Auction house Christie’s is set to be auctioning off 27 Ancient Egyptian artefacts in New York on April 18, their website shows, with some rare pieces on display that include a statue of Sekhem-ankh-Ptah, an ancient Egyptian high official who lived during the Old Kingdom period (2389-2255 B.C.), as well as masks of mummies from the Roman period.

Look, look how she walks down the stairs. It s moving. Oh, look…” The little girl behind me gave her mother a running commentary on every move of actor or shadow at the Lula Del Ray manual cinema performance. Staged several times between 10 and 13 March, it is part of the eighth Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children (8-13 March), an annual event that aims to bring theatre and other art forms to children. The event takes place at the Hanager Arts Centre expanding into the neighbouring grounds and venues.

Considered the world s most instagrammed hotel and welcoming over one million visitors per year, the Marina Bay Sands is more a tourist spot that happens to be a hotel. Its infinity pool is Singapore s main attraction.“We booked a room at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel”, a former coworker announced when I visited him some weeks ago. “You used to study in Singapore, right? Do you have any other tips for us?” Of course, he had not booked the room at this hotel for its 5-star service or its breakfast buffet, but simply to be allowed access to its famous and exclusive swimming pool. It sounds strange, but he is not the only one who books a room in this expensive hotel just to take a dip in the pool. From superstars to local Singaporeans to even myself as a student, everyone wants to go there, no matter if this is a very expensive experience.South East Asia s most iconic building

Egypt, along with much of the Arab world, celebrates Mother s Day on 21 March, and to mark the occasion, social media users in the region took to the web to express their feelings, request gift ideas, and post pictures of their loved ones. Based on Twitter internal data, mothers are the women most tweeted about on the day in question, with hashtags like #SheInspiresMe.

Built on 50 feddans near the west bank of the Nile by Khedive Ismail in 1891, Cairo s Giza zoo was once one of the biggest and most beautiful zoos in the world. In recent years, there was a public outcry due to the deterioration of many facets of the zoo, but statements from the Ministry of the Agriculture – which has always been in charge of managing the premises – stressed that renovations and restoration had already been launched to bring the zoo back to its former glory.

In Egypt, the art of ballet always draws in a large audience. The Cairo Opera House offers a variety of events, some attracting specific groups of attendees, others sold out days prior to the event. The ballet is among the latter group with an audience representing a range of ages and social backgrounds flocking to the Opera s main hall to experience one of humanity s most enduring creative expressions, which remains among the primary interests of many communities that direct their broods to centres offering classical ballet classes mainly in Cairo and Alexandria but also in other corners of the country.

The president of the Academy of Motion Pictures, the body that hands out the Oscars, is being investigated for sexual misconduct, Hollywood trade publications reported on Friday. Two weeks after the annual Oscars ceremony, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported that the Academy had received three claims of sexual harassment against John Bailey, and had begun an investigation. They cited unidentified sources and did not give details.

The temporary Islamic Archaeological Exhibition was inaugurated on Tuesday at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, and will llast until July this year under the title “The World of the Fatimids.” At the opening ceremony, Henry Kim, director of the Agha Khan Museum in Canada, thanked Egypt s Ministry of Antiquities for providing an opportunity to the museum to display these artifacts for the Canadian people, demonstrating a fruitful cooperation between Egypt and Canada in the field of archaeology.

Local authorities in Cairo launched on Wednesday an initiative to rationalize city residents’ water usage, claiming that inhabitants use too much water in the form of unnecessary spraying of streets and washing cars with excessive amounts of water in addition to ineffective irrigation procedures. In a press statement, Cairo governor Atef Abdel Hamid warned against wasting water, pointing out that authorities will apply the law against violators.

The Pillar of Merneptah, the fourth king of the 19th Dynasty and the son of King Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for nearly 10 years from 1213 BC until 1203 BC, arrived safely on Saturday to its permanent display area at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). Supervisor-General of the GEM Tarek Tawfik said in a statement for the Antiquities Ministry that the pillar was discovered in 1970 inside Merneptah temple, at the Matariya archaeological site, east of the Arab Al-Hesn area.

In a press release by the Cairo Opera House, Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem announced that the ‘Luxor: The Capital of Arab Culture’ festival, which is taking place from March 15-18, will be under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The festival will take place in several locations throughout Luxor, including prominent tourist sites and small villages. Abdel Dayem announced there will be several events throughout the three days. Day one will include performances by traditional dance troupes such as ‘Tazawok Lel Fonoon Al-Shaabya’, ‘Luxor Lel Fonoon Al Shaabya’, and ‘Sohag Lel Fonnoon Al Shaabya’. They will all perform in Abu Haggag Square, a boat for the locals, Tegara Square, and Akaleem Square.

