International choreographers perform at the Cairo Dance Festival

Suijkerbuijk has worked as an artist in residence at the Ezzat Ezzat Dance Company in Caïro, Egypt.

“It’s a collaboration between seven choreographers, who by chance all wanted to perform to work in the same period, so we decided to work together, and create one festival.”

Along with Ezzat Ismail the duo performed ‘Continued,’ which represents life as a continues movement.

Ezzat Ismail describes the piece: “It exposes the moments when we are hit by life’s problems and how they affect us, and shows the psychological impact when these problems are over, also how can we accept the problems and how we can continue in this life.”

‘The Balance’ choreographed by Egyptian dancer Hossam Abd Elhameed describes dream and balance and the relationship they share.

The choreographer explains:“It’s the balance between the past and the present and between the good and bad things, and between different types of dance, trying to explain human emotion, like hate and control, I tried to mix all these things together, me and the other person who is my mirror.”

American Megan Mazarick presented “Monster” a piece of work, which creates fantasy by mixing up archetypes.

Cairo-based NUT Dance Company presented “Bolt” a show by choreographer Hazem Header focusing on issues of gender in Egyptian society.

Our correspondent in Cairo Mohammed Shaikhibrahim says:

“Dance troupes crossed borders bringing with them a message of peace, joy and escapism for those living in the turbulent region.”

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Ruble-yuan settlements booming, set to reshape global finance

Settlements in local currencies between Russia and China now account for 7 percent of the bilateral trade, but the potential for growth is tremendous, experts tell RT. Yuan-ruble trade in Russia has grown 700 percent in a year.

Growing cooperation between Russia and China has become one of the hottest topics in the global economy. It is signaling the emergence of a strong alliance of one the world’s richest and strongest economies, which is expected to reshape the existing western-dominated economic model.

While energy deals between the resource – rich Russia and resource – hungry China look natural, bringing the countries’ finances closer looks like a real challenge to the US dollar system, experts agree, although the transition won’t be quick.

“The transition from the usual scheme of payments in major currencies is not a quick process, but with a certain political will and sufficient mechanisms of hedging currency risks in exports and imports it is quite feasible,”

Aleksandr Prosviryakov, Treasuries & Commodities Manager at PWC, told RT. He added that the first step towards this was the signing of a three-year agreement on currency swap worth 150 billion yuan in October 2014.

Currency swaps allow companies in both countries to use national currencies in mutual settlements. That means the Russian importers can purchase Chinese products with yuan, and the Chinese can make payments in rubles.

READ MORE: Ditching US dollar: China, Russia launch financial tools in local currencies

“We see a pretty rapid intensification of trade in the yuan-ruble currency pair in Russia,”

he said adding that the volume on the Moscow Exchange increased by 8 times in comparison with the previous year, and 6 times in the OTC market.

Prosviryakov said the agreement to supply Russian oil to China through the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean pipeline was the first major project implemented through settlement in local currencies.

An increased use of national currencies by major exporting and importing countries will lead to a reduction in the share of traditional currencies in international payments, he added.

The US dollar still remains preeminent in global trade; more than 80 percent is settled in dollars and 60 percent in international reserves. However, in 2014, the yuan leaped to nine percent of international settlements, which gives a chance that its role in the world financial system will become more important.

“There is a reason to believe that this trend will continue in the coming years and the role of the yuan will increase rapidly not only in international trade, but as the currency of international reserves of the central banks,”

he said.

China's decision to establish and lead the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is “the real crux of Beijing's current long-term international economic and financial strategy,”

Brendan O'Reilly, China-based writer and educator told RT.

“Now Beijing is making its own global bank that can compete with Western-dominated institutions,”

he said.

Fifty-seven countries have been approved as founding members of AIIB with Russia expected to become the bank’s third largest participant.

“I think Russia's participation in AIIB will have a positive impact on economic and trade cooperation between the two countries,”

said Prosviryakov. “One of the bank’s main tasks is financing infrastructure projects, a large part of which will be located on the territory of Russia. Investments in infrastructure will contribute to the development of bilateral trade, which will increase the likelihood of achieving the ambitious goal of the two countries to increase the turnover to $200 billion dollars by 2020.”

Even US allies such as Germany and the UK have signed on despite American objections, O'Reilly said.

“If the AIIB succeeds in its long-term goals of supporting Eurasian transport and trade infrastructure, then China, Russia, and many other states stand to benefit enormously,”

he said.

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Alexandre Lamfalussy, one of the fathers of the euro

The Hungarian-born Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy, one of the fathers of the EU’s single currency, the euro, has died in Belgium aged 86.
A naturalised Belgian since 1961 after he fled to the country before the iron curtain fell completely, he carved out a career in banking in Brussels before moving to the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland.
In 1994 he was chosen to lead the European Monetary Institute, the forerunner of the European Central Bank, and it was from here that he helped devise and launch the euro.
His one expressed regret was that the euro was launched without a harmonised monetary policy.

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No people there, only terrorists: Pro-Kiev governor eyes cutting road transport with rebel areas

The Kiev-appointed governor of Lugansk region plans to cut all road transport between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic. On Friday, almost 170 freight trucks were prevented from crossing the border.

“Soon any crossings of the disengagement line [between areas controlled by the Ukrainian government and the rebels] for transport, including cars, will be cut. All motorways will be blocked. An exception would be made only for pedestrians,”

said a statement published on Gennady Moskal’s website.

