ISKENDERUN, Turkey // German Patriot missile systems to be deployed close to the Syrian border arrived at a port in southern Turkey yesterday.
Germany, the Netherlands and the United States are providing two batteries each to protect Nato ally Turkey from any possible incoming ballistic missiles from Syria, where the civil war has left about 60,000 dead.
Violence has flared along Turkey's border with Syria and shells fired from the latter have landed in Turkey, which has retaliated with artillery fire.
In other developments yesterday, the Arab League chief said the mission of the international envoy tasked with resolving Syria's crisis has not yielded even a "flicker of hope".
Nabil Elaraby, addressing the opening session of a two-day Arab economic summit in Riyadh, proposed that the gathered heads of state call for an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Syria and establish a monitoring force to ensure compliance with the truce.
Algeria's Lakhdar Brahimi took up his job as international envoy on Syria late last summer.
Meanwhile, the Russian government says it is sending two planes to Lebanon to evacuate about 100 Russians from Syria, the first such effort since the uprising began in March 2011.
Russia, the main ally of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, said that it has contingency plans in place to evacuate thousands more of its citizens.
In Damascus, the Syrian government blamed a rebel attack on a key power line for a blackout in the city and much of the country's south overnight.
The blackout hit residents especially hard because there are rampant fuel shortages and the winter cold pushed temperatures below freezing overnight.
While Damascus's 2.5 million residents have grown used to power cuts as the conflict damages infrastructure and saps the government's finances, they said the overnight outage was the first to darken the entire capital.
By noon yesterday, power had returned to more than half of the capital and the electricity minister, Imad Khamis, said authorities were working to restore it in other areas.
Also yesterday, Syrian warplanes launched raids on two towns east of Damascus, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers across the war-torn country, reported that the army shelled and deployed new reinforcements to the rebel-held town of Daraya, as part of its bid to quell the insurgency in the outskirts of Damascus.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The biog
Name: Mohammed Imtiaz
From: Gujranwala, Pakistan
Arrived in the UAE: 1976
Favourite clothes to make: Suit
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
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India squads
T20: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur
Test: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant
MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
Du Football Champions
The fourth season of du Football Champions was launched at Gitex on Wednesday alongside the Middle East’s first sports-tech scouting platform.“du Talents”, which enables aspiring footballers to upload their profiles and highlights reels and communicate directly with coaches, is designed to extend the reach of the programme, which has already attracted more than 21,500 players in its first three years.
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Rating: 4/5
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Fines for littering
In Dubai:
Dh200 for littering or spitting in the Dubai Metro
Dh500 for throwing cigarette butts or chewing gum on the floor, or littering from a vehicle.
Dh1,000 for littering on a beach, spitting in public places, throwing a cigarette butt from a vehicle
In Sharjah and other emirates
Dh500 for littering - including cigarette butts and chewing gum - in public places and beaches in Sharjah
Dh2,000 for littering in Sharjah deserts
Dh500 for littering from a vehicle in Ras Al Khaimah
Dh1,000 for littering from a car in Abu Dhabi
Dh1,000 to Dh100,000 for dumping waste in residential or public areas in Al Ain
Dh10,000 for littering at Ajman's beaches