WATANI International
15 August 2010
Nilesat 201
“Egypt and France have launched a new television satellite with the aim of bringing advanced broadcasting technology to the Middle East”, a statement from the Communications Ministry in Cairo said. The satellite, Nilesat 201, was launched from Korou, French Guyana, late on Wednesday 4 August by the Ariane space launcher and was manufactured by the French company Thales Alenia Space. “The new satellite will transmit 300 additional television channels and bring HDTV and 3D television to the region, as well as carrying IPTV and broadband services,” the statement said.
The satellite is expected to serve some 40 million households in the region. The new services add to the existing 560 television channels and 100 radio stations already available via Nilesat. The company has uplink stations across the Middle East, in Cairo, Dubai, Amman, Doha, Riyadh, and Beirut.
Two regional headquarters
Egypt has signed two agreements to establish the regional headquarters of the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Development Program in Cairo. The two offices will be in charge of supervising and coordinating regional programmes and activities. “Two other regional HQs of the UN Center for Human Settlements and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are scheduled to open in Cairo in the coming period”, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hussam Zaki said.
NRIAG as world heritage
Egypt has nominated its National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) for inclusion among UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The Egyptian National Committee for Education, Science and Culture has finalised the nomination procedures while scientists of NRIAG, the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Egypt’s Geological Museum are preparing a file on the history of the institute. NRIAG, which was established in 1903, has had a key role in the scientific and astronomical movement inside and outside Egypt.
Engineering day
Egyptian engineers marked the ninth Egyptian Engineering Day earlier this month. A celebration was held in the Conference Centre of the Smart Village on the Cairo Alexandria Road west of Cairo. A large number of engineering companies and industrial corporations joined in the activities of the day, along with more than 210 recent graduates from 28 State and private engineering schools in Egypt. Their graduation projects formed the highlight of the day.
Pharaonic Slovakia
With the aim of honouring the friendship between the people of Egypt and Slovakia, the Slovakian post authority will issue a new stamp in cooperation with Egypt Post. The design of the stamp has already been approved, and is in Pharaonic style.
USD550 million museum
Forty companies are vying to build the final phase of Egypt’s new USD550 million Grand Egyptian Museum which will showcase the largest collection of Pharaonic treasures in the world. The museum, which will span 117 acres overlooking the great pyramids of Giza and will exhibit 100,000 artifacts, will include lavish gardens copying Pharaonic designs, galleries and an archaeological research centre.
Thousands of ancient artifacts are already on display at the main museum in Tahrir Square, Downtown Cairo, but more are boxed away in storage and new finds are dug up every year.
Egypt’s Ministry of Culture, which spearheads the project, will announce a bid short-list in the space of a month. The Ministry said USD300 million of the museum cost would be funded through a Japanese loan, with the remaining financed by the Egyptian government.