Daily headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. Obama commutes Manning’s sentence, Palestinian parties to form a unity government prior to elections, Iran opposes the US joining Syrian peace talks, Kerber reaches the Australian Open third round, Betty White grateful for still being employed at 95. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:00Good day. Welcome to the Gulf News Update for Wednesday, January 18. Here are the top
00:06stories at this hour.
00:07US President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of soldier Chelsea Manning, who is
00:12serving 35 years behind bars for handing classified US documents to WikiLeaks. Obama pardoned
00:1864 people and commuted the sentences of 209 others, including Manning, in one of his final
00:24acts as president. Manning was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offences
00:30after admitting to leaking 700,000 sensitive military and diplomatic classified documents
00:35to WikiLeaks.
00:37The main Palestinian parties have announced a deal to form a national unity government
00:41prior to the holding of elections after three days of reconciliation talks in Moscow. After
00:47the government is formed, Palestinians would set up a national council, which would include
00:51Palestinians in exile and hold elections.
00:55Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said his government opposes the US joining
01:00Syrian peace talks to be held in Kazakhstan next week. That goes against the position
01:06of the other two organisers of the talks, Russia and Turkey, which have said the new
01:10US administration of Donald Trump should be represented in Astana.
01:15The negotiations mark the first time since the conflict began in 2011 that the US has
01:20not been at the centre of peace negotiations.
01:24World No. 1 Angelique Kerber gave herself the perfect birthday gift today by reaching
01:28the Australian Open third round, but she had to work hard against fellow German Karina
01:33Witthoft. The defending champion, who turned 29, battled through 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 and will
01:40next face Czech Kristina Pliskova, the twin sister of fifth seed Karolina Pliskova. Roger
01:46Federer, meanwhile, dug himself out of a late slump to fend off American qualifier
01:51Noah Rubin and enjoy a confidence-building win on the way to the third round.
01:57Betty White says the best thing about being 95 is that she is still employed. The Hollywood
02:01actress, who celebrated her birthday Tuesday, said she is most grateful for still getting
02:06job offers.
02:08And finally, the weather. Today's high across the UAE will be 23 degrees Celsius, dropping
02:13to 17 degrees at night.