00:00Good day. Welcome to the Gulf News Update for Monday, March the 3rd. Here are the top
00:09stories at this hour. The slavery drama, 12 Years of Slave, won the Academy Award for
00:14Best Picture, making history as the first movie from a black director to win the film
00:19industry's highest honor. Steve McQueen's unflinching portrayal of pre-Civil War American
00:25slavery won two other Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for newcomer Lupita Nyong'o.
00:32The film prevailed over space thriller Gravity, which racked up the most Oscars of the night,
00:37with seven, including the Best Director honor for Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. Australia's
00:44Cate Blanchett won the Best Actress Oscar for her acclaimed role as a socialite unhinged
00:49by her husband's financial crimes in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, while Matthew McConaughey
00:55walked off with the Best Actor award for Dallas Buyers Club. Motorists in Sharjah
01:00jumping the queue near a Dubai-bound road are causing massive delays to commuters already
01:05stuck in the morning rush hour. It takes 40 minutes to cover a 400-meter stretch on the
01:10new Ta'un Road leading to Al-Ittihad Road, a major link between the two emirates. The
01:16same journey takes only about one minute after the rush hour. Millions of children in the
01:21Middle East will be vaccinated against polio this month, after the crippling disease resurfaced
01:26in the conflict-hit Syria. Mass vaccinations have already been launched in Egypt, Iraq,
01:32Jordan and Syria, while a similar campaign in Lebanon will start on March 9. Two members
01:37of Libya's parliament were shot and wounded when protesters stormed the General National
01:42Congress in Tripoli. The protesters were demanding that the GNC be dissolved and a date set for
01:47early elections.
01:49Ukraine is mobilizing for war, and Washington has threatened to impose economic sanctions
01:54on Russia. The move came after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade
01:59his neighbor in Russia's biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War. Russian
02:04forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow
02:09has a naval base. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he will visit Kiev on Tuesday
02:15to show strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty. At least 11 people were killed and 24 wounded
02:21in a gun and suicide bomb attack at a court complex in Islamabad. No one immediately claimed
02:27responsibility for the attack in the Pakistani capital.
02:31In sport, world No. 1 Rafael Nadal will team up with his 14-times major champions Pete
02:36Sampras for Mumbai in the inaugural International Premier Tennis League later this year. Mumbai,
02:43Singapore, Bangkok, and Dubai will be the four teams in the franchise-based league.
02:48The tournament to be played from November 28 to December 14 will have Novak Djokovic
02:53and former women's No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki leading the Dubai challenge.
02:58And finally, weather. Today's high across the UAE will be 26 degrees Celsius, dropping
03:03to 18 degrees at night.
03:05That's all for now. Thanks for watching. And as always, you can get the latest news
03:09at gulfnews.com.
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