Colours in motion Al-Ahram photographer Bassam El-Zoghby is participating in this year's 32nd General Exhibition, part of the third round of the Art Creativity Festival, with this picture of dancers whose costumes are unusually infused. The exhibition is currently ongoing at the Palace of Arts in the Cairo Opera House grounds. The American University in Cairo announced the appointment of former US ambassador to Egypt Daniel C Kurtzer as a member of its Board of Trustees. Kurtzer, the S Daniel Abraham professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, served as US ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001. During 29 years of public service, Kurtzer held a number of senior policy and diplomatic positions. Throughout his career, Kurtzer was intimately involved in Middle East peace negotiations and the formulation of US policy in the Middle East. Since leaving government service, Kurtzer has authored numerous articles on US policy in the Middle East. He served as an advisor to the Iraq Study Group and currently serves on the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association's Middle East- North Africa Rule of Law Initiative. He is the co-author, with Scott Lasensky, of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, published in 2008 . Kurtzer received his BA from Yeshiva University and his MA Middle East Certificate, MPhil and PhD from Columbia University. In recognition of his outstanding work in public service, Kurtzer received several of the US government's most prestigious awards, including the President's Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Distinguished Service Award, the National Intelligence Community's Award for Achievement, and the director-general of the Foreign Service Award for Political Reporting. Distinguished for their professional accomplishments in the areas of business, law, education, philanthropy and scholarship, members of AUC's Board of Trustees are all volunteers who dedicate their time and resources to supporting the university. AUC's trustees include Moataz El-Alfi, chairman of the Americana Group; Mohamed El-Baradei, Nobel Prize winner and director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Mohamed Ibrahim, founder and chairman of Celtel International; and Dina Habib Powell, managing director and global head of corporate engagement at Goldman Sachs; and Ahmed Zewail, also a Nobel Prize winner and the Linus Pauling Chair professor of Chemistry, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and director of the Physical Biology Centre. photos: Ayman Barayez Marking the 233 US Independence Day on 4 July, US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey held an exceptionally glamorous reception at the garden of the US Embassy. The welcoming reception was crowned by the presence of a bevy of ambassadors and luminaries including Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Meselhi, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel, Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga, Minister of State for Family and Population Mushira Khattab, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Maged George, former prime ministers Abdel-Aziz Hegazi and Kamal El-Ganzouri, Al-Ahram back page editor Mona Ragab, Secretary-General of the National Council for Women Farkhonda Hassan, tourism expert Amr Badr, Editor-in-Chief of Democracy magazine Hala Mustafa, Moroccan Ambassador Mohamed Farag Al-Dokali and his Kuwaiti counterpart Mohamed Al-Rashid as well as actress Nabila Ebeid, belly dancer- cum-actress Fifi Abdu and actor Mahmoud Qabil. A prestigious press conference was held at the Four Seasons at Nile Plaza Hotel to endorse the charitable concert that will take place at Las Vegas next November on the occasion of celebrating the International Children's Day. The revenues of the charitable event will be earmarked to the benefit of the region's children including medical care for Palestinian children and support for Iraqi children in Jordan. The charitable concert will be enlivened by a galaxy of Arab and Hollywood singers including Syrian singer Asala, Algerian rai musician Shab Khaled and Iraqi singer Reda. Among the keynote speakers at the press conference were Asala, her husband director Tarek El-Erian and actress Nabila Ebeid. In a stunning celebration for the Golden Murex Awards in Lebanon, dazzling Moroccan singer Samira Said snatched the award for best singer for 2008, while the Golden Murex Award is the fifth award for Said this year. Said participated in the Mawazine World Rhythms Festival in Rabat 2009 and enlivened one of her most successful concerts delighting her audience with new songs from her new, so far unreleased album. photos: Abdel-Hamid Eid At City Stars cinema a private screening was held for the new blockbuster Al-Safah (The Serial Killer), starring actors Hani Salama and Khaled El-Sawi and Lebanese singer-cum-actress Nicole Saba, directed by Saad Hendawi. The screening was attended by extensive media presence and a galaxy of celebrities to congratulate the cast of the film. Cleopatra Rotary Club (CRC) presided over by Ahmed Mounib held a thrilling evening hosting Lebanese sultry singer-cum-actress Haifaa Wahbi discussing her first cinematic experience in Dokkan Shehata (Shehata's Store). The event was attended by members of the CRC among them were Nini El-Farr, Mahinaz El-Bedeiwi, Amira El-Gohari, Laila Mokhtar, Sherin Aql and Zeinab Diaa. An exciting press conference was held at the Four Seasons Hotel for the new film Awlad Al-Aam (The Cousins), starring talented actor Karim Abdel-Aziz, gorgeous actress Mona Zaki and actor Sherif Mounir, scripted by Amr Samir and directed by Sherif Arafa. The talented director Arafa chose South Africa as his location for shooting the film. It is expected to be released this summer. Director of the Cairo Opera House Abdel-Moneim Kamel declared that Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni consented to the participation of the Modern Dance Theatre Company, founded and directed by choreographer Walid Aouni, in the second Pan-African Cultural Festival held from 8 to 12 July in Algeria, representing Egypt. Kamel stated that the festival includes more than 50 African countries covering all types of arts such as cinema, folk dancing, plastic art and modern dance. Aouni said he has chosen Shakespeare's Othello to be presented in the inaugural ceremony, after its great success in Cairo and Alexandria. This piece was designed by gifted Swedish choreographer Marie Brolin-Tani. This week marked the occasion of the scale-up of the Ishraq project and the launching of the second phase, that took place last Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Laylaty Hall. The embassy of the Netherlands and the Population Council support the expansion of Ishraq's programme. The project aims at providing out- of-school adolescent girls between the ages of 12 and 15 in rural Upper Egypt with a package of services to prepare them for better life. The Ishraq project is the result of cooperation between the Population Council, Caritas, the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), Save the Children, the Ministry of Youth, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the Egyptian Food Bank, in addition to six community-based organisations. The launching witnessed the testimonials of Ishraq graduates as well as the screening of a short documentary film about the project. A number of high-profile personalities were among the attendees such as Ambassador of the Netherlands to Egypt Susan Blankhart, Regional Director for the Population Council for West Asia and North Africa Office Safaa El-Kogali, President of the General Authority for Adult Education Raafat Radwan and Mohamed Abul-Kheir on behalf of head of the National Council for Youth's Safieddin Kharboush as well as former prime minister Abdel-Aziz Hegazi. Al-Ahram cartoonist Said Badawi received a prize from the Collection of the fourth China-Jiaxing International Cartoon Exhibition for his exquisite cartoon works. The exhibition received more than 1,000 pieces and nearly 300 pieces of them were from 34 different foreign countries. After careful selection 174 pieces have been on show while these cartoon works are finely decorated with their proficient crafts and techniques of expression that provided the domestic cartoons with rich nutrients that greatly enriched the cartoon industry.
