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A colossal statue of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, the deity of wisdom, is the latest artefact to be discovered near the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III during archaeological works aimed at controlling the subterranean water level on Luxor's west bank.

The 3.5 metre tall red granite statue is one of several artefacts discovered in the area since excavations began. The head of a 2.5 metre high statue depicting Pharaoh Amenhotep III in a standing position – possibly the best preserved depiction of the pharaoh’s face found to date - was unearthed at the King's funeral temple at Kom El-Hettan only months ago. A statue of the god Thoth in the shape of a baboon was also discovered. Last year two black granite statues of Amenhotep III were found at the temple, as well as a 5 metre high statue similar to the Thoth statue just found.

Amenhotep III ruled Egypt between 1390 BC and 1352 BC, and recent DNA and forensic research suggests that he was probably the grandfather of Tutankhamun. His temple was built closer to the river than any other temple at Thebes - right on the edge of the floodplain – and within 200 years it had collapsed. Many of its stones were subsequently removed for the building projects of later pharaohs.

The famous Colossi of Memnon, two 18-metre-high stone statues of Amenhotep III, are all that remains of the pharaoh's mortuary temple, once the largest religious complex in ancient Egypt.

In a statement, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Dr Zahi Hawass said that evidence found during the excavation suggests that more colossi could yet be found at the site. Afifi Rohayem, assistant director of the excavations, suggests that an avenue of Thoth statues could be found on the original path leading to Amenhotep III's funerary temple.

Since 1998, the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III has been on the World Monument Fund's list of the planet's 100 most endangered monuments. Extensive excavation and restoration works at the temple site are taking place.

“I believe that in less than 20 years we will have achieved our objectives here,” Dr Hourig Sourouzian, head of the conservation project, said in a video interview with Heritage Key. The final stage of the works at Amenhotep III's mortuary temple will be the creation of an open-air museum.

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Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, yesterday opened the first face-to-face Middle East peace talks in two years by demanding an end to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that any agreement must assure Israel's security as a Jewish state.

With their introductory public statements the two leaders spotlighted the immediate problems that divide the two sides, even before this latest bid for an Israeli-Palestinian deal gets down to the core issues of borders, the return of refugees and the status of Jerusalem that must be part of any final settlement.

The negotiations formally began at the State Department, a day after President Barack Obama had held separate talks at the White House with Messrs Netanyahu and Abbas, and at a working dinner attended by King Abdullah of Jordan and the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
In her introductory statement before television cameras were ushered out of the ornate conference room, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pleaded for both sides to make the compromises needed to end a dispute that has been unresolved for more than six decades. "I know the decision to sit at this table was not easy," said Mrs Clinton, who has been working with the special US envoy George Mitchell to relaunch direct negotiations that have been stalled for 20 months since the breakdown of the Annapolis talks launched by then-President George W Bush in November 2007.

Washington, she said, "understands the suspicion and scepticism felt by so many after years of conflict and frustrated hopes. But with their presence yesterday, both leaders had taken "an important step" towards lifting the shackles of history. Mrs Clinton emphasised, however, that although the US would do everything it could as a facilitator and mediator, it could not impose a solution. Agreement ultimately depended on the two parties themselves – for "a future of peace and dignity that only you can create".

The hope is that a settlement can be reached in a year, and the plan is for a follow-up meeting in mid-September in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and every two weeks thereafter until a deal can be reached, Mr Mitchell said yesterday. But despite ritual expressions of good faith from Mr Netanhayu and Mr Abbas, most experts are deeply doubtful of a successful outcome.

A first daunting hurdle comes on 26 September, when a self-imposed partial freeze on settlements expires after 10 months. Mr Abbas has said he will break off talks if settlement construction resumes, but Mr Netanyahu risks the collapse of his right-wing coalition if the halt is extended. Meanwhile, hardline settler groups are threatening to restart building at once, after the shooting by the radical Hamas group of four Israeli settlers near Hebron on Tuesday.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip that would be part of a future Palestinian state, signalled yesterday that it would keep up its opposition. "These talks are not legitimate because the Palestinian people did not give any mandate to Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate on behalf of our people," a spokesman said.

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The next time you are sitting in a car dealership negotiating a purchase, make sure you are sitting on a hard chair – you will drive a harder bargain.

