Among the more unlikely witnesses to the birth of the UAE on December 2, 1971, was a Moroccan-born French photographer called Bruno Barbey.
Barbey, who died last month aged 79, spent several days in Abu Dhabi leading up to the creation of the nation.
Most notable is a series that recorded celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed, the Founding Father, as Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
On the insistence of Sheikh Zayed these were moved from the actual date he became Ruler in July, when important negotiations were still under way, to the last week of November, on the cusp of unification.
To break the fast, he took me by the arm to return to his palace. Such an invitation was a great privilege
The series includes a celebration banquet at Al Manhal Palace and a parade along the Corniche, along with scenes of everyday life.
Barbey, the son of a French diplomat, spent his early childhood in North Africa. After training as a photographer at a Swiss art school, he began a career that would last four decades.
He would become part of the prestigious Magnum Photos, an international photographers co-operative, in the 1960s.
Much of his early reputation was built on covering conflicts, including Vietnam, Nigeria, the First Gulf War and Northern Ireland.
In the Gulf War, he captured near-apocalyptic images of Kuwait's burning oilfields, which were set alight by Saddam Hussein's fleeing forces in 1991.
But Barbey rejected the label "war photographer" and increasingly turned his lens to recording the world as he saw it, eventually publishing about 30 books of his work on four continents.
A retrospective at the Empty Quarter Gallery in Dubai in 2016 noted “his instincts seem to have always brought him to witness at the right time, and ahead of everyone else".
He arrived in what would soon become the United Arab Emirates towards the end of Ramadan in 1971, with Eid Al Fitr falling in late November.
Barbey visited Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain, gaining remarkable access at the highest level.
He recalled Sheikh Rashid, Ruler of Dubai, asking whether the sun had set.
“To break the fast, he took me by the arm to return to his palace," Barbey said.
"Such an invitation was a great privilege. Today, they kept the same culture. These experiences take me on a fantastic journey."
Barbey died on November 9 in Orbais-l’Abbaye, north-east France. Magnum Photos said he was “generous with his time and thoughtful about the situations that he spent time covering, which ranged from global wars to the streets of Morocco, the country of his birth".
An obituary in French newspaper Liberation described him as "a figure from the golden age of photojournalism".
He was frequently described as a “gentleman photographer” by colleagues.
Barbey described his technique for the Empty Quarter retrospective.
“I photographed there when I could, sometimes on assignments, mostly on my own," he said.
"My goal was to try to catch the spirit of the place.”
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit
As he spoke, Mr Aboul Gheit repeatedly referred to the need to tackle issues affecting the welfare of people across the region both in terms of preventing conflict and in pushing development.
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The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
