At the same time, Marriott International, Arab International Hotels Co. and Mr. Muasher mutually agreed to certain territorial exclusivity arrangements providing for the development of future hotels in Jordan in addition to the currently operating properties: the 294-room Amman Marriott, the 251-room Jordan Valley Marriott Resort & Spa and the 100-room Petra Marriott.

The 264-room JW Marriott Hotel Aqaba will be ideally situated on the northern beach of the Gulf of Aqaba immediately adjacent to the Aqaba Marina, creating a unique destination that connects the city and the sea. The site is located in the center of Aqaba and fronts onto a public beach on the Gulf and provides easy access to prized tourism destinations like Petra and Wadi Rum and all offshore reefs and water sports for which the Red Sea is famous. Aqaba International Airport is 10 minutes away.

“Our relationship with Arab International Hotels Co. and Nadim Muasher runs deep and long,” said Ed Fuller, president & managing director of international lodging for Marriott International. “It’s a relationship that has gained momentum in recent years and continues to grow in a mutually beneficial way. We’re thrilled to be working with them on this important addition to the tourism infrastructure of Jordan and are confident that the hotel will be a catalyst for the future growth of the tourism industry in the country.”

“The Amman Marriott started operations some 30 years ago and was one of the first Marriott hotels to open outside the US,” said Mr. Muasher. “We are happy that now we will be adding the JW Marriott in Aqaba to our properties in Amman, the Dead Sea and Petra. Our relationship with Marriott is pivotal to our expansion schemes and we look forward to many years of a successful partnership with Marriott International.”

The stylish, contemporary JW Marriott Hotel Aqaba will complement its exterior environs with public areas that offer space, light and excitement. It will feature a wide range of food & beverage offerings, including an informal, vibrant lobby lounge; a pool bar with a covered terrace; an all-day casual restaurant; a specialty steak outlet; a restaurant connected to the marina and a Champions sports bar.

Accommodations will be spacious and will offer the latest in modern guest services and amenities including wi-fi, flat screen television, internet access and other electronic capabilities.

For recreation, the hotel will have an exceptional state-of-the-art health and leisure club that will incorporate a spa and a gymnasium featuring a yoga room, Turkish bath, indoor and outdoor swimming pool and a children’s play center.

Guests will appreciate its executive lounge, book shop and business center. Other amenities include a spa shop, a gift shop and 12 additional retail outlets.

JW Marriott is part of Marriott International’s luxury portfolio and consists of beautiful properties in gateway cities and distinctive resort locations around the world. These elegant hotels cater to today’s sophisticated, self-assured travelers, offering guests the luxury they seek in a warmly authentic relaxed atmosphere lacking in pretense. JW Marriott properties artfully provide highly crafted anticipatory experiences that reflect their locale so that their guests have the time to focus on what is most important to them. There currently are 45 JW Marriott hotels in 19 countries. By 2013, the portfolio is expected to encompass 74 hotels in 29 countries.

Source: AME Info (http://www.ameinfo.com/225537.html)

With stunning views of the city, the 252 rooms present a whole palette of tones and colours and a variety of rich fabrics. All the rooms are spacious and elegantly furnished in a classical style, but if you have the chance, you should opt for one of the suites, or, for that extra special occasion, the Royal Suite, located on the eighteenth floor.

This sumptuous 150 square metre haven has hosted such great names as the late King Hussein and President Mubarak of Egypt. One floor up is the health club and at the very top there’s an indoor pool on the roof terrace – a perfect setting for a bathe and a light meal or a drink while admiring the panoramic view. When it comes to dining, you can choose between the delights on offer at the Al Madafa restaurant, or Trader Vic’s with its tropical ambience, exotic specialities and cocktails accompanied by the live music of a Cuban band. And, of course, the hotel is an ideal location for exploring this fascinating city of contrasts, between the desert and the fertile Jordan Valley.

Source: Hello (http://www.hellomagazine.com/travel/201003013003/regency/palace/amman/1/11/)

The Old Kingdom queen’s chamber was badly damaged except for two inner walls covered with spells meant to help her travel to the afterlife, he said in a statement.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the souls of royalty could fly to heaven, or alternatively use stairs, ramps and ladders with the help of religious spells.

Such engraved spells, known as Pyramids Texts, were common in royal tombs during the 5th and 6th Dynasties, Hawass said.

“Pyramid Texts were first discovered inside the burial chamber of King Unas’s pyramid at Saqqara, the last king of the 5th Dynasty,” he added.

The well-known necropolis of Saqqara, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo, served the nearby city of Memphis and was scoured in ancient times by thieves.

The 5th Dynasty is generally understood to have lasted from 2465 to 2323 BC, while the 6th Dynasty ran from 2323 to 2150 BC. The Old Kingdom collapsed soon after, amid famine and social upheaval and a breakdown in centralized power.

Philippe Collombert, who headed the French mission that excavated Behenu’s remains, said the team found her sarcophagus within the sprawling necropolis of Pepi I at Saqqara.

