00:00Good day and welcome to the Gulf News Update for Monday, March 31. Here are the top stories
00:09at this hour.
00:10The tourism dirham, a new fee announced by Dubai's tourism authorities in January, takes
00:14effect today. The fee will be charged for guests staying at hotels and hotel apartments
00:18in Dubai per room night. Hotels will collect the fee, valued between 7 and 20 dirhams,
00:22and pass it on to the DTCM.
00:24A Pakistan court indicted former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf on treason
00:29charges Monday. Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan between 1999 and 2008, pleaded not guilty
00:34when a judge read out the charges at a hearing in Islamabad. The charges include suspending
00:39the constitution, declaring a state of emergency in 2007, and purging the judiciary. If convicted,
00:45Musharraf faces the death penalty.
00:48Egypt has set May 26 and 27 for the first round of the presidential polls following
00:52the ouster of President Morsi. Egyptian expats will be able to cast their vote from May 15
00:57to May 18. The country's powerful former military chief, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has
01:01announced his bid for office and is widely expected to win.
01:05Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a win in local election hands him a mandate
01:10to chase the traitors within the state who are behind months of graft allegations. Erdogan's
01:15Justice and Development Party won 46% of the vote yesterday, according to unofficial results.
01:21A Tel Aviv court has convicted former Israeli Prime Minister Ihad Olmert in a trial for
01:26corruption. Olmert was convicted of receiving bribes in two separate cases, one of which
01:30was linked to construction of Occupy Jerusalem's massive Holy Land residential complex.
01:36In sport, Yuvraj Singh's return to form was the biggest positive for the Indian cricket
01:41team ahead of the knockout stage of the World Twenty20, according to skipper MS Dhoni. Yuvraj's
01:47innings of 60 set up the 73-run victory over Australia yesterday.
01:52Football and Liverpool crashed Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 at Anfield last night to overtake
01:56Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table.
01:59It's second time lucky for Dubai-born Parul Shah, who was crowned Miss Philippines Tourism
02:03at the Binnabing Filipinas pageant last night. The big title went to North Cotabato beauty
02:08Merejean Lastimosa.
02:11And finally, the weather today's high across the UAE will be 33 degrees Celsius, dropping
02:15to 23 degrees at night.
02:17That's all for now. Thanks for watching. As always, you can get the latest news on
02:20golfnews.com.
