Significant progress made in Gaza truce negotiations: Egyptian source

Significant progress was made in truce negotiations on the Gaza conflict on Saturday, according to Egyptian media reports on the same day.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday to engage in peace talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

However, Times of Israel reported on Saturday evening that a Hamas source said the day of negotiations saw "no progress" and "had ended".

Israel responded to the Egyptian report on Sunday, stating that it had not yet received the contents of the latest agreement, and regardless of whether a temporary ceasefire is achieved, the Israeli army would attack Rafah.

A Hamas official stated that the group would not agree to a ceasefire unless it includes a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They also accused Israel of attempting to reach an agreement without ending its "aggression and occupation of Gaza", according to reports from Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Another Hamas official mentioned that Hamas is currently considering a "phased" ceasefire agreement with Israel, saying that Hamas is willing to release 33 detainees in the first stage in exchange for a temporary truce. However, according to Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, the proposal is still under discussion.

A senior Israeli official said that Hamas continued to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which was "hindering the possibility of an agreement between the two sides." Additionally, the official stated that Israel would dispatch a delegation to Cairo for negotiations only if it observed "positive progress" regarding the release of the detainees.

On Saturday, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation quoted sources as stating that the Israeli side had not yet received the latest agreement. Contrary to reports in the Arab media, the outlet said Israel "will not agree under any circumstances" to a detainee-release deal by ending military operations in Gaza. With or without a temporary ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will enter the southern Gaza city of Rafah and destroy what remains of Hamas there, the outlet reported.

The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip from the ongoing Israeli attacks had risen to 34,683, the Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Sunday.

During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army carried out three military operations in Gaza, killing 29 Palestinians and injuring 110 others, the ministry said in a statement.

This brought the total death toll to 34,683 and injuries to 78,018 since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted last October, according to the ministry.

Significant progress made in Gaza truce negotiations: Egyptian source

Chinese scientists have recently worked together and rebuilt the face of an ancient Chinese ethnic minority emperor via cutting-edge DNA technology.

Emperor Wu of the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), also known as Yuwen Yong, was an ambitious leader who died at 36. He belonged to the Xianbei nomadic group, which originated from the Mongolian Plateau.

The tomb of the emperor was discovered in 1993 in a village of the city of Xianyang in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. His skull and bones were discovered during an excavation held in 1994 and 1995 at the site of his tomb.

In late March this year, scientists led by the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University managed to decode key features of the emperor and speculate about his cause of death. The emperor might have died from chronic arsenic poisoning due to long-term use of a pellet, which was believed by ancient people to achieve eternal life.

"First, the skeleton can be used to determine age. Second, in terms of age and gender, some pathological research can also be done to see if he had any fractures or other (diseases)," said Zhang Jianlin, a researcher from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.

Obtaining high-quality genomic data is crucial for restoring the face. Through DNA paleogenomics techniques and optimized DNA extraction, database building and capture methods, more history was revealed.

"First, we have done the shorter fragments enrichment method, which is a DNA extraction method. In addition, we have developed some more sensitive database building method suitable for ancient samples with short fragments. You can regard it as a method to amplify the genetic signal, the extracted DNA. The third is that we have developed a capture method that is more suitable for this kind of highly degraded ancient samples. So we have optimized and improved our approach from three aspects at the same time," said Wen Shaoqing, an associate professor of the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University.

The reconstructed face showed that Yuwen Yong had black hair, yellow skin and brown eyes, while his appearance was typical for people from East or Northeast Asia.

Wen said that with the help of the DNA technology, the accuracy of facial restoration can reach 90 percent.

"As for the accuracy of (facial restoration), the current situation is that if there is a skull as a basis, its accuracy will be relatively high," said Wen.

Scientists rebuild face of ancient emperor using advanced DNA technology