Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany has chosen to open all museums and archaeological sites for free on Thursday, April 18, to celebrate World Heritage Day. A statement from the Antiquities Ministry on Saturday said that includes archaeological sites registered on the World Heritage List. The statement said this aims to draw the world’s attention towards endangered historical sites, especially those on the World Heritage site list.

An Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty dignitary named Khuwy during an excavation and documentation survey carried out in south Saqqara, and has also discovered the name of the queen to whom a pyramid complex in the area belonged. The tomb consists of a superstructure with an L-shaped offering chamber, which was once decorated with reliefs. Only the bottom part of this decoration is preserved, as the white limestone blocks of the other parts were re-used in the construction of other buildings in antiquity.

The Ministry of Health and Population, in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Ministry of Education, has launched the second phase of a national campaign to eliminate intestinal parasites (worms) in primary school children across the country. The national campaign is targeting 12.5 million children aged between 6-12.

Egyptian singer and composer Shereen Abdo expressed satisfaction with her eye-catching performance at the women music event held on Friday at the Greek Campus of the American University in Cairo on Friday, which was part of the ongoing Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF). "This concert was very important to me because it was my first ever at D-CAF, such an important event that really helps the whole scene either in music, cinema, theatre or visual arts during the ongoing circumstances, which are seeing a lack of funds and shut down of many festivals," the young independent musician told Ahram Online Monday.

Egypt has unveiled the 2,500-year-old mummy of a high priest at an ancient cemetery south of Cairo. The sarcophagus of an ancient Egyptian high priest has been opened on live TV by experts working with the Discovery Channel.

Port Said-based folk troupe El-Tanbura will perform some traditional regional songs and dances at the Cairo Opera House s Open Air Theatre on Friday. "Let s dance and enjoy together," the troupe urged their fans on their Facebook page, adding that this would be their first performance since their celebration of the troupe s 30th birthday last December. Founded by Zakaria Ibrahim in 1989 in Port Said, El-Tanbura have worked to revive folkloric songs played on the simsimia, a stringed instrument.

Cairo’s downtown, with its old European-designed buildings, is wrestling to preserve its cultural heritage as Egypt readies a new capital in the desert. A stroll through the district takes pedestrians past buildings that meld Islamic and European motifs, neo-classical columns and ornate decorations. But its elegance and prestige are fading, as the one-way streets and former palaces fall into ruin and shops selling cheap clothes and odds and ends have moved in.

The Aga Khan Music Award in Performance is presented to Mustafa Said," David Harrington, one of the jury members (and a founding member and violinist of the Kronos Quartet) read the Master Jury s decision on Saturday evening, 30 March, shortly after all the finalists took the stage to perform the best of their repertoire at the Calouste Gulbenkian Centre in Lisbon, Portugal. The official gala honoring all the winners of all Aga Khan Music Awards categories will take place in the evening of Sunday 31 March.

The fate of a species may just rest on this love story. Happily, the first date between Romeo, once the last-known Sehuencas water frog, and Juliet, who was discovered deep inside a Bolivian cloud forest in January, went so well the two have been living together in the male s aquarium since. According to a statement by Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) on Monday, the pair were introduced on March 1 after being cleared of chytridiomycosis, which has decimated amphibian populations throughout the Neotropics region.

During excavation work carried out at the Quweisna quarries in Menoufiya, an Egyptian archaeological mission stumbled upon a limestone sarcophagus containing two mummies. Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the sarcophagus is two metres tall and 60cm wide and is in good condition.

The UN headquarters in New York, the pyramids of Egypt and Rio s Christ the Redeemer statue were among top world monuments plunged into darkness for an hour Saturday to put the spotlight on climate change and its impact on the planet. Organized by environmental watchdog WWF, the 13th edition of Earth Hour saw millions of people across 180 countries turning off their lights at 8:30 pm to highlight energy use and the need for conservation.

An ancient port used to transport stones for the construction of temples and obelisks has been discovered in Egypt, according to the country’s Ministry of Antiquities. In a Facebook post Tuesday, the ministry said the main port, used to transport stone along the Nile River from the quarries of Gebel el-Silsila, was uncovered during an archaeological expedition excavating the ruins of Kom Ombo near Aswan.

After spending the winter months hibernating inside a fridge at a rescue center in Belarus, a group of bats awaken and are released into the wild. To ensure a good winter s sleep, each bat was tucked up inside a cloth bag by volunteers at the center, then hung up inside an ordinary domestic fridge — giving them just the right amount of moisture and cold. The Kozhanopolis center, which is located in Minsk, takes in bats that are found by members of the public after struggling to find a safe place to hibernate.

A 2.3 percent jump in global energy demand last year outstripped the expansion of renewables and helped drive record-high greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday. Fossil fuels satisfied nearly 70 percent of that growth for the second year running, with natural gas accounting for 45 percent of the rise in energy consumption, according to the Agency’s Global Energy & CO2 Status Report.

200,000 tickets have been sold for the King Tutankhamun exhibition currently held in the French capital, Paris. The exhibition will continue until September 15, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said. The number of visitors reached nearly 15,000 during the past 48 hours, he added.

Famed Polish theater troupe Teatr TM (Theater TM) will rock Hanager Theater’s stage with “Out at Sea,” a play written by renowned Sławomir Mrożek on Friday 29 March, the Polish Embassy said in a statement. English and Arabic subtitles will be screened during the performance, guaranteeing the audience full enjoyment of the witty dialogues framed within a fascinating theme.

The world can eradicate tuberculosis by 2045 if the fight against the killer disease is properly funded, an international team of experts said Wednesday. Warning of the immense economic and social costs of inaction, they said that better screening, treatments and public awareness were needed to reduce the more than 10 million cases recorded every year.

Google Middle East celebrated the 119th birthday of Egyptian poet Jamila Al-Alaily on Wednesday with a doodle featuring her on the search engine page. Al-Alaily was born in Mansoura in 1907, moving to Cairo as an adult. Her poems were featured in the famous Egyptian magazine Apollo, published by the Apollo society for literature, winning the praise of its famous members like writers Ibrahim Nagy and Ali El-Gendy.

Alexandria University’s Archaeological Mission unearthed several anchors on Monday while surveying the Bagosh area near Marsa Matrouh, under the supervision of the Central Department of Submerged Antiquities of the Ministry of Antiquities. Head of the Submerged Antiquities department Ihab Fahmy stated that the anchors were made of stones, irons and lead and dated from the Hellenistic era until the 20th century.

In collaboration between the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Brooklyn Museum, an exhibition titled “Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt” will run at the Brooklyn Museum from March 22 until August 11. According to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation s website, this exhibition is the first to portray the history of iconoclasm (destruction of religious art) within ancient Egypt. Utilizing almost 40 artifacts from the museum s collection, the exhibition aims to shed light on the widespread campaigns of intentional destruction that was religiously and politically motivated. The legacies of pharaohs Hatshepsut (reigned ca. 1478–1458 BCE) and Akhenaten (reigned ca. 1353–1336 BCE) are the main subjects, in addition to the topic of iconoclasm targeting religious beliefs of the time by devastating their objects. Both intact and damaged pieces will be put on display. By focusing on how iconoclasm as a practice existed within ancient times and continues until day this, visitors will question the nature of ownership, memory, and visual culture.

Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change. Classrooms in capitals from Bangkok to Berlin and Lagos to London emptied as organizers of the student strike called demonstrations in more than 100 countries.