An ancient Egyptian bust of Queen Nefertiti has been moved back to the Berlin museum that exhibited it before the Second World War. The 3,500-year-old sculpture was installed in the renovated Neues Museum on Sunday, museum officials said Monday.

Egypt's antiquities department severed ties with France's Louvre museum Wednesday because it has refused to return what are described as stolen artifacts — one of the country's most aggressive attempts yet to reclaim relics from some of the world's leading Egyptology collections.

A statue of Alexander the Great has been discovered in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, Governor Adel Labib said. Archeologists have suggested the statue was of Alexander the Great and it was uncovered during excavations at el-Shalalat Park in the city. The discovery was made by a Greek mission working in the city.

France is ready to hand back five fragments of ancient Egyptian tomb wall paintings acquired by the Louvre museum between 2000 and 2003. Mr Hawass asked France to return the murals after extensive discussions between the two sides, according to French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand. Subject to a decision by France's national museum scientific committee, Mr Mitterrand said he was ready to order the frescoes be handed back.

France will return to Egypt five relics stolen from Luxor's Valley of the Kings and sold to the Louvre Museum, the culture ministry announced on Friday. A special commission of the French museums agency decided unanimously to restitute the five painted wall fragments that were taken in the 1980s and ended up at the Louvre in 2000 and 2003. The decision came two days after Egypt severed ties with the Louvre to press demands that the Paris museum return the artefacts.

SCA Chief Hawass wants the British Museum to lend the Rosetta Stone to Cairo. "I am not asking for all the objects in the British Museum to come back, only for the unique objects to come back to Egypt," he said. However, he said: “Its original place should be in Egypt. We can give the British Museum an artefact in its place.” He promised to return the relic after Egypt’s Grand Museum opens in 2013.

Archaeologists have found the walls of a 2,500-year-old sacred lake in the city of Tanis, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced today. The lake was found buried 12 meters below the ground, within the enclosure wall of the Temple of Mut. The discovery, along with other excavations in Tanis, affirm to archaeologists that Tanis not only had a connection to Thebes, but that much of it was built as a replica of the great capital in the South.

The GEM exhibits are classified into five main themes, or "streams", of ancient Egyptian life: "Land of Egypt" (an outdoor garden featuring pharaonic-era agriculture), "Kingship and State", "Religion and Afterlife", "Man, Society and Work", and "Scribes and Learning". The exhibits and artefacts for each will be arranged chronologically along parallel exhibition halls emanating from the main gallery at the top of the grand staircase.

More than 60 years after it suffered severe bomb damage during the second world war, Berlin’s Neues Museum reopened on Friday, providing the priceless 3350 year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti with a new home. Ravaged by the weather and neglected by east Germany’s communist authorities after the war, the Neues Museum has been lovingly restored by David Chipperfield, the British architect, over a period of six years and at a cost of more than €200m.

According to Z. Hawass the Serapeum will be opend in December.