By Paula Hancocks, CNN

February 8

Dubai, UAE (CNN) - A shadowy figure murdered in his Dubai hotel room by a hit squad that the police say operated with European passports. It sounds like the plot of a John Le Carré spy novel, but this is reality and the hunt is on for the killers of top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Retracing his footsteps, here's the picture that emerges: al-Mabhouh landed at Dubai International airport on the afternoon of January 19. Then, a short drive to his hotel, the al Bustan Rotana, where just hours later he would be killed.

Dubai police say he was not traveling under his real name, so the hotel staff would have been unaware he was one of the founding members of Hamas' military wing and was wanted by Israel for more than 20 years.

According to family members, he booked a room on the first floor, making sure there was no balcony and that the windows were sealed so no one could enter.

His brother in Gaza tells CNN he never ate or drank in a hotel or on a plane as he knew he was a target. Dubai police say he then left the hotel, returning around 9:30 p.m. They want to know where he was during that time and, crucially, who he met.

Dubai police refused to talk to CNN, but they told al-Mabhouh's family there were signs of five or six electric shocks on his legs, behind his ears, on his genitals and heart. Blood on a pillow led police to believe he was suffocated.

Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan, Dubai's chief of police, has told local media they are looking for a professional gang, many of whom held European passports.

It's believed they left the country even before al-Mabhouh's body was discovered. Dubai police are working closely with Interpol to track the killers and have publicly voiced surprise that such a figure within Hamas was traveling without his own security.

At al-Mabhouh's funeral in Damascus, Syria, where he spent the last years of his life, few doubted Israel was behind the assassination.

At his family home in Gaza there is the same conviction that Israel's intelligence unit, Mossad, was responsible.

His brother Farq al-Mabhouh said: "If you know the purpose of his visit to Dubai then you know the result of 90 percent of the investigation. Some in Hamas say Dubai was a stop off for a third country he was traveling to."

The brother also claims al-Mabhouh ran a textile company, in addition to his Hamas duties, and that he may have been in Dubai for that reason.

Al-Mabhouh's father, Abed al-Rauf, told CNN: "There was an attempt to kill him in Lebanon and he survived, two other attempts in Syria and he survived. Israel has been after him for the past 22 years."

His mother, Fatima agreed, saying she has been expecting him to be assassinated for years.
Israel certainly has good reason to put him on its most wanted list. Al-Mabhouh was behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989.

Israeli security sources tell CNN al-Mabhouh was a key link between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas and he was involved in smuggling arms to Gaza. The same sources also point out an arms dealer could have many enemies, not just Israel.

As is its policy on security matters like these, Israel will neither confirm nor deny any involvement in al-Mabhouh's death.

Analysts point to two benefits from this policy: there can be no international repercussions if there is no admission and even if Israel is falsely accused of an assassination, it can only help Mossad's reputation of being able to hit a target wherever and whenever it chooses.

But Mossad has had its public failures. An attempt to poison Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan in 1997 led to the capture of two Mossad agents. The late King Hussein then forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send the antidote to save Mashal's life and to release Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheik Yassin. A few years later, Yassin was assassinated by Israel in Gaza.

Dubai police have said Mossad could be behind this killing on their territory and has warned Hamas and Mossad to stay away. But the evidence is not compelling yet to lay official blame.

From CNN's Living Golf

(CNN) - Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez made it third time lucky as he won the Dubai Desert Classic after beating European Tour No. 1 Lee Westwood in a three-hole playoff on Sunday.

Miguel Angel Jimenez clinched his first tournament victory since the BMW PGA Championship in May 2008.

The 46-year-old, twice a runner-up in the tournament, saw his English rival miss winning putts at the first two holes, both played at 18, and had to drain a 15-footer himself at the second to stay in contention.

Jimenez had a much easier attempt from four feet to win at the par-four ninth hole after the 36-year-old Westwood hit the greenside rough with his second shot and then missed a six-foot putt for par.

