Sino-African forum
President Hosni Mubarak will open the Sino-African Forum in Sharm al-Shiekh later this month. The Chinese prime minister, 50 African ministers and 300 major Chinese companies will take part. The forum will focus primarily on pumping more Chinese investment in Egypt and other African countries and increasing the volume of trade exchange between them.
Police cars
The Egyptian Interior Ministry received a gift of 16 police vehicles from the Italian Interior Ministry. The vehicles are Toyota Land Cruisers; 14 of them are equipped for use in desert and tropical areas, and two are equipped for medical aid. State-of-the-art technology has been used to allow the vehicles to operate under unusual conditions. They are equipped with reinforced shock absorbing systems, double petrol tanks, air compressors, special radio transmission devices, as well as snorkel systems—special systems for filtration and aeration which allow the vehicles to wade in minor waterways.
Patents in Arabic
Egypt is set to become the first country to accept patent applications in Arabic—a move that could speed up the patenting process for Arabic speakers around the globe. The Egyptian Patent Office (EGPO) was appointed as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) during the recent assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) member states. EGPO has become the fifteenth international office to be approved by WIPO under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It is the first African or Arab country to receive accreditation and the third in the developing world, joining Brazil and India.
ISA and IPEA centres receive patent applications that are forwarded from patent offices around the world. The centres examine and research these applications and, based on their findings, may recommend that an inquirer apply for a national patent in any country. Patent regulations differ from country to country.
Cairo and Florence
Scholars from Egypt, Italy and Syria attended the conference on “Preservation of cultural and architectural heritage and paper and digital manuscripts” recently held in Cairo at the Supreme Council of Culture. The conference was organised by the General Authority for Books and Documents in cooperation with the Italian Florence University.
Bus and Bus
Egypt will participate in an international exhibition for public transportation in Italy called “Bus and Bus” from November 18 to 21. The exhibition is one of the largest in the field of public transportation and buses in the world. Egypt’s participation comes within joint Egyptian Italian efforts to develop trade relations in the field of transportation.
Sacred lake
Archaeologists have unearthed the site of a pharaonic-era sacred lake in a temple to the Egyptian goddess Mut in the ruins of ancient Tanis, a spokesman for the Culture Ministry has said. The ministry said the lake, found 12 metres below ground at the San al-Hagar archaeological site in the eastern Nile Delta, was 15 metres long and 12 metres wide and built out of limestone blocks. It was in a good condition. This was the second sacred lake found at Tanis, which became the northern capital of ancient Egypt in the 21st pharaonic dynasty, over 3,000 years ago. The first lake at the site was found in 1928, the ministry said. The goddess Mut, sometimes depicted as a vulture, was the wife of Amun, god of wind and the breath of life. She was also mother of the moon god Khonsu.