King Tut burial chamber mystery solved

Radar scanning experts in April 2016 scan a wall in King Tutankhamun's burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. Photo / AP file

Egypt: New radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamun's burial chamber, Egypt's Antiquities Ministry said, bringing a disappointing end to years of excitement over the prospect. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said an Italian team conducted extensive studies with ground-penetrating radar that showed the tomb did not contain any hidden, man-made blocking walls as was earlier suspected. Francesco Porcelli of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented the findings at an international conference in Cairo. In 2015, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed, after analysis of high-definition laser scans, that Queen Nefertiti's tomb could be concealed behind wall paintings in the famed boy king's burial chamber. The ministry says two previous scans by Japanese and American scientists had proved inconclusive, but insists this latest ground-penetrating radar data closes the lid on the tomb having such hidden secrets.

France: Former French President Francois Hollande has two words for US President Donald Trump's claim that gun-toting Parisians could have thwarted Isis attackers at Paris' Bataclan concert hall: "indecent and despicable." French anger erupted at Trump's comments to the National Rifle Association — and especially at his trigger-firing hand gesture imitating the Bataclan attackers. Multiple extremists with explosive belts and assault weapons killed 130 people in the 2015 attacks on the Bataclan, Paris cafes and the national stadium. Hollande called Trump's gesture "obscene." Speaking to BFM television, Hollande called Trump's comments "intolerable" for the survivors and victims' families.

Iran: Britain's Ambassador to the US said his country believes it's still possible to address President Donald Trump's concerns about the Iran nuclear deal in time to prevent him from pulling out of the agreement. Kim Darroch said Britain has ideas for dealing with those concerns. They include Iran's ballistic missile programme and its involvement in Mideast conflicts, issues that aren't part of the international agreement. Trump also objects to the accord's sunset clause, which allows Iran to resume part of its nuclear programme after 2025. Israel's Prime Minister stepped up his calls for world powers to end the deal. Benjamin Netanyahu said the world would be better off without any deal than with what he called the "fatally flawed" agreement reached in 2015.

Spain: Spain's maritime rescue service said that it saved 476 migrants who were attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea from African shores. The migrants were pulled from 15 small boats, officials said. There were no reported casualties. Separately, a Spanish nonprofit dedicated to helping migrants at sea rescued 105 more migrants in waters near Libya. The aid group Proactive Open Arms found the migrants, from Bangladesh, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and other countries, drifting at sea in a motor-less boat.

Spanish rescue service saves nearly 500 migrants from Mediterranean https://t.co/tN2eR7ikMd pic.twitter.com/81dgjOW0Sx

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) May 6, 2018

Afghanistan: A bomb blast inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan that was being used as a voter registration centre killed at least 14 people and wounded 33. Talib Mangal, spokesman for the provincial governor in Khost, said: "The blast happened while people were busy with prayers, meanwhile in other part of the mosque people had gathered to get their voter registration cards for the election." Afghanistan plans to hold elections in October, the first since 2014.

India: Friends and relatives gathered to remember the Latvian woman who police say was raped and murdered after she disappeared while being treated at a centre for traditional medicine in south India. The 33-year-old woman, who was receiving traditional Ayurvedic treatment for depression in the state of Kerala, disappeared in mid-March. Her body was found on April 21. Police say two men lured the woman from a popular beach near the centre, then drugged and raped her. They killed her when she resisted. Both men have been arrested, police said, but the investigation is continuing to see if anyone else was involved in the attack.

Nigeria: Armed bandits attacked a village in Nigeria's northwest Kaduna state, killing at least 40 people, residents and officials said. Police Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris confirmed the bandits invaded the village of Gwaska, fighting local defence forces protecting the Birnin Gwari local government area, a community of about 3000 people. He said 200 policemen and 10 patrol vehicles were deployed to the scene. A resident who helped fight the bandits said at least 40 people were killed and the toll will likely climb. He said the attackers were from Zamfara state, and that they shot at children and torched houses as residents fled. The attack came about a week after other unidentified gunmen attacked a nearby village.

Police sniffer dogs patrol Waterloo Station in London. Dogs trained to detect explosives in cargo are now being deployed to British airports. Photo / AP

Britain: Dogs trained to detect explosives are being deployed at airports to screen cargo for possible devices. The Department of Transport said that each dog has been trained for 12 months to be able to detect small traces of explosives. They will be based in airport cargo sheds to screen large volumes of freight as one additional layer of protection. Dogs are already deployed at UK airports to aid police in identifying criminals and preventing drug transport and other illegal activities.

Egypt: Political prisoners are being held in Egypt in "prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement" that amounts to "torture," an international rights group said. In a new report, Amnesty International said dozens of detained human rights activists, journalists and members of the opposition held in solitary confinement face "horrendous physical abuse." Such treatment results in "panic attacks, paranoia, hypersensitivity to stimuli, and difficulties with concentration and memory," it said. Egypt has detained thousands of people, mainly Islamists but also several prominent secular activists, since the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013. Morsi himself has reportedly been held in solitary confinement for most of the last five years.

- agencies