00:00Good day, welcome to the Gulf News update for Thursday, March 2nd.
00:05Here are the top stories at this hour.
00:07US Attorney General Jeff Sessions came under fire after the Washington Post reported he
00:12met twice last year with Russia's ambassador to Washington, seemingly contradicting statements
00:17he made in Senate confirmation hearings in January.
00:21The revelation cast a fresh cloud over President Donald Trump's administration, which has repeatedly
00:26denied any suspected ties between members of the Republican election campaign and Russia,
00:31which US intelligence says interfered in the 2016 election against Trump's rival Hillary
00:36Clinton.
00:38The chief of the UN atomic watchdog will hold talks on Iran's nuclear deal for the first
00:43time with senior officials from the administration of US President Donald Trump, who has branded
00:48it the worst deal ever negotiated.
00:50The 2015 deal between Tehran and major powers places restriction on Iran's nuclear activities
00:56in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions against the country.
01:00Sluggish Roger Federer reared a crazy failure to bury three match points in failing to a
01:05shock three-set defeat to Russian qualifier Evny Donskoy in Dubai.
01:10Former world number one Federer, who lifted his 18th Grand Slam title at the Australian
01:14Open in January, had match points in the second set tie-break and also led 5-1 in the third
01:20set breaker.
01:21But world-ranked 116 Donskoy battled back to stun the third seed and set up a quarter-final
01:26clash against Lucas Pouilly of France with a thrilling victory.
01:30Rihanna never went to college, but the R&B superstar voiced delight as she was presented
01:35an award by Harvard University for humanitarian work.
01:38Harvard named the 29-year-old singer its Humanitarian of the Year, pointing to her projects that
01:43include an advanced centre to treat breast cancer in a native Barbados and support for
01:48girls' education around the developing world.
01:51And finally, the weather.
01:52Today's high across the UAE will be 28 degrees Celsius, dropping to 19 degrees at night.
01:57That's all for now.
01:59A reminder, our next bulletin will be on Sunday, but you can always get the latest news on
02:02golfnews.com.
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