“It is a well-preserved granite sarcophagus engraved with the queen’s different titles, but says nothing about the identity of her husband,” Collombert said.

Archaeologists are unsure whether Behenu was the wife of Pepi I or Pepi II, both 6th Dynasty rulers.

Behenu’s 25-meter-long pyramid was discovered in 2007 along with seven queen pyramids belonging to Inenek, Nubunet, Meretites II, Ankhespepy III, Miha, and an unidentified queen.

The state news agency MENA also reported Wednesday that Egypt had received 25,000 artifacts from London, some of which have been on display in the British Museum for more than a century. It said the artifacts would be stored in a museum in Egypt, but did not specify whether they had been sent to Egypt permanently, or on loan.

Source: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6223MQ20100303)

The 3,000-year-old head of Amenhotep III – grandfather of Tutankhamun – was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple.

Experts say it is the best preserved example of the king’s face ever found.

The 2.5m (8ft) head is part of a larger statue, most of which was found several years ago.

Antiquities officials say the statue is to be reconstructed.

“Other statues have always had something broken – the tip of the nose, or the face is eroded,” said Dr Hourig Sourouzian, who has led the Egyptian-European expedition at the site.

“But here, from the top of the crown to the chin, it is so beautifully carved and polished, nothing is broken.”

Vast empire

Egypt’s antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, described it as “a masterpiece of highly artistic quality”.

Amenhotep III ruled Egypt from about 1387 to 1348 BC and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.

Scientists using DNA tests and CT scans on several mummies have identified him as the grandfather of Tutankhamun – the boy-king born of an incestuous marriage between Akhenaten and his sister, both the offspring of Amenhotep III.

The massive mortuary temple in Luxor was largely destroyed, possibly by floods, and little remains of its walls.

Source: BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8542337.stm)

Three crew members aboard the ship were killed in the accident and a fourth crew member and three passengers were slightly injured, according to Costa Crociere, the owner of the luxury liner Costa Europa.

The injured passengers included two British and one Italian citizen. They were taken to an Egyptian hospital for a check-up, and released soon after, according to a spokesperson for Costa Crociere.

Costa Crociere would not comment on the nationality of the dead sailors, but local media reports said two were Indian and one was Brazilian.

The cruise company could also not say exactly where on the ship the sailors were when it crashed. An investigation is underway, they said.

According to a statement released by Costa Crociere offices in Genoa, Italy, the 55,000 ton Costa Europa was on an 18-day cruise from Dubai to Savona, Italy with 1,437 guests on board when it rammed into the pier while docking at Sharm El Sheik at 4:45 a.m. local time.

The ship suffered damage on the right side, listed and started to leak.

All the passengers were quickly disembarked, and the ship safely moored in port, but the cruise is over. The company spokesperson said that Costa Crociere is arranging for all the passengers to be flown back to their countries of origin.

An Italian Navy ship, part of the Italian contingent of the Multinational Force and Observer, an independent international organization with peacepeeking responsibilites in the Sinai, is assisting with the repair of the ship and pumping out the water, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Source: ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/egypt-cruise-ship-accident-kills-crew/story?id=9954182)

Alcudia, Majorca
21 April 2010 Leeds / Bradford to Palma de Mallorca
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Algarve
17 April 2010, Blackpool to Faro
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Costa del Sol
15 April 2010, Manchester to Malaga
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Lanzarote
9 May 2010, Manchester to Alicante
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Majorca

21 April 2010, Leeds / Bradford to Palma de Mallorca
7nts 3 star Holiday Centre Apartments SC, Santa Ponsa
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Cyprus
18 April 2010, Leeds / Bradford to Paphos
7nts 3 star Kefalonitis Hotel Apartments SC, Paphos
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Ibiza
8 May 2010, Manchester to Ibiza
7nts 3 star Club Monterrey Aparthotel SC, San Antonio Bay
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Tunisia
20 June 2010, Leeds / Bradford to Monastir
7nts 4 star Med Dreams Miramar Golf Hotel HB, Port El Kantaoui
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19 June 2010, Manchester to Tenerife South
7nts 4 star Paradise Park HB, Los Cristianos
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Turkey
7 May 2010, Newcastle to Dalaman
7nts 5 star Green Nature Resort & Spa AI, Marmaris
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Sharm El Shiekh, Egypt
12 June 2010, East Midlands to Sharm el Sheikh
7nts 5 star Rehana Resort AI, Sharm El Sheikh
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Jordan’s increasingly young population is helping shape this new scene, a tamer version of the Middle East’s so-called ‘sin city’, Beirut, renowned throughout the Arab world for its lively nightlife.

“You know, 15 years ago you could barely find a taxi after eight in the evening – the streets were mostly empty,” said Sarah, an American and long-time resident of Amman. “But nightlife has changed drastically since I first came in the early 1990s when there were basically two places to go other than the big hotels,” said the public relations executive as she listened to live jazz at Canvas, an upscale restaurant in a historical district of the capital.

