Painstakingly restored, the Villa Empain, Brussels residence of the Empain family, has been turned into a centre for dialogue between east and west, writes David Tresilian

Buying a book from rare books dealer Sabri Ali Montaser is an excuse for an excursion into Egypt's history, says Mohamed Mursi

The River Nile in the Post-Colonial Age: Conflict and Cooperation among the Nile Basin Countries (2010), edited by Terja Tvedt, the American University in Cairo Press, Cairo-New York

Ati Metwaly has an experience