Psychologists have found that the texture and feel of objects around us, even those we are sitting on, can affect the way we think and behave.

In an experiment in which volunteers engaged in mock haggling over the price of a car, those sitting in hard, cushionless chairs were tougher negotiators than those in soft, comfortable ones.

"It is behavioural priming through the seat of the pants," said John Bargh of Yale University. "Our minds are deeply and organically linked to our bodies."

In a series of six experiments, researchers from Yale, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed how our sense of touch – the first of our senses to develop – influences our social interactions throughout life.

Interviewers handed the CV of a job applicant were more likely to rate them as serious about their work if the CV was presented on a heavy clipboard than a light one. They also rated their own accuracy in the task as more important.

Volunteers asked to do a jigsaw puzzle and then read a story about an exchange between two people were more likely to judge the relationship between the pair as adversarial if the puzzle pieces were rough, not smooth.

In a similar experiment, volunteers given a hard wooden block to handle before being told about an interaction between a boss and an employee were more likely to judge the employee as rigid and strict than those given a soft woollen blanket to handle.

The results, published in the journal Science, build on a 2008 study by Dr Bargh which showed that volunteers given a warm cup of coffee to hold briefly were more likely to judge other people as caring and generous than if they held a cold drink instead. Christopher Nocera, co-author of the study, said: "Touch remains perhaps the most underappreciated sense in behavioural research. People often assume that exploration of new things occurs primarily through the eyes. While the power of vision is irrefutable, this is not the whole story."

The warm and gentle touch of a mother is equated with comfort and safety, and roughness and hardness with its opposite. These are the first physical concepts that a child develops which are later manifested in abstract ideas like a warm smile and a hard heart. They help create the scaffold on which the adult later makes social judgements, the researchers say.

The authors write: "First impressions are liable to be influenced by the tactile environment, and control over the environment may be especially important for negotiators, pollsters, job seekers and others interested in interpersonal communication. The use of "tactile tactics" may represent a new frontier in social influence and communication."

Mr Nocera said: "Our work suggests greetings involving touch, such as handshakes and cheek kisses, may have critical influences on our social interactions in an unconscious fashion."

Dr Bargh said touch was an important sense not only for exploring the world but for shaping our understanding of it, reflected in expressions such as "weighing in with an opinion", "having a rough day" or "taking a hard line".

"These physical experiences not only shape the foundation of our thoughts and perceptions but influence our behaviour towards others, sometimes just because we are sitting in a hard instead of a soft chair."

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The curtain finally fell on the chaotic and fleetingly brilliant Premier League career of Robinho yesterday, when Britain's most expensive player concluded a move to Milan for €18m (£14.9m), with a possible €4m (£3.3m) in appearance-related add-ons.

Reports in Italy suggested that the figure paid for the Brazilian was as low as €15m (£12.5m), a substantial loss on the player whose £32.5m signing two years ago marked the beginning of Manchester City's Abu Dhabi ownership – and Milan certainly found themselves in a strong negotiating position, with the City manager, Roberto Mancini, facing the embarrassment of having to leave a £160,000-a-week player out of his Premier League squad of 25, which will be announced today. But City, who have managed to move striker Felipe Caicedo to Spanish side Levante on a year-long loan, said that the figure was bolstered by the fact that they have saved a £2m loyalty bonus which was owing to Robinho next month.

Sources in Italy suggested that the signing almost hit a hitch early in the day when Milan, who have also brought Zlatan Ibrahimovic back to Italy from Barcelona, failed to ship out their striker Marco Borriello to Juventus, who would only take him on loan. But a late deal taking Borriello to Roma sealed the Robinho deal as the clock ticked down. The Milan owner and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's need to boost his popularity ahead of a possible early election also helped secure a four-year deal for Robinho, linking him with Ronaldinho and Ibrahimovic. Robinho's name was removed from the City roster of players within minutes – a sign of the delight at the departure of a player from a club who have laid out £126m in transfers this summer.

For once Robinho, who was sent on loan to Santos for the second half of last season, left nothing to chance. He was in Milan yesterday and expressed his satisfaction about joining hours before the deal was officially confirmed. "I am very happy," he said. "Milan is an excellent club. I want to make history here. I will give so much happiness to my fans."