Moskal, who was appointed as the head of “civilian-military administration” of the Lugansk region by Kiev, was reporting the seizure of two trucks, which were “illegally” transporting beer to the rebel-held areas. A video of the episode was published on YouTube.

“There are no people there, only terrorists. Normal people have all gone to our side,”

Moskal told a truck driver while studying cargo papers. “If you are feeding the terrorists, then you are aiding and abetting them.”

“But it’s all Ukraine. Nobody declared martial law here,”

the driver argues.

“I banned everything from crossing except cars and pedestrians. And starting 12th there would be only pedestrians. Because of the likes of you,”

the governor replies.

“Yesterday we detained 168 freighters, and they started rioting at the checkpoint and threatening me. I don’t give a f**k about your threats,”

Moskal continues. “As for the beer, let them drink urine!”

Earlier on Friday 168 freighter vehicles were prevented from going across the disengagement line by the Ukrainian authorities Moskal’s administration said they were going to smuggle goods to the rebels with the help of corrupt Ukrainian military.

In November 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered that all bank services be halted for the rebel-controlled areas. The move effectively made impossible many business transactions between those areas and the part of Ukraine remaining under the government’s control. In the dissenting areas it was viewed as an attempt to strangle the rebellion economically after a failure to do it through military force.

The blockade is meant to be canceled as part of the Minsk agreement, a peace roadmap brokered in February by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. There was a scaling down the level of violence in eastern Ukraine since then, but little progress in finding a long-term solution that would restore peace in Ukraine.

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Communication breakdown complicated response to Baltimore riots

When riots erupted in Baltimore last month moments after the funeral of Freddie Gray concluded, Maryland’s governor almost unilaterally declared a state of emergency after being unable to reach the city’s mayor.

Officials close to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Governor Larry Hogan tell the Washington Post that a breakdown in communication between the two caused confusion to erupt on the afternoon of April 27.

By the end of that day, Gov. Hogan had activated the National Guard and city officials had decided they'd implement a curfew effective the following evening amid a wave of violence that eventually shuttered an estimated 200 businesses. Before a plan could be ironed out, however, Gov. Hogan reportedly prepared to act alone in lieu of letting delays on the part of the mayor risk making things worse.

READ MORE: Baltimore uprising: Solidarity protests spread across US LIVE UPDATES

Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died earlier in the month from injuries sustained while in police custody.

Hogan watched the chaos unfold from televisions inside the State House in Annapolis, MD, and called the mayor for an update at around 5 p.m. that afternoon, the Post reported. As matters escalated, though, Rawlings-Blake went an hour-and-a-half without informing Hogan about what her plan was.

In the interim, riots erupted across Baltimore as formerly peaceful demonstrations waged after Gray’s arrest on April 12 and his subsequent death started to turn violent. Police vehicles were set ablaze and property was destroyed during an hours-long rampage. There was no response from the mayor’s office until later in the evening.

Hogan had called an aide of his within the Emergency Operations Center in Baltimore, Keiffer J. Mitchell, and asked to be put in touch with the mayor, the paper reported. It took 90 minutes for Rawlings-Blake to return that call, however, and in the interim Hogan took it upon himself to draft two executive orders, each declaring a state of emergency, as he waited.

The aide informed Hogan that he may have to act without first speaking with the mayor.

“You’re going to have to make the call,”

Mitchell said.

The two orders drafted by Hogan, according to the Post, differed in that one said the mayor was consulted regarding the state of emergency and the other did not. Rawlings-Blake reportedly called Hogan at around 6:30 p.m. and the governor signed the declaration in which she was mentioned moments later.

Hogan's team had been “trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time,” the governor said that evening. “She finally made that call, and we immediately took action.”

Explaining the course of events to the Post, Rawlings-Blake said she deliberately took her time to best assess the situation.

“When you have a situation like this,

” Rawlings-Blake said, “whether I talk to people at 3:05 or 7:05, I didn’t want to give incomplete information or take my attention off the work that was being done to bring calm and peace to the city.”

But as the newspaper was quick to note, that inaction was the subject of the first question Rawlings-Blake faced when she finally held a press conference at 8 p.m. that evening to address the unrest.

Asked why she “waited five hours, all day, before your first announcement about what’s going on inside your city

,” the mayor said her administration had “been managing the situation.”

Kevin Harris, a spokesperson for Rawlings-Blake, told the Post that the mayor was “pissed off

” by the governor's remarks about “trying to get in touch” to no avail, and that she believed it was politicized and a “rookie move.”

Thousands of members of the National Guard descended on Baltimore as a result of the declaration, where they were joined by law enforcement officers from across the East Coast in patrolling the city and seeing that a curfew was honored. Hogan lifted the order last Wednesday, and two days later the US Department of Justice announced it was opening a federal probe of the Baltimore Police Department amid further accusations of excessive force.

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ancient civilisation fell victim to comet 13,000 years ago

The former journalist him had pointed to this lost civilisation existence, but despite his book selling around three million copies, he was ridiculed by academics, and a BBC Horizon programme had even aimed to demolish his theory.
Now, 20 years later, Hancock is set to publish a 500-page sequel titled 'Magicians of the Gods,' which has the "smoking gun" to prove his critics wrong.
It contains a series of geophysics and geological papers containing proof that Earth was indeed hit by a comet about 12,800 years ago. The comet has been masked because it struck ice and did not leave a crater.
The new book will be published in September.

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