AWARDED, to Dr. Attiya Ashour, the prominent professor of mathematics, and Dr. Abdel Raziq Abdel Fatah, former president of Helwan University, the Mubarak Medal for their contributions to their fields. Former Minister of Culture Ahmed Heikal won the Mubarak Award for Literature, while painter Adam Henin won in the arts category and Dr. Younan Labib for social sciences. Also last month, State Recognition Awards for Science went to former Minister of State for Scientific Research Dr. Venice Kamel Gouda and Drs. Mohammed Youssri and Hamdi Abdel Aziz, both former heads of the Scientific Research Academy. Al-Akhbar cartoonist Mostafa Hussein, director Enam Mohamed Ali and novelist Ibrahim Aslan took home State Recognition Awards for the Arts. Each winner receives LE 50,000 in cash and a gold medal.

AWARDED, to Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, the Arab Cub Scouts Shield in appreciation of his ministrys support for the international scouting movement in Egypt.

AWARDED, to Moroccan Taher Ben Jelloun, 60, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel The Blinding Absence of Light, which revolves around the torture of political prisoners in a detention camp. The novel was a best-seller in France, to which Jelloun immigrated in 1961. The award includes a cash prize of EUR100,000 and is handed out annually by the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

ELECTED, former Minister of Information Safwat El-Sherif as president of the Shura Council, the upper house of Parliament. El-Sherif was nominated by President Hosni Mubarak and resigned his cabinet post, which he had held for 22 years, to take up his new duties. El-Sherif replaces Mostafa Kamal Helmi, who gracefully headed the Council for 16 terms. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni has assumed responsibility for the Ministry of Information until the coming cabinet shuffle.

DIED, Metqal Tawfik Shamandy, 75, better known as the famous folklore singer El-Rayes Metqal, of circulatory failure in El-Agouza Hospital. Born in Karnak, near Luxor, Shamandy was a roving ambassador for Egyptian folkloric singing who went on to win international acclaim in Europe. His most famous songs included El-farawla (The Strawberry) and El-bint beida beida (The White White Girl).

DIED, singer Mohamed Kandil, 75, of a heart attack at El-Anglo Hospital. A prolific writer and performer of some 2,500 popular songs, Kandil also made a name for himself in the movie business. None other than Omm Kolthoum, the mother of Egyptian song, claimed Kandil had one of the sweetest voices in the Arab world.

Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Ronald Reagan

DIED, former US President Ronald Reagan, 93, at his home in Los Angeles. He had suffered from Alzheimers disease since 1994. Reagan went down in history books as the man who fought the closing chapter in the nearly 45-year-long Cold War with the now-former Soviet Union, which he famously called the Evil Empire. At home, his controversial supply-side economics (dubbed both voodoo economics and Reaganomics by his detractors) and hard-line social conservatism marked a dramatic shift in US domestic policy. He was buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

ACQUITTED, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Magdi, former deputy chairman of Al-Salam International Hospital in Cairo, of charges of misappropriation of funds, evading customs and taking bribes. Magdi was convicted in absentia of the charges at a trial some 15 years ago and sentenced to a 20-year term with hard labor. Arrested on an Interpol warrant in Dubai while attending a medical conference in May, Magdi was automatically granted a new trial under Egyptian law.

ARRESTED, the Palestinian businessman Aly El-Safdy, known by the nickname Sugar Whale, by Saudi police acting on an Interpol warrant. El-Safdy is expected to return to Cairo to face charges that he fled the country after allegedly defaulting on LE 600 million in loans his companies took from Egyptian banks.