00:00Good day, welcome to the Gulf News update for Wednesday, January the 8th. Here are the
00:09top stories at this hour.
00:11His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister
00:15of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, has issued a decree forming the Higher Organizing Committee
00:20for the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. The decree appoints Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum,
00:26President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and
00:30Group as the committee's chairman. Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, Director General of the
00:35Dubai Rulers' Court, will be the committee deputy chairman, while Reem Al Hashimi, Minister
00:40of State, will be its managing director. The committee will draw up a plan to help achieve
00:45the goals of hosting World Expo 2020 in the Emirates.
00:49Alert Gulf newsreaders helped reunite a mentally challenged man with his family after they
00:53spotted him sitting on a public bench in Dubai's pouring rain. 30-year-old Adil Afzal, a schizophrenic,
01:00went missing on New Year's Eve at Mamza district. Reader Suresh Balan saw him sitting on a bench
01:05at Baniyar Square Park at 10am yesterday and alerted Gulf News about the missing man. The
01:11paper had reported what Afzal was wearing and his description. Adil's father, Afzal
01:16Haque, rushed to downtown Dubai from Sharjah with his two other sons when he was given
01:21the happy news.
01:22I'm very grateful to Gulf News and those who found him and supported him," he said.
01:27The leader of Al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda-linked group fighting against the Syrian government,
01:31called for an end to clashes between factions opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime. Abu
01:37Mohammed al-Julani's call came after clashes between the Free Syrian Army, the main Western-backed
01:42rebel force, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
01:46The second hearing in the trial of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on charges
01:50of incitement to kill opposition protesters is expected to be held today amid tight security.
01:56The trial comes a day after an Egyptian labor ministry official and three trade union activists
02:01were kidnapped in Sinai.
02:03Nine people were charred in their sleep when a fire broke out in three coaches of the Bandra
02:08Dehradun Express in Indiastani district earlier today. The fire erupted in one coach and soon
02:13spread to other coaches where passengers were sleeping.
02:17Gunmen killed a former Miss Venezuela and her partner in front of their young daughter
02:21in an attack that shocked the nation. Monica Speer, a 29-year-old soap opera star, was
02:27killed in what appears to have been a botched robbery after their car broke down on a highway
02:32in northwestern Venezuela late on Monday.
02:35In sports, Manchester United crashed to a third consecutive loss for the first time
02:39since 2001 after losing 2-1 at Sunderland in their League Cup first leg semifinal yesterday.
02:46United were looking to bounce back from successive home defeats, but instead they lost to the
02:50Premier League's bottom side.
02:53And Transformers director Michael Bay has addressed his meltdown at the Consumer Electronics
02:57show in Las Vegas. Bay, who attended the event to promote Samsung's new curved television
03:02screen, panicked and walked off the stage in the middle of a speech when a teleprompter
03:07failed him.
03:08Wow, I just embarrassed myself at CES. I guess live shows aren't my thing, he said in a post.
03:14And finally, the weather. Today's high across the UAE will be 21 degrees Celsius, dropping
03:18to 15 at night.
03:20That's all for now. Thanks for watching and as always, you can get the latest news at
03:23gulfnews.com
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