Return to power: Zahi Hawass reappointed

Zahi Hawass, who resigned as Egypt’s minister of antiquities on 5 March, is back again, after his reappointment on 4 April. He resigned because the army had stopped guarding archaeological sites and because he had been accused of illegal activities. Hawass was reappointed by Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Armed Forces Council, which is administering the country. On 12 April, Hawass announced that four of the objects stolen from the National Museum in January had been recovered, including a gilded statue of Tutankhamun. Hawass has also revealed that the archaeological store of the American University in Cairo was broken into on 15 March, leading to the theft of 146 Islamic antiquities.