00:00Good day. Welcome to the Gulf News update for Wednesday, January 22. Here are the top
00:09stories at this hour.
00:11Abusers who exploit children in filming, publishing or distributing pornographic materials by
00:17any means could face a minimum jail term of 10 years in the UAE. According to a new draft
00:22law on child rights, the same penalty will be handed down to abusers who are in a position
00:27of trust, authority or influence over the child. This includes family members, guardians
00:32or teachers and persons who exploit children in online grooming and sex tourism. Members
00:37of the Federal National Council have approved 52 of the 77-article draft law and are reviewing
00:44the remaining articles today.
00:46A major conference aimed at finding a political solution to the three-year conflict in Syria
00:51that has left 130,000 people dead is due to start in Switzerland today. The Syrian government
00:57and the main opposition are attending the Geneva 2 summit along with international allies.
01:02The key issue on which neither side appears willing to budge is the future of President
01:06Bashar al-Assad. Yemen's National Dialogue Conference has agreed on a document on which
01:11the new constitution will be based. President Abid Rabbu Mansour Hadi will reveal details
01:17of the rival political, tribal, religious and social group's vision for a new political
01:22system on Saturday. It's believed to include dividing the country into a number of semi-autonomous
01:28regions.
01:30Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who sat on a two-day protest in the Indian capital,
01:35has been admitted to hospital for tests. He is suffering from acute bronchitis. During
01:40his 30-hour street protest, Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues slept in the open.
01:46The northeastern United States shivered amid heavy snowfall and far below average temperatures
01:51today in a storm that grounded thousands of flights and triggered traffic chaos. The
01:56nasty weather, with its bone-chilling gusts and heavy snow, stretched from Washington
02:00to New England. The Midwest was hit hard as well.
02:03Sport and the Australian Open was left without a defending champion in the semifinals for
02:08the first time in the professional era, when Viktoria Azarenka followed Novak Djokovic
02:13out of the door today. Azarenka tumbled out with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-love loss to Agnieszka
02:19Radwanska.
02:20Football and Manchester City swept into the English League Cup final with a 3-0 win at
02:24West Ham last night. Alvaro Negredo scored twice, with Sergio Aguero getting the other.
02:30Telugu cinema icon Akineni Nageswara Rao died in Hyderabad early today, according to his
02:36family. The multi-award-winning thespian, who was battling cancer for a few months,
02:40was 91. Popularly known as A.N.R., he is survived by three daughters and two sons, including
02:47actor Nagarjuna.
02:48And finally, the weather. Today's high across the UAE will be 21 degrees Celsius, dropping
02:53to 15 tonight.
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