00:00Good day. Welcome to the Gulf News Update for Monday, December 30. Here are the top
00:09stories at this hour.
00:11Formula One legend Michael Schumacher was in coma after a skiing incident in the Alps
00:15in France, according to media reports.
00:18The 44-year-old seven-time world champion German suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and
00:23was in a severe head coma when he was transferred to University Hospital Centre of Grenoble
00:28in France. The hospital said in a statement that Schumacher required an immediate neurosurgical
00:34operation.
00:35Barrels packed with explosives and dropped from Syrian aircraft have killed 517 people
00:41in the northern province of Aleppo since 15 December, activists say. The Syrian Observatory
00:46for Human Rights says 151 were children and 46 women.
00:50Saudi Arabia pledged $3 billion to bolster Lebanon's armed forces in a challenge to the
00:55Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia's decade-long status as Lebanon's main power broker and
01:00security force. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman revealed a Saudi gift on Lebanese
01:05national television Sunday, calling it the largest aid package ever to the country's
01:09defence bodies.
01:11Egyptian police have arrested three journalists working for the Al Jazeera broadcaster in
01:15the capital, Cairo. They include the TV network's Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and
01:21former BBC correspondent Peter Grest.
01:24The Interior Ministry said the journalists had held illegal meetings with the banned
01:27Muslim Brotherhood. Fifteen people were killed in a bombing that destroyed a packed trolley
01:32bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd. It's the second attack in the city in two
01:37days after a suicide strike on its main train station.
01:40Occupancy in Abu Dhabi's hotels and hotel apartments climbed 10 per cent to 83 per cent
01:44in November over the same period in 2012, bringing the total number of arrivals to date
01:50to over 2.5 million, the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Cultural Authority said.
01:55Fast and Furious actor Tyrese Gibson confirmed that the Abu Dhabi shoot for Fast and Furious
01:597 will go ahead starting January 2014. Tyrese spoke to Tabloid on a red carpet in Dubai,
02:05where he is celebrating his birthday today.
02:08And finally, weather. The daytime temperature will be 22 degrees Celsius, falling to 14
02:12at night.
02:13That's all for now. Thanks for watching. And as always, you can get the latest news
02:17at CULTURE NEWS.COM
02:20CULTURE NEWS.COM
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