Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said he hopes to become the next UNESCO Secretary-General.

Addressing a meeting of the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs under Ambassador Rauf el-Ridi, Hosni said he set up a working team of Egyptian experts to run his UNESCO bid.

The team of dignitaries and intellectuals comprises Mohammed Salmawi, Mostafa el-Fiki, and El-Sayed Yassin and El-Ridi.

Hosni said Arab countries should be united on one candidate...

International support for Farouk Hosni UNESCO nomination, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 05, 2007.

When Charles Lang Freer was scouring the shops of Cairo's antiquities dealers a century ago, two falcon sculptures, pictured above, caught his eye. The "two great stone Hawks," he wrote at the time, "would nobly defend my little group of Egyptian art when permanently housed."

While amassing 1,400 items might seem a gigantic feat, Freer's Egyptian collection is fairly modest, with some of the best on display in a tiny room on the east side of the Smithsonian museum that bears the art collector's name. While most internationally regarded museums with Egyptian collections will show off a giant sarcophagus or two, or a golden funerary mask, the Freer has a fascinating showcase of small glass objects, including vessels, beads and amulets, which you could easily miss when strolling through its galleries. But if the Freer's Egyptian gems catch your eye, you could easily spend an hour surveying the array of diminutive but fascinating objects.

The collection should be a required stop at the Smithsonian museum, especially since there aren't too many Egyptian treasures in the museum collections in the nation's capital. It's also a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of the Mall and the mind-numbing nature of the thousands of federal offices adjacent to the Smithsonian campus, perfect for a lunchtime or late afternoon visit, when you can have the place all to yourself...

"Small glass vessels and sculpture collected by Charles Lang Freer", Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

Escape the Office: Egyptian Gems at the Freer, Michael Grass, The Washington Post, District of Columbia, USA, September 11, 2007.