Actor Nabil Sawalha, who owned a nightclub called the Cart Wheel in the 1980s, has also noted the difference. “Many years ago, there were very limited places to go out in the city,” Sawalha told AFP. “A few people could afford to go out for partying or dancing once or twice a month. We used to do so and return home by midnight. But now things have changed and partying has become a lifestyle for young people,” he said.

A decade ago, the upmarket west Amman neighbourhood of Abdun was lined exclusively with embassies and the stately villas of the city’s old wealth and newly rich. But the streets now share space with restaurants and cafes sprouting up to cater to a young clientele eager for a taste of Western-style leisure.

Even places in the heart of Amman’s old district, like Rainbow Street, have undergone a facelift, where venues with names like Wild Jordan, Books@cafe and La Calle now draw an intellectual and Bohemian crowd. Driving luxury cars and sporting the latest fashions, many of these young, affluent Jordanians gather almost every night at the chic new spots.

“The new generation has brought new phenomena from the West, created a new atmosphere and started to steadily break free from old traditions and Amman’s old image as a quiet city,” sociologist Seri Nasser of the University of Jordan told AFP

Source: Daily Times Pakistan (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20102\26\story_26-2-2010_pg9_7)

The extreme weather conditions caused chaos in Egypt’s capital city, resulting in traffic accidents and widespread panic, AFP reported.

In the country’s second largest city, Alexandria, located on the Mediterranean Sea coast waves as high as a two-story building hit the shore, the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Also a European luxury cruise ship crashed into a pier in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh early Friday morning killing three sailors and wounding four tourists, maritime officials said.

In a statement, the General Authority for Red Sea Ports confirmed that the sailors died as a result of the ships collision.

Another person was killed amidst a wave of car collisions nationwide.

The storm has subsided but meteorologists predict severe weather in the next three days.

Source: Press TV (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119559&sectionid=351020502)

Antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass will hold a much-anticipated news conference at the Cairo Museum, home of the fabulous treasure of Tutankhamun who died more than 3,000 years ago, to announce results of the study.

The announcement is expected to reveal “secrets of the family and the affiliation of Tutankhamun, based on the results of the scientific examination of the Tutankhamun mummy following DNA analysis,” Hawass said last month.

The pharaoh known around the world as King Tut has been surrounded by mystery, ever since his solid gold and turquoise sarcophagus was found in a tomb unearthed by a British archaeologist in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.

Howard Carter’s discovery was an international sensation as it brought to light a stunning treasure, including an 11-kilo (24-pound) solid gold death mask encrusted with lapis lazuli and semi-precious stones.

But mystery has lingered through the decades concerning Tutankhamun’s ancestors – particularly who his mother was – and his abrupt death at about 19 years old.

Egyptian authorities have kept mum since Hawass first revealed in June 2009 that Egyptian researchers were using DNA tests to discover the lineage.

Hawass refused to allow non-Egyptian experts to carry out the testing, saying at the time that experts would carry out the work at Cairo University’s faculty of medicine.

A year earlier, in August 2008, antiquities authorities said they had taken DNA samples from Tutankhamun’s mummy, and from two stillborn babies found in his tomb to determine whether they were his children.

Hawass then said that the DNA tests would also determine whether the foetuses were fathered by Tutankhamun and Ankhesenpamon, the daughter of Nefertiti, who is renowned as one of history’s great beauties.

It is generally believed that Tutankhamun’s father was Akhenaton, the pharaoh best remember for having converted his kingdom to monotheism with the worship of one sun god, Aton.

But other Egyptologists say Akhenaton’s predecessor, Pharaoh Amenhotep III, could have been Tutankhamun’s father, while others say it was Smenkhkare, who is believed to have succeeded Akhenaton.

Experts are more confused when it comes to the identity of King Tut’s mother. Some say it was Akhenaton’s first wife Nefertiti but others believe it was Akhenaton’s secondary wife, the foreign princess Kiya.

Maya, Tutankhamun’s childhood nurse, is another name which has surfaced.

The boy king’s death more than three millennia ago remains the subject of dispute among historians, with some believing he died when a leg injury turned gangrenous, others saying he was murdered by a blow to the head.

The mysteries surrounding his ancestors and his abrupt death as he emerged from adolescence underscore “the romantic side of this story,” says French Egyptologist Marc Gabolde, an expert on Tutankhamun.

In 2007, the reconstructed face of Tutankhamun was revealed to the public for the first time since his death. He is believed to have reigned from around 1333 BC to 1324 BC.

Archaeologists are divided among those hoping the DNA results will lead to a scientific breakthrough and others who believe DNA testing can not be conclusive.

“We need other archaeological proof to establish with certainty the lineage of Tutankhamun,” said Cairo University professor Abdel Halim Nurreddin. “DNA testing is not enough.”

Michel Wuttmann of a Cairo-based French archaeology institute said Wednesday’s revelations could help unravel other “less spectacular” mysteries.

American archaeologist Raymond Johnson meanwhile told AFP: “We are very interested in having another tool in the study of these ancient families.”

“I think other analyses have proven that it can be very useful in showing close genetic relationship,” he added.

Source: Asia One News (http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20100215-198734.html)