Pack of cards

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photos: Ghada Abd El-Kader Last week, reports Ghada Abdel-Kader, Pharaonic Village Chairman Abdel-Salam Ragab organised a Lebanese Solidarity Day at the village, attended by Charge d'Affaires of the Lebanese Embassy in Cairo, Ali Al-Halabi, former Arab League secretary-general Esmat Abdel-Meguid and his wife, as well as Giza Governor Fathi Saad, who inaugurated a photo exhibition on the war in Lebanon. The exhibit included photos and articles from Egyptian newspapers and magazines, including works by Al-Ahram 's Amr Salama. Ragab also donated LE 50,000 to the Lebanese Embassy in the Pharaonic Village's name. Prince Abbas Helmi, actor Khaled Saleh and writer Nabil Farouk were also in attendance. On 13 October, a charity concert dedicated to Lebanese children, featuring Lebanese singer Assi El-Helani, will also take place at the Cairo Opera House.

* The Montazah Rotary club of Alexandria, headed by Hisham Karram, held a party in honour of veteran actor Nour El-Sherif and Iraqi- Jordan poetess Sara Al-Souheil. Karram presented El-Sherif with an award for being the best actor in contemporary Egyptian cinema, while an award of recognition was also given to Al-Souheil for her work. The party was held at Sheraton Montazah Hotel. Among the attendees were Cinema Union Head Mamdouh El-Leithi, directors Mohsen Ahmed and Farouk El-Rashidi, scriptwriter Kawthar Heikal and media figure Ferial Saleh.

Ahmed Mohamed El-Shaqanqeri won the President Mubarak Cup in the 13th Sharqia Festival for Arabian Horses last week. This is the fourth time for El-Shaqanqeri to participate in the Sharqia Festival ; on 2001 he won the fifth place and in 2002 he won the sixth place and in 2004 he won the first place.

Actress Menna Shalabi received the media award for her role in the hit movie Wahed Men Al-Nas (One of the People) during the closing ceremony of the Alexandria International Film Festival at the Opera House in Alexandria.

The Information and Culture Centre of the Japanese Embassy in Egypt held a lecture entitled "Middle East and Japan". Delivered by Motohiro Ono, a senior research fellow at the Middle Eastern Institute of Japan, Ono spoke mainly about Japan's modernisation experience and its implications on relations with the Middle East. His emphasis was on promoting better relations between Japan and the Middle East, as well as deepening peaceful human relations in various fields.

An interesting exhibition called "Subjective Photography the German Contribution (1948-1963)" is on show at Gezira Art Centre until 2 October. It includes 165 original photos taken by a number of German artists between 1948 and 1963.

A book and author reception recently took place at the American University in Cairo's (AUC) Falaki Terrace to celebrate the AUC Press's new publications, including Life's Wisdom (compilations from the works of Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, edited by Aleya Serour, Alexandria and the Egyptian Mediterranean (A Traveler's Guide) by Jenny Jobbins and Mary Megalli, Being Abbas El-Abd by Ahmed Al-Aidi, Christians in Egypt by Otto F A Meinardus, Democratic Values in the Arab World by Moataz Abdel-Fattah, The Illusion of Progress in the Arab World (A Guide to Western Misconceptions) by Galal Amin, Islamic Calligraphy by Sheila S Blair and My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen (Traditional Dishes Sweet and Savory) by Magda Mehdawi, to mention but a few. AUC Press Director Mark Linz, Al-Ahram Weekly 's International Page Editor Gamal Nkrumah as well as the Weekly 's archaeology expert Jill Kamil, Editor-in-Chief of the weekly Akhbar Al-Adab magazine Gamal El-Ghitani, AUC Press Promotion Manager Nabila Akl and author Lawrence Pintak were all there.

Prominent Arab online community Maktoob.com has launched the beta version of Araby.com, an advanced Arabic search engine. Maktoob CEO Sameh Toukan said "Araby.com brings powerful new features to enhance the web browsing experience... in a bid to offer our users the very best of top-notch technological innovation." The site's product development head, Essam Bayazidi, said, "our aim in launching new utilities like these is to provide the Arabic-speaking community over the world with services that are available to English-speakers, in a form that has been tailor-made to suit their specific needs."