In the heart of darkness Mohamed Wassim penetrated the last few days' violence on Mohamed Mahmoud Street and came back with this mural from a wall of the American University in Cairo depicting victims of the Port Said football match and the Cabinet massacres. Khaira Al-Fassi, the wife of the Moroccan Ambassador to Egypt Mohamed Farag Al-Dokali, held a Moroccan evening at her residence in Garden City. The evening aimed at activating tourism in Egypt, and featured the screening of a film about the traditional handicrafts, small manufacturers and historic sites in Egypt. Present were many Arab and foreign diplomats. A prestigious celebration was held in Tiba Hall at the Semiramis InterContinental Hotel to bid the Algerian Ambassador to Egypt Abdel-Qader Al-Haggar farewell at the end of his term in Egypt. Al-Haggar, who has been appointed ambassador to Tunisia, gathered with many diplomats for the occasion: Moroccan Ambassador Mohamed Farag Al-Dokali, Omani Ambassador Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa Al-Harithi, Tunisian Ambassador Mahmoud El-Khoumeri, Assistant Secretary- General of the Arab League Mohamed Sobeih and presidential hopeful Amr Moussa as well as the political analyst Mustafa El-Feki. photos: Ayman Barayez The Egyptian Publishers' Union gave their annual celebration of the 43rd round of the Cairo International Book Fair in the Saraya Hall at the InterContinental Hotel City Stars which was attended by many writers and intellectuals. Present were Minister of Culture Shakir Abdel-Hamid, who gave a speech at the beginning of the ceremony as well as honouring a number of publishers such as Ahmed Salah Zaki and Mohamed Mohsen. The Lebanese Ambassador to Egypt Khaled Ziyada and his Tunisian counterpart Mahmoud El-Khoumeri and the head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation Ahmed Megahed were all present. The Egyptian-Lebanese Friendship Association (ELFA), presided over by Maged El-Menshawi, welcomed guests to the Grill Hall at the Semiramis InterContinental Hotel on the occasion of the visit of the Lebanese Agriculture Minister Hassan Al-Haj and his participation in the activities of the International Rural Development Conference, with the attendance of a number of ELFA members. On World Cancer Day (4 February 2012), the Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (BCFE) and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) are asking everyone in Egypt to make a pledge to join in the global fight against cancer -- it is only through every person, organisation, and government individually doing their part that the world can reduce premature death from this devastating disease. "While some risk factors for cancer are outside our control, such as age or genetics, many people may be unaware that an estimated one third of cancers worldwide are preventable", said Dr Mohamed Shaalan, the BCFE chairman. "On World Cancer Day, we encourage all Egyptians to join the international effort to reduce the number of lives affected by cancer by making healthier choices to reduce their cancer risk." To realise this mission, a dedicated World Cancer Day 2012 application on Facebook has been launched to allow users to make their personal pledge to the online community by donating their Facebook status. A companion campaign on Twitter will support #WorldCancerDay as a trending topic. The winners of the Prize for German-Arabic Translation of Fiction 2012 have been chosen. Wahid Nader won the prize in the category of "Established Translator" for his translation of the novel Du stirbst nicht (You won't die) by Kathrin Schmidt into Arabic. Nader, born 1955 in Bmanneh, Syria, has been living in Magdeburg, Germany since 1985 and works as a lecturer, author and translator. Among his translations into Arabic so far are works by Herta M�ller, Daniela Danz and Erich Fried. His own poetry has also been published. Hebatallah Fathi 's translation of the novel Ein Zimmer im Haus des Krieges (A room in the house of war) by Christoph Peters, which centres on a German terrorist in 1990s Egypt, won the first prize in the category "Young Translator". Fathi lives in Cairo and works as an assistant professor of modern German literature at Cairo University. The winning entries were chosen by an independent German- Arab jury composed of literary translators, academics and critics, among them the novelist Youssef Zidan, the poet Adel Karasholi and Kerstin Wilsch from the International Institute for Teaching Arabic to Speakers of Other Languages in Amman. Both prizes will be awarded on 16 March 2012, at the Leipzig Book Fair, by Director of the Goethe-Institute, professor Klaus-Dieter Lehmann. Alaa Karkouti, film analyst and director of MAD Solutions, was the moderator of a panel held at Darb 1718 and entitled "Entertainment, Culture and Industry." The producer and scriptwriter Mohamed Hefzi, director of the Film Clinic, and children's comic books writer Mohamed Shennawi were both speakers. The panel highlighted the experiences of the speakers in the fields of media, cinema, culture and entertainment and how they managed to earn money through such experiences after their hobbies were turned into a source of profit. The head of the Special Olympics Mohamed Fadel Al-Hamli organised a celebration on the fringe of the annual Special Olympics conference held in Abu Dhabi. The conference is part of the ongoing preparations for the Special Olympics and it honoured several of the main figures such as the Regional Director of the Special Olympics for the Middle East and North Africa Ayman Abdel-Wahab and the Saudi head of Special Olympics Nasser Saleh.
