RIYADH: Saudi officials on Sunday announced the discovery of the country’s first-ever artifact from pharaonic culture — a 3,100-year-old inscription carrying the signature of King Ramses III. The inscription was found near the northwestern Saudi oasis town of Tayma, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Tabuk, a key stop on ancient trade routes, said …

Omer Faruk Aksoy is a man who has had the privilege of performing the Hajj many times. He is a veteran photographer and documentary filmmaker originally from Istanbul and has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for the past 29 years. On Sunday, his first ever exhibition of rare images from Mecca and Medina opened …

By Maya Dukmasova CAIRO: On Tuesday, Judith Butler, eminent philosopher, writer, activist and professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkley delivered the Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the American University in Cairo’s downtown campus. Butler, who is renowned for her groundbreaking philosophical contributions to the areas of ethics, gender studies, queer theory, feminism, …

CAIRO: Egypt’s antiquities chief says archaeologists have unearthed the upper half of a red granite statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago. Zahi Hawass says the statue was discovered on Thursday at the site of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III, one of the largest on the west bank of the …

Alexandria, the Pearl of the Mediterranean, outclasses Cairo, Mother of the World, with its genteel poise. Although it’s claimed Alexandria is more cosmopolitan than Cairo, this coastal city presents itself as a grand old lady, kept young by the fresh sea breeze, nostalgic for its past European connections. Separated by the Mediterranean Sea from Europe, …

NEW YORK: US actress Jill Clayburgh, who was twice nominated for Oscars for her portrayals of independent women, died of leukemia on Friday, the New York Times reported. She was 66. Clayburgh’s husband, the playwright David Rabe, told the Times she died at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut. She is best remembered for her role …

By Myriam Chaplain-Riou /AFP PARIS: For over a decade the biting, sex-fuelled satire of France’s best-known living writer Michel Houellebecq has shocked and delighted readers in equal measure, but the country’s top book prize has stubbornly slipped through his fingers. But this time the writer, who came within a hair’s breadth of a win on two …

“In Jazz, you have to be either shocking or impressive,” said Eftekasat keyboard player Amro Saleh, basking in the smoky glow of stage lights as he addressed a crowd of several hundred. “Unit Asia is both.” The Japanese-Malaysian-Thai jazz ensemble certainly lived up to this double whammy in its performance at Sawy Culturewheel on Tuesday …

CAIRO: Civil society organizations as well as a handful of intellectuals joined forces with the Ministry of Culture to launch “Cairo Meeting,” an event that aims at promoting cultural dialogue and cooperation. The two-day event that took place last week at Cairo University, the Opera House and Salah Eddin Citadel under the slogan “ Beauty: …

Exhibitions by international architects, artists and designers continue to attract record crowds at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale this week. The biennale, which opened on Aug. 20 and runs through Nov. 21, features an impressive program of exhibitions, lectures and performances. The Architecture Biennale is an offshoot of the Venice Biennale, which has been held …

By Helen Vesperini/ AFP Visit Nani Croze’s glassworks outside Nairobi and you could be forgiven for thinking that like Alice, you’ve fallen down a rabbit-hole and landed in Wonderland. Kitengela lies on a dust-blown plain outside the Kenyan capital, just beyond a small village full of ramshackle bars. A couple of kilometers further on, Croze’s glassworks …

Toni Morrison is "beloved" in France, the country’s culture minister said Wednesday, as he inducted the celebrated US novelist into the elite Legion of Honor society. In a ceremony in a gilded hall in the ministry, Frederic Mitterrand pinned a red and gold medal onto the celebrated author’s jacket as a scrum of photographers snapped …

By Maya Dukmasova While Fatih Akin has stepped away from his usual treatment of heavy subjects such as the search for identity and experiences of immigration with “Soul Kitchen,” Austrian Feo Aladag has picked them up again in the powerful drama, “Die Fremde” (When We Leave). The plot focuses on Umay (Sibel Kekilli), a young Turkish …

By Maya Dukmasova A warm, fuzzy movie is always a pleasure to have, especially when the plot is not too sappy, the acting not too false, and the happy ending is preceded by enough dramatic tension. In all of these aspects, Fatih Akin’s “Soul Kitchen” is a great success. Up until the release of his 2009 …

Amid concerns that Jean-Luc Godard may harbor anti-Semitic views, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is moving forward with plans to honor the filmmaker at its second annual Governors Awards. Godard is to be honored alongside film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, director-producer Francis Ford Coppola and actor Eli Wallach at a private …

As self-help manuals go, the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead has certainly stood the test of time. For centuries, the 3,500-year-old guidebook offered Egyptians a step-by-step guide to the journey from this life to the next. It remains famous, if poorly understood — a spooky collection of arcane symbols, crocodile-jawed monsters and jackal-headed gods. …

The people of Gaza have been dehumanized. This was the overarching message at the Cairo launch of Swedish journalist Mia Grondahl’s book “Gaza Graffiti: Messages of Love and Politics.” Organized by the Embassy of Sweden in Cairo and the American University in Cairo Press, Monday’s event drew a large crowd that included dignitaries and what …

TUNIS: "Microphone", about young hip hop and graffiti artists in Egypt’s second city Alexandria, scooped the top award Sunday of Tunisia’s Carthage Film Festival showcasing African and Arab cinema. Directed by Egyptian Ahmad Abdalla, the film impressed with its audacity and youth, announced the jury president, Haitian director Raoul Peck. "The Golden Tanit is awarded …

  A Golden Lion-winning Chinese director best known for portraying working-class struggles defended on Saturday his decision to try his hand at commercial cinema as he prepares to make his first kung fu epic. Jia Zhangke made his name with realist films that describe how China’s youth and workers cope with the country’s rapid economic …

Colombian author and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez is putting the finishing touches on a new novel and is about to publish his first book in six years, his editor said Thursday. The book out Friday in Spain and Latin America, "Yo no vengo a decir un discurso," (I Didn’t Come to Give a …

From Frederick Wiseman, a veteran American filmmaker and producer of documentaries about institutions and their human dynamics, comes an opulent new film entitled “La danse: Le ballet de l’Opéra de Paris,” one of the highlights of the European Film Panorama which kicks off tomorrow at Galaxy cinema and City Stars. This is an unprecedented inside …

Ibrahim El Batout’s third feature “Hawi” from Egypt won Best Arab Film while Josef Fares’ Lebanese comedy “Balls” picked up the award for Best Arab Filmmaker in recognition for its screenplay at the second Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF). DTFF came to a dramatic end on Oct. 30 at the Closing Night Gala and open-air …