He may struggle to hold down a first-team place, with new Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri saying he expects to play a forward trident of Ibrahimovic with Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato.

The spate of purchases has made Milan one of the favourites to challenge Internazionale for the Italian title. They have not won Serie A since 2004 and have watched Inter win the last five titles and last season's Champions League.

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Pakistani residents read newspaper stories about alleged match fixing during international cricket matches, in a slum area of Islamabad

The owner of a Greater London football club who is at the centre of match-fixing allegations involving the Pakistan cricket team has been bailed without charge, police said.

Mazhar Majeed, 35, was arrested on Saturday as officers investigated claims that reporters paid a middleman £150,000 in return for exact details relating to play during the Lord's Test match.

Majeed is an owner of Croydon Athletic Football Club who play in the Ryman League.
A statement on the club website said: "Croydon Athletic Football Club were both devastated and appalled to hear of the alleged match-fixing of international cricket matches by its owner Mazhar Majeed. We await the guidance of the Ryman League in the next few weeks."

In a statement last night, Scotland Yard said Mr Majeed was bailed to appear before police at a future date.

Meanwhile, it emerged on Sunday that four Pakistan players, including captain Salman Butt, gave statements to police over the claims.

The allegations centre on the timing of "no balls" delivered during the latest Test match at Lord's.

But it was also suggested that other matches may have been "fixed". Up to 80 international Tests could form part of the police investigation, it was reported.

The Sun claimed that police in the UK were warned a month ago about alleged corruption relating to the first Test of the Pakistan tour, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed on Sunday confirmed that bowlers Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and wicket keeper Kamran Akmal joined Butt in being questioned by police.

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Health workers' unions expressed anger today after it emerged that a temporary chief executive had cost a struggling hospital trust more than £2,500 a day, plus almost £20,000 in expenses.

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust accepted that the money they spent on Derek Smith and other interim executives would cause controversy but insisted they had been worth the money.

The trust paid the health services management company of which Smith is part just under £250,000 for his 97 days' work. It also paid £19,539 in expenses to cover Smith's travel to and accommodation in Dorchester.

Set out in the trust's annual report and accounts, the figures show that the equivalent of between £663 and £1,230 a day was paid out for three other senior temporary directors.

Unison spokeswoman Tanya Palmer called the figures "absolutely outrageous", adding: "That is money that could go towards efficiency savings or [be] loaded into frontline services.

"Most nurses will be earning about £1,800 a month after tax, and to see someone earning hundreds of pounds more than that in a single day will be galling.

"A man who runs a county hospital gets far more than the prime minister gets for running a whole country. How does that work?

"It is a disgusting amount of money and I can't see how anyone can justify this exorbitant waste of taxpayer's money."

The row has echoes of last month's controversy over a pay package of almost £250,000 received by a south-east London primary school head, Mark Elms.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: "It is frankly unbelievable that these shockingly high sums of money continue to be spent at the same time that nurses and other staff are seeing frontline services cut and being asked to accept a pay freeze."

"This wasteful spending should be eradicated and resources must be directed to the frontline where they directly help patient care."

In Smith's case, the money was paid to a consultancy, Durrow Ltd, specialists in health service management. Its clients include not only many British healthcare trusts and the Department of Health but also overseas organisations ranging from the government of Bolivia to the government of South Australia.

Smith has worked at King's College hospital and Imperial College hospital in London and for London Underground. Durrow's website heralds him as a "key player … at the heart of Durrow's work."

His biography on the website claims he has an "unparalleled record in the NHS with over 20 years' experience as an acute hospital CEO."

drive from www.guardian.co.uk

Two heads are better than one, or so the saying goes. Nowhere could that be better put to the test at the moment than in the education world, as both of the country's leading headteacher organisations prepare to start the academic year with a new leader at the helm.

One of the two has not actually been a headteacher himself. Russell Hobby, the 38-year-old general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) raised eyebrows by being headhunted from the world of management consultancy (he was with Hay Group). He is, however, now a leader of heads, and it is not the first time that his union has moved outside of education to finds its chief. His predecessor but one, David Hart, was a lawyer by trade.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), though, has gone down a more traditional path, appointing 55-year-old Brian Lightman, headteacher of a 1,400-pupil comprehensive school in Wales and a member of their ruling council for the past two years. It will certainly be a testing time for them both.

