GN Midday Thursday Jan 31 2013

Daily news headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News.

Transcript

00:00Good day and welcome to the Gulf News Update for Thursday, January the 31st.

00:14Here are the top stories at this hour.

00:17Syria has said that the Israeli airstrike deep inside its territory yesterday was targeted

00:21at a military research site at Jamraya.

00:24Media outlets, however, reported that the target was a weapons shipment to Hezbollah

00:27in Lebanon.

00:29According to the strike, Russia said it amounts to an unacceptable military intervention in

00:34a sovereign country.

00:36Egypt's opposition National Salvation Front has met with members of the ultra-conservative

00:40Nour Party.

00:41The meeting comes just days after it rejected negotiations with the Muslim Brotherhood President

00:46Mohamed Morsi.

00:48Gabrielle Giffords, the former U.S. Congresswoman who was shot in the head, begged lawmakers

00:53last night to act quickly to curb firearms.

00:56Her 80-word plea was the most riveting moment of the session, two years after she suffered

01:02head wounds in a shooting spree that killed six people.

01:05BlackBerry officials launched the Z10 yesterday, with the smartphones being made available

01:10in the UAE from February 10 at 2,599 dirhams.

01:15Both Etisalat and Do have started pre-bookings today.

01:19Shares in the struggling Canadian handset maker, which also rebranded itself as BlackBerry,

01:24dived 8% following the launch.

01:27In sport, Real Madrid needed a late goal from defender Rafael Varane to rescue a 1-1 draw

01:34with El Clásico rivals Barcelona last night.

01:37In the UAE, defending champion Rafael Cabrera-Bello is one of eight Spaniards hoping to extend

01:42the country's three-year dominance of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

01:46The event gets underway at the Emirates Golf Club today.

01:50In entertainment, the film with the most nominations in this year's Oscars has finally

01:55arrived in UAE cinemas.

01:57Lincoln has 12 nominations, including Best Actor and Best Director.

02:02Also showing is gruesome fairy tale Hansel and Gretel and Hindi-Tamil drama David.

02:08It's also a musically diverse Thursday, with rapper Kanye West in the capital and rock

02:13guitar legend Slash in Dubai.

02:16Today's high across the UAE will be 30°C, dropping to 17°C at night.