The Arab World Institute in Paris will host a large exhibition about the 4000-year history of Egypt’s Suez Canal on the 26th of March, reviewing the adventures and stages of the important waterway. The exhibition, “Suez Canal epic: from the pharaohs to the 21st century,” includes photographs, antiques and recorded films telling the history of Egypt and the canal since the pharaonic civilization through the digging of the new Suez Canal.

March and April are among the most dynamic months on Egypt s cultural calendar. It is a time of festivals, theatre, music and dance. Depending on their themes and missions, the festivals bring different components into their repertoires, many of them focusing on younger or older audiences. In the arts world, and especially in Egypt s culture sphere — with a population of over 100 million— the youngest audience, toddlers, small children and teenagers are the least fortunate when it comes to what is on offer. Even in Cairo what few stage plays and other sporadic events are held leave children thirsty for culture and parents unaware of their needs; the situation is of course much worse outside the capital.

Algerian filmmaker Yasmine Chouikh s Until the End of Time, which premiered at the Dubai Film Festival last year, opened the 11th round of the Cairo International Women s Film Festival (3-9 March). The event started 10 years ago as the Caravan of Arab and Iberoamerican Women s Films (2007-2013), before becoming an international festival.

Egypt was able to successfully foil an attempt of trafficking 13 pieces of crocodile skin and other wild anim­als from a private boat in Lake Nasser, northern of Aswan, Al Arabiya reported earlier this week. Said to be the largest batch of illegal animal skin to be seized in history, the perpetrators were caught on a private boat by Egyptian police following a notification from the Aswan Reserves that a crocodile hunt was taking place in the area for illegal trafficking purposes.

Egyptian-British cardiothoracic surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub embarked on a tour of Abu Simbel Temple in Upper Egypt on Sunday, further putting paid to rumours concerning his health. Yacoub visited the archaeological site in the company of several VIP guests from Britain who had come to see the Aswan Heart Centre, the cornerstone of the Magdy Yacoub Foundation.

In recent years, Indian culture has strongly made its way into Egypt. From Bollywood movies to Bollywood extravaganza theatre shows, Egyptian people have got a virtual tour of Indian life, and fell in love with their most idolized actors such as Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi. Even when Bollywood movies did not fully hold up, Egyptians continued to love them and follow them, to the extent that a channel that specializes in dubbing Indian films to Arabic was created to appease the growing fan base. However, this year, promises to take Egyptian-Indian cultural exchange made it to a whole new level as the sixth edition of the “India by the Nile” festival will be taking place between March 6 and 17 in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. The festival hopes to further immerse Egyptians into the rich Indian culture.

Egypt’s Health Ministry has approved the introduction of a new drug for diabetes, injected once a week, four times a month, which inhibits the sudden drop in the blood’s glucose level if blood-sugar levels are to decrease. During a press conference on Tuesday to announce the introduction of the new drug to the Egyptian market, the Head of National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Hesham al-Hefnawy, said that diabetes is a common disease which 415 million people around the world suffered from in 2015.

The Egyptian expedition working on the groundwater treatment project at the Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan discovered parts of a statue of King Ramses II. The discovered head showed King Ramses II wearing the white crown of pharaonic Upper Egypt. The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that it serves as new evidence of the existence and use of the Kom Ombo Temple during the Ancient Egyptian modern state-era. There were little proofs supporting this prior to the discovery, but included the inscriptions belonging to King Thutmose III on the walls of temple, head of the Antiquities Sector with the Antiquities Ministry Ayman Ashmawy said in a statement on Tuesday.

For the first time in history, two Egyptian movies will be taking part in Haifa Film Festival which takes place in Israeli city of Hifa from 22 to 27 March. The two movies will screen in addition to 25 other international movies. In the Best Long Movie category, Amr Salama’s hit movie Sheikh Jackson will be hitting the Israeli screens. “Aida,” which is directed by Maysoun Al-Masry, will be featured in the long documentary category along with nine other films, according to the festival’s official website.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany announced on Friday launching a new museum in Hurghada governorate, according to a press release issued by the ministry. The announcement was made at the inauguration of a sculpture exhibition that marked the end of the International Sculpture Symposium in Hurghada. The symposium was attended by Ahmed Abdullah, governor of the Red Sea governorate.