They will be in at the start of the schools revolution planned by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, who wants a massive boost to the academies programme. The new academies will be free from local authority control, and heads will be able to run their affairs. Gove also wants to see the opening of Swedish-style "free" schools run by parents, teachers and faith groups. Here, at least, he will have a measure of support from the two new incumbents – even if it is cautiously worded.

"Schools have a very ambivalent attitude towards freedom," says Hobby. "They both want it and fear it at the same time. Our position is that if a school decides it's the right thing to do, then we will support them through it. With freedom, you can choose how you use it. Schools don't have to be isolationist and competitive with it, you can be co-operative and socially responsible towards your neighbours."

Lightman says ruefully: "It has been fascinating to see how the whole education landscape has completely changed since I was appointed to this job – with a new ministerial team and new thinking and a fresh start. We don't have a policy towards any kind of school structure. We represent them all: state secondary schools, independent and colleges. Our advice to members would be to consider all the implications and make an informed decision rather than rush into it." That is why he is unconcerned that Gove appeared to end up with egg on his face after telling Parliament that 1,100 schools had applied for academy status in June, only to reveal the following month that the figure was just 153.

A more gradual build-up would be preferable, Lightman argues. As for "free" schools, he does not see them as an issue as he does not expect more than a dozen proposals for them to come forward. Earlier attempts by John Major's government to encourage parents to run schools met with little response.

It will not all be plain sailing in their dealings with ministers, though. One obvious bone of contention is the national curriculum tests (SATs) in maths and English taken by 600,000 11-year-olds every May. The NAHT joined with the National Union of Teachers in boycotting them this year, as a result of which they had to be cancelled in more than 4,000 primary schools (about 25 per cent of the total).

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Nestlé, the world's biggest food manufacturer, says it will make the palm oil in its best-selling chocolate bars more eco-friendly, after a guerrilla campaign against it on the internet.

The Swiss confectionery-to-coffee giant said it was inviting a not-for-profit group to audit its supply chain and promised to cancel contracts with any firm found to be chopping down rainforests to produce the vegetable oil, which it uses in KitKat, Aero and Quality Street.

The concession followed a three-month campaign by the environmental group Greenpeace, which led to Nestlé being attacked on social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube. One million people watched Greenpeace's spoof advert for KitKat, despite its being taken off YouTube temporarily after a legal threat.

As well as illustrating the vulnerability of multinational companies to new media campaigns by NGOs which can galvanise individuals in a way that was impossible before the creation of the internet, the campaign also illustrated the intense environmental controversy surrounding palm oil.

Thousands of hectares of rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia have been cleared to make way for oil palm plantations, depriving tribes of ancestral lands, increasing climate change emissions and killing rare animals such as the Sumatran tiger, sun bear, clouded leopard and pangolins. Campaigners have particularly stressed the damage done to orangutans, a close relative of man which lives only on the heavily deforested islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Since The Independent disclosed the presence of palm oil in 43 of the UK's top-selling grocery brands, companies such as Nestlé, Marks & Spencer, Cadbury and Mars have committed to moving to a sustainable supply.

But Nestlé had been a relatively slow mover, promising only to meet the latest acceptable date of 2015 set by the World Wildlife Fund for moving to supplies certified sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

On 17 March, Greenpeace began a campaign against Nestlé, launching an early morning protest at its UK headquarters in Croydon, Surrey, and posting its one-minute Have a Break? "advert" on the internet. It showed an office worker biting into a KitKat containing an orangutan finger, which dripped blood onto a computer keyboard.

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The English National Opera was once attacked in a newspaper article with the rather delicious headline: "It isn't English. It Isn't National. It Isn't Opera."

I thought of that headline this week as another similarly named company, English National Ballet, celebrated its 60th birthday with a performance of Cinderella in London. Of ENB's nine principal dancers, just two are English. The Czech ballerina Daria Klimentova danced Cinderella at the anniversary performance. None of that necessarily matters. The arts glory in internationalism.

But it is fair to ask occasionally just what these grand titles of our grandest companies actually mean, and what their identities are. Names of artistic companies send out a message, often of egalitarianism or populism or sheer class. Sir Peter Hall reckoned that he captured all of those aspirations with the Royal Shakespeare Company, royal and Shakespeare being words cherished by all true Britons, and company a word cherished by all who work in the arts.

