ADDIS ABABA/JUBA: Rebels said yesterday that they had seized the South Sudan oil hub of Bentiu as renewed fighting against government troops entered a third day, but the government said it was still in control of the town. “We are now in control of Bentiu, as of this afternoon,” Lul Ruai Koang, the rebels’ spokesman on military affairs, said in the Ethiopian capital. Each side blamed the other for the fighting in Bentiu, the capital of the oil-producing Unity State. SPLA Army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer rejected the rebels’ claim to have seized Bentiu. “That is a lie, after four hours of serious fighting in Bentiu today, at around 4 p.m., our forces have managed to defeat the rebels and Bentiu is under the government control,” he said in Juba.
Pharaonic temple found under house
CAIRO: A group of men discovered a 3,400-year-old pharaonic temple from the reign of warrior king Thutmosis III under their house in a city south of Cairo, Egyptian officials said yesterday. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Al Damaty said the seven men made the find during an illegal excavation in Al Badrashin, 40km from the capital. The men, using diving equipment, had come across the temple in ground water after digging for nine metres. The seven men were detained but later released because the area was not a heritage site. The monuments found include seven tablets, several column bases made of pink granite and a pink granite statue — remains of the temple from the time of Thutmosis III, Damaty said. “We will start an excavation project in the area to find more,” he said.
Agencies
