Exciting news is in the air, my dears, for those of you who are fans of the sweet sounds of music. At a major press conference held recently by Minister of Tourism Mamdouh El-Beltagui , the announcement was made that Andrea Bocelli, one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century, would soon be bringing his exciting voice to Cairo. Bocelli will be headlining the ninth Cairo International Song Festival, my colleague Rehab Saad told me, with a 27 August performance at the Sound and Light theatre at the foot of the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
The festival, to be held from 20 to 28 August, is also expected to feature Cuba's Banda Sazon, the Las Ketchup troupe, Japan's Saitama Drum Team, the Yarmarka troupe from Russia, Belgian singer Tamara Dey, and Saudi star Mohamed Abdou.
Events will be held in Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh.
Despite the loss of his eyesight, Bocelli is known as a singer who "sees with his voice". The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marcello Rota, and featuring soprano Maria Luigia Borsi and violinist Ruth Rogers, will accompany Bocelli.
Amr Afifi is the organiser of the event, while the press conference was attended by luminaries such as Adel Abdel-Aziz, head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA), Ambassador Salah Selim, head of the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC), composer Helmi Bakr, secretary-general of the festival, and Volkhard Windfore, the head of the Foreign Press Association (FPA).
Writer and critic Dessouki Said recently held a press conference at the Canadian Embassy to discuss the third annual Asalah International Week for Cinema, which is scheduled to be held in Al-Arish from 2 to 8 August. Gorgeous actress Poussi, one of this year's honourees, as well as Canada's Ambassador to Egypt Michel de Salabery and his Austrian counterpart Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff, were amongst those who attended the conference.
At downtown's Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture, meanwhile, special classes in Indian music are being held, in association with the Mena House Oberoi, every Wednesday from 6 to 8pm. Classes will be offered in several different genres: Hindi film songs; sitar; tabla; and harmonium instruments. Professionally qualified Indian musicians and singers will conduct the classes, and certificates will be issued at the end of the course to all successful participants.
A number of ambassadors recently took a field trip to visit the site of the new French University in Egypt. Tahani Omar, the University's president, led the ambassadors of Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Djibouti and Chad on a tour of the campus in El-Sherouq city, just outside Cairo. The tour included the auditoriums, language labs, computer halls and sports facilities. The ambassadors were all impressed with the quality of education and facilities they saw as they strolled the grounds accompanied by Nabil Sabri, the dean of the Engineering College, Sahar Moharram, Dean of the Arts School Pierre Lecocq, coordinator of the college of Management and Information Systems, and Essam Abdel-Hafiz, the university's secretary-general.
The VIP delegation was informed that in the new academic year, the first engineering classes would be launched. This will bring to three the colleges that are operational -- engineering, arts, as well as management and information systems.
A workshop entitled "Legal Protection for Journalists" recently brought about 30 journalists and 20 lawyers together in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss various issues such as libel, restrictions on the access of information, and the ethics of journalism.
The workshop was organised by both Egypt's Human Rights Centre for the Assistance of Prisoners and Jordan's Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CFJ). Financing was provided by USAID.
Among the lecturers were Negad El-Borai, former secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights and director of the Group for Developing Democracy. CFJ head Nidal Mansour, Al-Wafd journalist Magdy Helmy, and lawyer Ihab Salam of the Human Rights Centre for the Assistance of Prisoners also participated.
All those in attendance agreed on the importance of modifying Egyptian press legislation to help it better cope with international declarations and truces on human rights. The two organising centres, together with lawyers and journalists, also recommended the establishment of a centre for legal assistance for journalists aimed at providing them with legal counsel and defence teams if ever they had to appear in front of a court.
Pack of Cards
Exciting news is in the air, my dears, for those of you who are fans of the sweet sounds of music. At a major press conference held recently by Minister of Tourism Mamdouh El-Beltagui , the announcement was made that Andrea Bocelli, one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century, would soon be bringing his exciting voice to Cairo. Bocelli will be headlining the ninth Cairo International Song Festival, my colleague Rehab Saad told me, with a 27 August performance at the Sound and Light theatre at the foot of the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
Writer and critic Dessouki Said recently held a press conference at the Canadian Embassy to discuss the third annual Asalah International Week for Cinema, which is scheduled to be held in Al-Arish from 2 to 8 August. Gorgeous actress Poussi, one of this year's honourees, as well as Canada's Ambassador to Egypt Michel de Salabery and his Austrian counterpart Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff, were amongst those who attended the conference.
At downtown's Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture, meanwhile, special classes in Indian music are being held, in association with the Mena House Oberoi, every Wednesday from 6 to 8pm. Classes will be offered in several different genres: Hindi film songs; sitar; tabla; and harmonium instruments. Professionally qualified Indian musicians and singers will conduct the classes, and certificates will be issued at the end of the course to all successful participants.
A number of ambassadors recently took a field trip to visit the site of the new French University in Egypt. Tahani Omar, the University's president, led the ambassadors of Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Djibouti and Chad on a tour of the campus in El-Sherouq city, just outside Cairo. The tour included the auditoriums, language labs, computer halls and sports facilities. The ambassadors were all impressed with the quality of education and facilities they saw as they strolled the grounds accompanied by Nabil Sabri, the dean of the Engineering College, Sahar Moharram, Dean of the Arts School Pierre Lecocq, coordinator of the college of Management and Information Systems, and Essam Abdel-Hafiz, the university's secretary-general.
A workshop entitled "Legal Protection for Journalists" recently brought about 30 journalists and 20 lawyers together in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss various issues such as libel, restrictions on the access of information, and the ethics of journalism.
