The music of the spheres In collaboration with the German Embassy and the Goethe Institute, the Cairo Opera House is presenting a religious tolerance themed show titled, Fi Hobb Allah (In Love of God) featuring the Horus Piano Duo (Ahmed Abu Zahra and Nora Emody), Madih ensemble and the West German Radio Choir (WDR) conducted by Rupert Huber as well as Bassem Darwish and Hossam Shaker on oud and qanoun. Five evenings will be held in Cairo, Alexandria, Minya and Sohag. According to Opera House Director Abdel-Moneim Kamel, "this big musical evening will gather about 200 Muslim, Coptic, German and Hungarian artists playing a brilliant melange of Sufi improvisations and Coptic hymns." The programme also includes music written to the poems of Gubran Khalil Gubran and compositions by Brahms. Revenues will be donated to the Red Crescent and victims of the recent church bombing in Alexandria. ( see Listings p.7 ) At the Giza Cultural Palace -- part of the General Organisation of Culture Palaces (GOCP), directed by Ahmed Megahed -- the Ghazi Cultural Salon held a seminar entitled "The Future of Dialogue and Coexistence between Religions and Cultures in the 21st Century". Present were the Counsellor of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar for Interreligious Dialogue Mahmoud El-Azab, Archbishop Basanti of Al-Maasara and Helwan, Al-Azhar University professor Osama Nabil, the writer Sabri Said and a large number of intellectuals. Akhbar Al-Yom held a book signing for Digital Journalism and Printed Journalism by Chairman of the Board Ahdi Fadl. Present were the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Egypt Mohamed Al-Rashid, educationalist Nawal El-Degwi, Akhbar Al-Yom journalist Nawal Mustafa, Editor-in-Chief of Nisf Al-Donia magazine Afkar El-Kharadli, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Yom Al-Sabei newspaper Khaled Salah and Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication Laila Abdel-Meguid. The Garden City Lions Club, presided over by Awatef Serageddin, held a seminar to discuss the Alexandria bombing where Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir was the keynote speaker. Present were a spokesman for Pope Shenouda, the Alexandria businessman Hani Aziz, the head of Al-Rehab Lions Club Mahmoud El-Maghrabi, the head of Lions Clubs in Egypt Hossam Khodeir, the veteran cartoonist Mustafa Hussein, the singer Iman El-Bahr Darwish, the actress Athar El-Hakim and media figures Gamal El-Shaer and Soheir Shalabi. Arabs' Got Talent, an MBC adaptation of America's Got Talent which launched last Friday, brings together talk show host Amr Adib, singer Nagwa Karam and media figure Ali Gaber as the jury. The director of the Mubarak Library Abdel-Raouf El-Reedy signed copies of his new book A Lifetime's Dream at the Mohamed Ali Palace in Manial in a lavish ceremony where high-profile attendees included Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey, Minister of Administrative Development Ahmed Darwish, Minister of State for Family and Population Mushira Khattab, Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir, Beheira Governor Mohamed Shaarawi, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the People's Assembly Mustafa El-Feki and Vice-Chairman of Nahdet Masr, the publisher of the book, Dalia Ibrahim. The 2010 Collegiate Broadcasters Inc Best Radio Documentary Award went to AUC graduate Jasmin Bauomy for her piece on AUC's campus in the 1970s, which she produced before graduating in 2009. Collegiate Broadcasters Inc is an organisation that supports student-directed media and its award, according to AUC Professor Kim Fox, is unique "because it is peer-based and highly competitive at an international level." Bauomy 's documentary includes interviews with prominent journalist and AUC alumnus Louis Greiss, as well as Mahmoud El-Lozy and Samia Mehrez, both of whom graduated from AUC and currently serve as faculty members at the university. They reflect on political and social events during the 1970s, highlighting campus reactions to sweeping changes in Egypt and beyond. Since graduating from AUC, Bauomy has continued to pursue her interest in the field of broadcast journalism. She is currently second camerawoman for a documentary about Cairo's leprosy colony in the Abu Zaabal district. She hopes one day to become a documentary filmmaker and intends to use all available media for her work. "I refuse to be put in the box of print, video, radio, advertising or PR," she noted. "I prefer to think of myself as an all-round producer." Last week, in the presence of the Indian Ambassador to Egypt R Swaminathan and his wife Durai, the director of the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC), the MACIC celebrated the Vishwa Hindi Diwas or World Hindi Day, which has been observed at Indian embassies all across the world since 2006. Hindi, the official language of the Republic of India, is spoken by most Indians as a second if not a first language and is the third most widely spoken language in the world. The programme, organised with the support of the Egypt-India Friendship Association and members of the Indian community in Egypt, included speeches, songs, poetry, story-telling and comedy in Hindi by Indians and Egyptians. On his way to the International Islamic Conference in the State of Kerala, the Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomaa met with the Indian Vice- President Hamid Anzari (who invited Sheikh Gomaa to a lunch also attended by the Minster of External Affairs S M Krishna and the Minister of Health Gulam Nabi Azad ), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the Deputy Speaker of the Rajya Sabha Rahman Khan. Sheikh Gomaa, who will also be speaking in New Delhi, has emphasised tolerance and peace in Islam. The Breast-Gynaecological International Cancer Conference concluded its sessions with a patient forum where physicians and patients discussed the disease. Present were Minister of State for Family and Population Mushira Khattab, media figure Wael El-Ebrashi and nutritionist Maha Radamees, as well as university doctors Hisham El- In a spectacular ceremony at the Cairo Opera House, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), directed by Zahi Hawass, celebrated the fifth Archaeologists' Day with Omar Sharif as guest of honour. Hawass honoured a number of figures in Egyptology and antiquities.
