Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, has expressed his gratitude to all those who participated in the Dubai Fitness Challenge.
“Thank you to everyone who took part in @DXBFitChallenge, an initiative that works to transform Dubai into one of the world’s most active and dynamic cities. It motivated us all to set tougher personal goals and actually achieve them,” he wrote in a heartfelt post on Twitter.
He then went on to highlight the achievements of two particular “stars” of the challenge - Ghani Souleyman, a Togolese, who ran an ultramarathon (45km) a day for 30 days and Filipino Paolo Mangolinan, who swam a marathon distance (10km) a day for 30 days.
This year the fitness challenge, which encourages residents to carve out 30 minutes of time for exercise over a period of 30 days, saw over 1.5 million people take part, according to the organisers of the challenge.
It also had more than 100,000 people participating in Dubai Run while over 20,000 joined the Dubai Ride, which had cyclists taking over Sheik Zayed Road.
The annual fitness event was launched in 2017 by Sheikh Hamdan to encourage residents to adopt healthier lifestyles. This year, the event introduced various social-distancing and virtual features to keep participants safe as they embarked on their fitness journeys.
Brief scores:
Toss: Rajputs, elected to field first
Sindhis 94-6 (10 ov)
Watson 42; Munaf 3-20
Rajputs 96-0 (4 ov)
Shahzad 74 not out
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
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
