Egyptians argue over reported damage to Pharaonic statue
CAIRO -- Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni ordered a probe on Tuesday into reports about mysterious damage to a Pharaonic statue during restoration work at the Egyptian Museum. Middle East Times He asked Attorney General Maher Abdel Wahid to investigate the matter, the official MENA news agency reported, only hours after the country's top antiquities official dismissed the reports as being unfounded. The Egyptian press, quoting museum officials, had reported that a statue of Khafre (2576-2551 BC), the fourth dynasty king and builder of the second pyramid at Giza, had been found damaged in the basement. Secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass refuted the reports in a statement received by AFP, saying that they were "untrue". He said that the statue that the press described was small and bore no inscriptions to suggest that it was of Khafre. "This statue is in good condition and was never damaged since its discovery in 1988 west of the ...