no doubt that you could make money there just because of where it is," he said. "I mean, everybody stops and looks at it."

It's a total surprise for tourists who encounter the 105-foot- wide igloo as they tour the interior and the national park on excursion buses, such as those run by Holland America-Princess for cruise ship travelers. Spokesman Charlie Ball said that if bus drivers have time, they'll stop for tourists to snap some photographs of the bulbous structure.

"It's always been a curiosity for our guests," he said. "It's always been a uniquely Alaskan desired photo stop."

Fisher, who has owned the igloo since 1996 through his family business, Fisher's Fuels Inc., rented out four nearby cabins and ran a single fuel pump at the site until 2005.

The property has been for sale off and on for six years. If Fisher has no takers this time around, there are no plans to demolish it. In fact, at some point, Fisher said he would like to recoat it for weather-proofing.

"It's just there to stay," he said.

First solar eclipse of 2014 will darken sun Tuesday

SYDNEY: The moon will block the sun in the first solar eclipse of the year on Tuesday (April 29), and stargazers in Australia have some of the best seats on the planet.

Two online skywatching groups — the Slooh community telescope and the Virtual Telescope Project — will provide live webcasts of the solar eclipse from Australia, beginning at 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on Tuesday. You can watch those solar eclipse webcasts live on Space.com. It will be Tuesday afternoon local time across Australia during the eclipse, with the sun setting before the event concludes.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the sun and earth, as seen from the surface of the earth, and blocks part or all of the sun's disk. When the moon and sun align perfectly, a total solar eclipse occurs. Because the moon's orbit around earth is tilted, the moon and sun don't align in an eclipse every month.

Tuesday's solar eclipse will be what scientists call an annular solar eclipse. The event, also known as a "ring of fire" solar eclipse, occurs when the sun is too far from earth to completely obscure the sun's disk. The result is a bright ring of sunlight around the moon's silhouette, as viewed from the earth's surface.

But on Tuesday, the potentially dazzling "ring of fire" eclipse will only be visible from one uninhabited spot in Antarctica, where the only audience may be penguins on the frigid landscape.

"This is a thoroughly bizarre eclipse," Slooh astronomer Bob Berman said in a statement. "When Slooh brings its live feeds from Australia, and we watch in real time as the inky black hemisphere of the moon partially obscures the sun, the greatest thrill might be an awareness of what's occurring — unseen by any human — in a tiny region of Antarctica."

The April 29 solar eclipse will begin at 1:15 p.m. local time in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, and end at 3:59 p.m. local time. The time of greatest eclipse occurs at 2:41 p.m., when the moon will obscure about 65 percent of the solar disk. The event will begin later in the day for observers in Melbourne (3:58 p.m. local time) and Sydney (4:13 p.m.), with the sun setting before the eclipse ends.

Tuesday's solar eclipse is the second eclipse of 2014 after the total lunar eclipse on April 15. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on Oct. 8 and will be primarily visible from the Pacific Ocean and its bordering coastlines. A partial solar eclipse visible from most of the United States and parts of Canada will then follow on Oct. 23.

One body, two faces: rare twins born in Sydney

SYDNEY: An Australian couple have welcomed the birth of conjoined twins who have separate brains and identical faces but share a body, describing their girls as "little Aussie fighters", a report said Monday.

Sydney couple Renee Young and Simon Howie learned at a 19-week ultrasound that their babies would be born with a rare condition called diprosopus, Woman´s Day magazine reported.

"Even though there is only one body, we call them our twins," Howie told the magazine.

"To us, they are our girls and we love them."

Young gave birth last Thursday by emergency caesarean, some six weeks early.

Named Hope and Faith, the girls share one unusually-shaped skull with duplicated facial features and separate brains joined at the stem. They have one set of limbs and organs.

They are in intensive care at the Westmead Children´s Hospital in Sydney´s west where they have impressed doctors with their progress.

"They are breathing perfectly on their own and feeding," Howie said, adding that they had their first bath on Sunday night.

"They are little Aussie fighters."

Woman´s Day said the girls were conjoined in an extremely rare way and the implications of their condition was not fully clear, but they were being monitored closely in hospital.

"We have no idea how long they will be in hospital," said Howie, who has seven other children in his family with Young.

"We just want to bring them home, happy and healthy to make our family a little bit bigger and a bit more chaotic."

Woman´s Day said there had only been 35 cases in which babies with diprosopus -- meaning two faces -- were born joined in a similar way as the girls. None have survived.

Soyuz leaves ISS for Earth

MOSCOW: A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts has undocked from the International Space Station and is headed for earth.

The capsule separated from the orbiting space lab at 2:36 a.m. Wednesday (2236 GMT Tuesday) as the station was about 260 miles (418 kilometers) above Earth. It is to land on the steppes of Kazakhstan about three hours later.

The astronauts returning after 188 days aboard the space station are Japan´s Koichi Wakata, Russian Mikhail Tyrin and NASA´s Rick Mastracchio.

Video feed sent by NASA reported no problems with the undocking.

Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American Steve Swanson remain on the ISS. (AP)

Flawless blue diamond sells for $24 million

GENEVA: A spactacular blue diamond, the largest in its category, fetched a total of $23.79 million (17.35 million euros) at a Christie´s auction in Geneva on Wednesday.

The sale of the 13.22 carat rock known simply as "The Blue" came a day after Sotheby´s sold a 100-carat flawless yellow diamond for $16.3 million -- with both sales including commission.

When the world´s largest orange diamond went under the hammer last November at Christie´s in Geneva, it raked in $35.5 million.

Such marquee sales underline the growing popularity of coloured diamonds. Once considered a curiosity, they are rarer than white diamonds and now attract higher prices per carat than even the most flawless, translucent stone.

The US jeweller Harry Winston bought the blue diamond, described by Christie´s as the largest fancy vivid blue diamond in the world, from an anonymous seller. "Fancy vivid" is the top rating for coloured diamonds.

The company plans to rename the 13.22-carat pear-shaped rock the "Winston Blue".

Harry Winston was bought by watch group Swatch last year. (AFP)