00:00Good day and welcome to the Gulf News Update for Thursday, February 12th. Here are the
00:08top stories at this hour.
00:10US carriers should turn their attention to improving their product offering. Sheikh Ahmed
00:15bin Sayed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and CEO of Emirates
00:20Airline and Group has said, offer the best to the passengers and people will fly with
00:24you, Sheikh Ahmed told Bloomberg.
00:26The US Airlines, citing competition from the allegedly subsidized Gulf carriers, claim
00:31they have lost at least five percentage points of their share of flight bookings from the
00:35US to destinations in Asia. Refuting the claims, Emirates Airline President Tim Clark said
00:40the US government should not be persuaded by a non-representative focal minority.
00:45The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are expected to sign an agreement
00:50in Minsk today after an all-night talks over the conflict in eastern Ukraine. German Chancellor
00:55Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
01:00and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to sign the document consisting of 12 to 13 points,
01:06the Iftar Task News Agency reported.
01:09A court convicted the Costa Concordia's commander of the manslaughter deaths of 32 people in
01:14the cruise liner's capsizing off the Italian coast. It sentenced Francesco Schettino to
01:2016 years in prison, blaming him for causing the 2012 shipwreck and for abandoning the
01:25ship while passengers and crew were still on board.
01:29Police on Thursday were trying to determine whether hate played any role in the killing
01:33of three Muslims a day earlier, a crime they initially said was sparked by a neighbor's
01:37long-simmering anger over parking and noise inside their condominium complex. Neighbors
01:43said the shooter, Craig Stephen Hicks, always seemed angry and frequently confronted his
01:47neighbors.
01:49Golfer Tiger Woods announced he will take a leave from the PGA Tour and only return
01:53when he thinks he is ready. Woods made the announcement on his website late Wednesday
01:57after a run of poor performances, which included shooting the worst round of his professional
02:02career in January.
02:04Taylor Swift walked away empty-handed from the Grammys last weekend, but her consolation
02:08prize was yet another week with the best-selling album. The pop star's 1989 notched its 11th
02:14week atop the weekly Billboard 200 album chart, tying her record for weeks at number
02:19one from her second studio album, Fearless.
02:22Fans are in for a treat this weekend as Red Fest DXB 2015 brings The Script, Iggy Azalea,
02:28Bastille, Tinashe, Wilkinson, and more at Dubai Media City. Meanwhile, WWE superstars
02:35John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Luke Harper, and others hit the ring at Zion Sports
02:40City Tennis Stadium for the WWE Live Tour Abu Dhabi.
02:46And finally, the weather today is high across the UAE, with 25 degrees Celsius dropping
02:50to 19 degrees at night.
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