In July 2014, Staffan de Mistura was enjoying a tranquil summer on the Italian isle of Capri when he received what might be one of the toughest job offers in the world.
The Italian-Swedish diplomat has had 40 years' worth of experience with the United Nations and served as deputy foreign minister in the Italian government headed by Mario Monti.
Mr de Mistura was chosen by the UN's former secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to replace Lakhdar Brahimi as the international mediator seeking to find a peaceful resolution to one of the bloodiest and most complex conflicts of the century, the Syrian civil war.
However, Mr de Mistura hesitated over Mr Ban's offer, he felt inclined to turn it down.
"I felt guilty," he told The Guardian newspaper in August 2014.
Mr Ban had shared with him “very wisely the current situation in Syria, how many dead, how many refugees, the level of horrors,” he said.
A few hours later, Mr de Mistura accepted the job, even though he had promised his family a "normal life".
Born in Stockholm in 1947 to a Swedish mother and an Italian father, Mr de Mistura graduated from the University of Rome with a degree in political science and development economics. He speaks seven languages, including colloquial Arabic.
The diplomat began his career in 1971 as a World Food Programme project officer in Sudan and has had over 42 years of humanitarian work experience and 19 overseas missions, largely in conflict zones.
The responsibility of a UN envoy for Syria is tough, the first two envoys, Kofi Annan and Mr Brahimi, resigned in frustration and disgust.
Mr de Mistura's predecessor, Mr Brahimi, was a veteran Algerian diplomat, who resigned in May 2014 after the failure of the second round of Geneva talks in January and February of 2014.
The eight rounds of UN-brokered peace talks ended last Thursday in Geneva without “real negotiations”.
Mr de Mistura's team failed to get the opposition and the Syrian government to engage in direct talks. The diplomat stressed that the regime failed to demonstrate the slightest willingness to negotiate.
The UN security council remains deeply divided with Russia backing Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, while the US, UK and France are supporting a coalition of opposition groups led by thy Syrian National Coalition.
Throughout his career, Mr de Mistura had developed a reputation as a creative diplomat with strong empathy for civilians and refugees.
"I understood, at 10 years old, the strongest pain for a political refugee is lack of dignity," Mr de Mistura told The Guardian, as his father was left stateless after the second world war.
Mr de Mistura worked for various UN agencies and served as the top UN envoy in Afghanistan in 2010-2011 and in Iraq from 2007-2009, and as the secretary-general's personal representative for southern Lebanon from 2001-04.
TWISTERS
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
Rating: 2.5/5
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
