The Bibliotheca Alexandrina saw the opening ceremony of the 30th Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries under the auspices of Alexandria Governor Tarek Mahdi. Veteran actor Nour Al-Sherif, who was honoured at the event, said he was thrilled to know that this edition carried his name. Also honoured were pop icon Mohamed Mounir, and actors Youssra, Gamal Suleiman, Nadia Al-Guindi and Somaya Al-Khashab. Present at the ceremony were actors Mahmoud Yassin, Laila Elwi, Ilham Shahine, Hala Sidqi, Sawsan Badr, Wafaa Amer, Manal Salama, Dorra and Shahira, filmmaker Khaled Youssef and musician Hani Mehanna. The festival is showing films from 27 countries with France as guest of honour. The National Festival for Traditional Handicrafts organised a fashion show at the Palace of Arts on the Cairo Opera House grounds, in collaboration with the Fine Arts Sector at the Ministry of Culture and the Asala Society for Traditional Arts and Handicrafts, founded by artist Ezzeddin Naguib. Supervised by fashion designer Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, the show presented 25 designs inspired by Egypt's rich heritage, whether Pharaonic or Islamic. The Asala Society, together with the Heritage Arts Centre, the Helwan Weaving House and a number of foundations that focus on reviving the traditional handicrafts across Egypt also participated in the show. Uzbekistani Ambassador to Egypt Oybek Usmanov Arifbekovich gave a reception party to mark the Uzbekistani National Day. Present were the Russian Ambassador Serge Kirpichenko, Singaporean Ambassador Premjith Sadasivan, Kazakhstani Ambassador Berik Aryne, Brunei Darussalam Ambassador Dato Mahdi Abdel-Rahman, Moroccan Ambassador Mohamed Al-Alaami, Armenian Ambassador Armen Melkonian, Serbian Ambassador Dragon Bisenic, Pakistani Ambassador Manzoor ul-Haq, Mongolian Ambassador Odonjil Banzragch, Tajikistan Ambassador Nadharallah Nizarof and his Vietnamese counterpart Dao Thanh Chang. American star George Clooney and his fiancee, the Lebanese-British human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, applied for a Certificate of No Impediment as a step on the way to their marriage. The couple are reported to be planning a party to celebrate their nuptials at Danesfield House in Buckinghamshire, near where Alamuddin grew up. Clooney, 53, revealed the couple's plans while in Florence, Italy, saying that he was going to wed his stunning 36-year-old fiancée Alamuddin in Venice — and not at Lake Como, as previously reported. It is rumoured that they will tie the knot at Chelsea Old Town Hall and that they will then have a larger wedding ceremony in Venice on 27 September. Some 60 of the couple's nearest and dearest will converge on the Hotel Cipriani, Venice, reportedly including John Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt. Clooney has also reportedly invited models Cindy Crawford. The bride was spotted at London's Alexander McQueen, so it may well be that this is what she will be wearing. Egyptian jazz musician Yehia Khalil flew to Moscow along with his band to present his unique blend of oriental and jazz sounds in a series of concerts on the fringe of the International Tourism Exhibition ongoing in Russia from 16 to 19 September. The Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture in Cairo (MACIC) is holding the launch of the Arabic version of Ambassador P A Nazareth's book Gandhi's Outstanding Leadership. The event, to be presided over by the President of the Egyptian Constitutional Committee and the former secretary general of the Arab League Amr Moussa, will take place today at 6pm at the Supreme Council of Culture, Cairo Opera House grounds, and again on 21 September at 11am at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria. Ambassador Nazareth, the former Indian Ambassador to Egypt, will deliver a lecture on “Gandhi, Egypt and Palestine,” (See Listings P18). The book delineates the factors that contributed to the formation of Gandhi's personality, his own evolution from a timid youth to the leader of a mass movement. The book was acclaimed by the former president of India A P J Abdul Kalam and US President Barack Obama, among others. It has already been published in ten Indian languages as well as in Spanish, Portuguese and Korean. Ambassador Nazareth joined the Indian Foreign Service in May 1959 and served in India's diplomatic missions in Tokyo, Rangoon, Lima and London. He was ambassador of India to Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize. This year the Hamdan Bin Mohamed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) is one of the main sponsors of the 8th India International Photo Video Trade Fair that took place on 12-14 September, after its participation last year. HIPA granted US$120,000 to the winning photo in its previous edition. At a press conference held after the event, Assistant Secretary General of HIPA Sahar Al-Zarei expressed her content with the successful interaction of 2,250 visitors flocking to the HIPA workshops and some of 40,000 visitors, stressing the fact that India was one of the top ten participating countries. Congratulations! Al-Ahram Weekly's very own environmental editor Mahmoud Bakr was honoured for his efforts in the field of environmental awareness through delivering a series of lectures at Al-Sahel Educational Department. He was honoured by the General Manager of the department Tharwat Rashad, together with the official spokesman of the Ministry of Education Hani Kamal standing in for Minister of Education Mahmoud Abul-Nasr.
