World News
Spectacular discovery in Egypt: four new pharaonic tombs and a mummy have been unveiled
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Steph Deschamps / January 28, 2023
Egypt unveiled on Thursday four tombs of pharaonic dignitaries and a mummy over 4,000 years old at Saqqara near Cairo, the latest of the discoveries announced with great fanfare by a country anxious to bring back tourists.
It is in the necropolis of Saqqara, known for the famous step pyramid of the pharaoh Djeser, that the archaeologists brought to light these tombs sealed under the 5th and 6th dynasties, between 2.500 and 2.100 years before Jesus-Christ.
These deep cavities decorated with colorful scenes of everyday life served as the final resting place of Khnumdjedef, the high priest of the pharaoh Uunas, whose decorated pyramid is located nearby, Meri, the keeper of the king’s secrets, Messi, high priest of the pharaoh Pepi I and Fetek, scribe and judge, detailed in front of the press the very media Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass.
During the excavation, 15 meters underground, archaeologists found a limestone sarcophagus “in the exact state where the ancient Egyptians had left it 4,300 years ago,” said Hawass.
When they opened it, they discovered a mummy covered in gold, “one of the oldest and best preserved mummies in Egypt apart from the royal mummies,” said the man, his head covered as usual by his famous Indiana Jones hat.
The necropolis of Saqqara, a little more than 15 kilometers south of the famous pyramids of the Giza plateau, is classified as a Unesco World Heritage Site because the pyramid of Djoser, built around 2,700 B.C. by the architect Imhotep, is considered one of the oldest monuments on the surface of the globe.
Egypt revealed these last months several major discoveries, mainly in Saqqara but also in Luxor.
Tuesday, Cairo announced the discovery in this southern city, the Thebes of the pharaohs, of the remains of “an entire Roman city” dating from the first centuries after Jesus Christ.
For some experts, these announcements are more political and economic than scientific.
For the country of 104 million inhabitants, which is in serious economic crisis, is counting on tourism to improve its finances: its government is aiming for 30 million tourists per year by 2028, compared with 13 million before Covid-19.
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Sylvie Claire / September 23, 2023
At least 25 people, including two children, died when a bus crashed into a ravine in the Andean region of Huancavelica, in southern Peru, the authorities announced in a revised death toll on Monday evening.
An initial police report put the death toll at 20, with a further 35 injured. A statement from the Ministry of Health later that morning put the death toll at 24. Finally, at the end of the day on Monday, the death toll stood at “25 dead and 34 wounded”, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The accident occurred on Sunday night, when the bus carrying over 50 passengers from Huanta in Ayacucho to Huancayo in the Junin region ran off the road.
Images show the damaged bus lying on its side near a river below the ravine, debris and personal belongings strewn all around.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte expressed her “condolences to the families” from New York, where she will be attending the 78th General Assembly of the United Nations. The Peruvian Episcopal Conference, for its part, urged the government to “carry out a serious investigation” to prevent such accidents from happening again.
On August 13, another accident in the same region left 13 people dead and 5 seriously injured.
Road accidents are frequent in Peru, mainly due to speeding and poor road maintenance, especially in mountainous areas.
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Sylvie Claire / September 17, 2023
In Japan, the number of people aged 100 has reached a record level: the world’s third-largest economy now has 92,139 people aged 100 or over. That’s 1,613 more than a year ago, reported the Ministry of Health in Tokyo on Friday.
For over half a century, the number of people aged 100 has been rising every year. Due to a low birth rate and almost non-existent immigration, no other industrial state is aging as fast as this East Asian country.
Japan’s population is also shrinking at a record pace. Last year, the number of Japanese fell by 801,000, the biggest drop since comparable data have been recorded. There are now 122.4 million.
When the Japanese Ministry of Health began compiling statistics in 1963, there were 153 centenarians. Twenty-five years later, there were over 10,000. According to the latest figures, around 88% of centenarians are women. Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world. Life expectancy for women is around 87 years, and 81 for men.
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Steph Deschamps / September 17, 2023
The death toll from the earthquake in Morocco has risen to 2,946, the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday evening. A further 5,674 people were injured.
The previous death toll was 2,901. The death toll is expected to rise further. Hopes of finding survivors are now very slim. Rescue workers have not yet been able to reach all the villages affected in the Atlas Mountains.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the country on Friday night. The epicenter was located some 80 kilometers southwest of Marrakech. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 300,000 people in and around Marrakech were affected by the disaster.
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