The National Theatre (which for decades was uncertain whether it was the British national theatre or English national theatre, but now at last has Welsh and Scottish counterparts) for many years did not tour. A famous episode of Yes, Minister had the minister threaten to make it a permanent touring company so that it could be "truly national". It now fulfils most of the criteria for being a national powerhouse, though is less a champion of new home-grown writing than the Royal Court, which itself has a title buried in obscurity and at odds with its radical image. (It opened as the Court theatre in 1888 and the word Royal was added a few years later. There was no Royal Charter, it just felt like a good idea at the time.)

If that's all a little confusing, it is even more so with English National Ballet and English National Opera, the two companies which manifestly try to express their purpose in life through their names. English National Opera does not tour, which makes a mockery of its name, though it does sing in English and employ overwhelmingly English talent. English National Ballet certainly does tour, and at affordable prices, but it's hard to see quite how its largely foreign stars make it an English national company. One can certainly argue that a national company doesn't have to be a showcase for national talent, but it would be nice to hear the argument being made some time, and the criteria that a publicly funded national company has to fulfil made clear.

Then there's the added confusion of the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera. The Royal Ballet has by common consent the best dancers yet does not tour at all in the UK. Neither does the Royal Opera, despite both companies receiving lavish public funding.

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I knew Joanna first as a model in the early 1960s when I was a fashion editor, but it was much later that we met properly, when I wrote a children's book and had the idea to turn it into a ballet for young dancers. The composer who wrote the score was a friend of Joanna's husband [the composer Stephen Barlow] and had told her what I was doing. She was so enthusiastic that he brought her to one of our performances at Sadler's Wells.

Joanna is as lovely as she seems. We share a passion for dance and I love her enthusiasm – for what we do with the National Youth Ballet and in general.

After the performance, I nervously wrote to ask her to be a patron and she accepted. I'm not one to have a name on a piece of paper for the sake of it, so Joanna was perfect; she gets her hands dirty. She's fantastic at drawing, for example, so always has great ideas about sets and costumes.

In the early days, I asked her to come to an event we were doing with the kids. She rang me and said, "I'm not going to come, Jill, because they'll just stick a picture of me on the cover of The Daily Mail and they won't photograph the kids." I remember being a bit disappointed, but she was right – and we ended up getting a huge picture of one of the little ones in the paper. She's not interested in the limelight for the sake of it.

It has been 20 years now and she has become a friend. We meet mainly at galas and first-night performances, but I like the times when we can talk without everybody around watching her or taking pictures.

The last time we were all together socially was when my husband was really ill and knew he was dying. Joanna was just herself – chatting away to him all evening, and that was lovely for both of us, because so many people didn't know how to be.

From the lowest to the highest, Joanna makes no distinctions about who she is speaking to, which is so endearing. She is a great conversationalist, as it's never all about her. She makes others feel charming. It's funny to watch men's reactions to her. They fall at her feet – certainly my sons and even my little grandsons.

Joanna Lumley OBE. 64, is a former model, but is best known for TV roles in 'The New Avengers' and 'Absolutely Fabulous'. She regularly campaigns on behalf of human-rights organisations. She lives in south London with her husband

Around 1990 I went to a performance at Sadler's Wells with the late composer Alan Ridout, a wonderful man who taught my husband composition. It was a children's ballet called Fisherboy and Alan had written the score. I have been in love with ballet for as long as I can remember, so I thought, "How wonderful to drive the composer to the opening night!" When I was 10, I was offered a scholarship at the Royal Ballet and refused – because I was an airhead – so there was quite a frisson going back.

I recognised straight away that Jill comes from that disciplined mould of all dancers that I admire. They don't waste time or energy. There's no sloppiness in anything she does. I was very impressed by her, by the children and the ballet itself.

When she asked me to be patron, I ran my name down the list of other patrons and they had all these fantastic dancers, Monica Mason and Wayne Sleep, and I suppose I hoped the fairy dust might flake off on me a little.

I like Jill on the night of a big performance – she has to be everything and she is so calm, cool and collected. We see each other mainly for ballet-related events, but it's been so regular and for so long that we have slowly got to know each other well. I've met her sons and grandson and I knew her husband – it was agony when he went, but she is terribly brave.

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