Policemen are silhouetted against the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, Dec 12, 2012. Egypt unveiled on Thursday, March 2, 2023, the discovery of a 9-meter-long chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, the first to be found on the structure’s north side.

CAIRO — Egypt’s antiquities authorities on Thursday, March 2, unveiled a newly discovered, sealed-off chamber inside one of the Great Pyramids at Giza, just outside of Cairo, that dates back some 4,500 years ago.

The corridor — on the northern side of the Pyramid of Khufu — was discovered using modern scanning technology. It measures nearly 30 feet in length and is over 6 feet wide, perched above the main entrance of the pyramid.

Archaeologists do not know what the function was of the chamber, which is not accessible from the outside. In 2017, scientists announced the discovery of another sealed-off corridor, a 30-meter chamber — or about 98 feet — also inside the Pyramid of Khufu.

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and the country’s Minister for Tourism Ahmed Eissa, announced the discovery Thursday at an unveiling ceremony outside the pyramid. The Scan Pyramids project, an international program that uses scans to look at unexplored sections of the ancient structure, was credited for the find.

Scientists from the project — which began in 2015 — attended the unveiling.

According to Christian Grosse, Professor of Non-destructive Testing at the Technical University of Munich and a leading member of the project, various scanning techniques were deployed to locate the chamber, including ultrasound measurements and ground penetrating radars. He hopes these techniques will lead to further findings within the pyramid.

‘’There are two large limestones at the end chamber, and now the question is what’s behind these stones and below the chamber,’’ Grosse said.

The Pyramid of Khufu — named after its builder, a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh who reigned from 2509 to 2483 B.C. — is one of three pyramids that make up the Great Pyramids at Giza complex. The Egyptian pyramids are the only one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World that have survived to this day.

Experts are divided over how the pyramids were constructed, so even relatively minor discoveries generate great interest. Authorities often publicly tout discoveries to attract more tourists, a major source of foreign currency for this cash-strapped Middle eastern country.

Egypt’s tourism sector suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted the country’s longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, and further setbacks following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Explosive found in bag at Pennsylvania airport, man arrested

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man faces federal criminal charges after he checked in a suitcase with an explosive device hidden in the lining on a flight to Florida, authorities said Wednesday, March 1.

Marc Muffley, 40, is charged with possessing an explosive in an airport and possessing or attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, according to a criminal complaint.

Prosecutors allege that the material was found in a suitcase Muffley had checked in Monday at Lehigh Valley International Airport to Allegiant Air Flight 201, which was bound for Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida.

After an alert during security screening, the bag was examined and found hidden in the lining was a “circular compound” about three inches in diameter encased in a wax-like paper and clear plastic wrap.

An FBI bomb technician X-rayed the compound and concluded that it contained a granular powder consistent with a “commercial grade firework” and “suspected to be a mixture of flash powder and the dark granulars that are used in commercial grade fireworks.”

Attached to it was a “quick fuse” similar to a candle wick — apparently part of the original manufacture of the compound — as well as a “hobby fuse” that burns more slowly and appeared to have been added after the manufacture, authorities said.

Authorities said they concluded that both the black powder and flash powder “are susceptible to ignite from heat and friction and posed a significant risk to the aircraft and passengers,” according to the criminal complaint.

The baggage also contained “a can of butane, a lighter, a pipe with white powder residue, a wireless drill with cordless batteries, and two GFCI outlets taped together with black tape,” authorities said.

China dismisses FBI statement on COVID-19 lab leak theory

BEIJING — For the second day in a row, China on Wednesday, March 1, dismissed U.S. suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

Responding to comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community was evidence enough of the “politicization of origin tracing.”

“By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility,” Mao said.

“We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts … stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation,” she said.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Feb. 28, Wray said, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in (central China’s) Wuhan.”

“Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab,” Wray said.

Referring to efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus, he added, “I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that’s unfortunate for everybody.”