wins the Nile Media Awards 2015 Senior news anchor and journalist Mona Sewilam won the Nile Media Awards 2015 at a ceremony held on 4 June 2015 in Dodoma, Tanzania on the fringe of the 23rd Annual Nile Council of Ministers. The competition, organised and juried by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and its partners the Deutsche Welle Akademie, the Global Water Partnership in East Africa, the Nile Basin Discourse and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), featured radio and print categories. Sewilam won the print prize for her story on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, “A win-win situation”, published in Al-Ahram Weekly in the 26 March-1 April 2015 issue. Her coverage however was originally undertaken for her award-winning Nile TV International programme Peace in Focus, directed by Tarek Farouk. It included interviews with the speaker of the Ethiopian parliament, also former minister of national defence and former chief of intelligence Aba-dula Gemeda and the President of the Arab Water Council, also former Egyptian water minister Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who helped to the launch the NBI in 1999 and participated in the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement negotiations in 1997-2009. The three other winners were Secilia Ndabigeze from Tanzania, Gerald Tenywa from Uganda and Claver Hakizimana from Burundi. Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari and his wife Mary Massari gave a reception to mark Italy's 69th National Day at the Marriott Hotel. Present were Minister of Local Development Adel Labib and his advisor Mahmoud Al-Said, Minister of Health Adel Adawi and Minister of Environment Khaled Fahmi. In his speech Massari said, “Our National Day marks a sort of annual appointment-deadline, a sort of fiscal year when we draw conclusions of what has been achieved and lays down the bases for what we would like to accomplish in the following year. If you look at what has been achieved in bilateral relations between Italy and Egypt during the last year, it is truly impressive. Our Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has been to Egypt twice (the only European leader to do so after 30 June 2013). In fact I continue to hear from friends how the warm and passionate words he spoke at Sharm El-Sheikh Economic Conference continue to linger in the hearts of the Egyptian people. President Al-Sisi, in return, visited Italy last November. Italy is the main EU partner of Egypt, Italy and Egypt are two cultural powers which brought and continue to bring a lot to civilisation. I'm confident that in the second half of this year we will continue along this same very positive path.” Oman's Minister of Information Abdel-Moneim Bin Mansour organised an Omani-Egyptian evening in Cairo to celebrate the strong relationships and the growing and active media cooperation between Egypt and Oman. Present were Omani Ambassador and permanent representative to the Arab League Sheikh Khalifa Bin Ali Al-Harithi, Omani Dean of Information Ministry Ali Bin Khelfan Al-Gabri, Media Consultant at the Omani Embassy in Egypt Houd Bin Seif Al-Elwi, Head of the TV and Radio Union Essam Al-Amir and a number of officials at the Ministry of Information. Egyptian singers Tamer Hosni and Sherine Abdel-Wahab got the lion's share of prizes at the Middle East Music Awards (MEMA) 2015 distribution ceremony. Hosni received the Best Singer, Best Album and Best Song awards while Abdel-Wahab won the Best Female Singer and the Best Music Video awards. The ceremony was presented by the Lebanese anchor Katia and featured Oriental dancer Fifi Abdou performing to a Mohamed Abdel-Wahab song. Syrian philosopher Sadik Al-Azm, Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor and the German theatre icon Eva Sopher received the 2015 Goethe Medal, granted once a year by the Federal Republic of Germany for outstanding efforts in spreading the German language and enriching cultural exchange. The 31st Cairo Climate Talks, “Rising Seas: Protecting our Shores through Integrated Coastal Zone Management”, brought together experts from Egypt and Germany to share coastal protection strategies and discuss the threats of rising sea levels and coastal degradation, Nesmahar Sayed attended. Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy in Cairo Christoph Retzlaff opened the public panel discussion at the AUC Greek Campus. The Head of Environment and Climate Research Institute at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation Khaled Kheireddin said the shore protection authority is responsible for maintaining and building sea barriers to reduce the impact of storms and waves on the northern coast while Peter Michael Link, associated researcher at the Research Group Climate Change and Security (CLISEC), Universität Hamburg, pointed out that Egypt has great potential for natural protection, which is less costly than building barriers. Present were Environment Specialist at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Mohamed Bayoumi, Director of the German Science Centre Roman Luckscheiter, Head of the Science Department at the German Embassy Laura Oexle and journalist and Cairo Climate Talks panel monitor Anne Francoise Weber. Actress Yousra participated in the opening ceremony of the Magic of African Cinema Film Week (1-5 June), part of the Luxor African Film Festival headed by screenwriter Sayed Fouad that took place at the Creativity Centre on the Cairo Opera House grounds. Director Azza Al-Husseini announced the screening of the Ethiopian film Horizon Beautiful (2013) by Stefan Jager at the opening ceremony which was attended by Ethiopian Ambassador Joseph Amin and the Senegalese Ambassador Mamadou Sall. Ministry of Youth and Sports official Amal Gamal was honoured. The AUC School of Business celebrated the graduation of nine startups for the fourth cycle of AUC Venture Lab (V-Lab), with the graduating companies showcasing their products and services. “With the graduation of the AUC Venture Lab's fourth cycle, we now have more than 32 startups going through our acceleration programme. We are starting to see some of the startups from the previous cycles attract investors, generate revenue and create jobs,” said Ayman Ismail, assistant professor and endowed chair of entrepreneurship. The event was attended by AUC President Lisa Anderson, School of Business Dean Karim Al-Seghir and AUC Venture Lab Managers Ismail and Sherif Shabana. The Environmental Commitment and Sustainable Development Office organised a meeting of the Arab-EU Business Facilitation Network in collaboration with the Confederation of Danish Industry, Al-Ahram Weekly's Evironment Editor Dr. Mahmoud Bakr attended. Executive Director of the Office Ahmed Kamal Abdel-Moneim pointed out that the meeting is being held in Egypt for the first time and brings together 12 Arab countries. Its aim is to introduce Egyptian businessmen to members of the network to encourage cooperation and partnership. “We strive to foster private-sector growth through public-private dialogue, B2B activities, knowledge sharing, business service development and policy advocacy aimed at improving the general business environment in the MENA region,” said Director of the Confederation of Danish Industry Niels Tanderup Krestinen. Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb and Egypt's former interim president Adli Mansour inaugurated the Abdel-Aziz Hegazi Hall at the Nile University to honour the memory of the late prime minister, who was in office during the late president Sadat's presidency. Present were Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali, Minister of Higher Education Al-Sayed Abdel-Khalek, Minister of Communication Khaled Negm, former secretary-general of the Arab League Amr Moussa, former prime minister Adel Lotfi, businessman Naguib Sawiris, head of the International Union of Muslim-Christian-Jewish Dialogue and Peace Education Ali Al-Samman, PR scholar Mona Zaki and the family of Hegazi.