"I feel so proud to win this trophy. I like the golf course, I like the ambience and I like the people and I am very happy," world No. 60 Jimenez told reporters after clinching the first prize of $400,000 with his 16th victory on the European Tour.

"I made a very good putt on the second hole of the playoff on the 18th that kept me going, then I had a putt to win. My last win was in 2008 in the PGA, and it proves that old guys like me can win."

Jimenez and world No. 4 Westwood had started the final round in a four-way tie for the lead along with Asian No. 1 Thongchai Jaidee and young Spaniard Alvaro Quiros.

Jimenez missed a birdie putt at 18 to finish with par 72 for the clubhouse lead of 11-under-par 277, then Westwood joined him as he picked up a shot at the par-five closer to card the same score for the day.

Westwood had led by two shots early on, but a double-bogey at the par-four fifth hole saw him caught again.
Jaidee of Thailand finished third after his 73 left him one stroke back, missing a short birdie putt at 18 that ruled him out of the playoff.

Germany's Martin Kaymer (70) was tied for fourth on nine-under with Italian Edoardo Molinari (71), while Quiros was another shot back along with defending champion Rory McIlroy.

Quiros had a nightmare 75, carding five bogeys including three at his last five holes, hitting the water hazard at 18 as he sought an eagle to reach the playoff.

World No. 9 McIlroy's 73 was boosted by a birdie at 18, but four bogeys ended his title chances.
American veteran Tom Watson tied for eighth with world No. 10 Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Frenchman Gregory Bourdy as all three closed with 68.

The newest faces of Iraq's army are those of women, as CNN's Diana Magnay reports.

Inside the Middle East
Hosted by Hala Gorani from the UAE
Debuts February 3rd

Emirati filmmaker Nayla Al-Khaja.

UAE’S FIRST FEMALE FILMMAKER
Nayla al Khaja is the bright new face of the Emirati film industry. The UAE’s first female filmmaker has already challenged official regulators and censors with controversial topics like pedophilia and subtler themes still considered taboo in this conservative society, like relationships outside of marriage. Tracey Holmes speaks to the energetic young Nayla about her film, her ambitions, and the issues facing her generation.

The idea for Sarah's Bag began while its founder was researching a thesis on women in prison.

PRISON CHIC – SARAH’S BAG
Chic and trendy, Sarah Beydoun’s hand-embroidered purses gained worldwide fashion fame when Queen Rania and Catherine Deneuve were spotted carrying them. A social worker turned entrepreneur, Sarah grabs attention not only for her designs but for her remarkable team of seamstresses. Each ‘Sarah’s Bag” is meticulously handmade by Lebanese women prisoners or former inmates as a source of income and a way to reintegrate into society. Brent Sadler introduces us to the women behind the brand and gets a sneak peak of prison chic.

Tunisia's liquid gold: boutique extra virgin olive oil.

LIQUID GOLD
Tunisia is the world's fourth largest producer of olive oil, but Les Moulins Mahjoub south of Tunis assiduously shun the mass market.They've occupied a niche, producing the purest "boutique" olive oil for the most discerning–and wealthy–pallets. Ben Wedeman, CNN's authority in all things olive, puts their oil to the test.

SLICES OF LIFE
We bring you an I-Report from a twitter gathering in Amman and show you sights and sounds of the Al-Ain Aerobatics Show.
We also conduct a taste test of some gourmet dates and introduce you to a fashion designer who specializes in haute couture abayas.

Wednesday: 0830, 1430
Saturday: 0830 1700, 2030
Sunday: 0530, 1530
Monday: 0300
(All times GMT – bear in mind most countries are in Daylight Savings Time)

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) - Mourners buried a senior Hamas militant Friday after his recent death in Dubai - a death Hamas calls an "assassination."

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh as seen on a poster on a wall in the Gaza Strip town of Jabalia.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh died in Dubai on January 20, said Izzat al Rishq, a Hamas member based in Syria.

Al-Mabhouh was a founding member of the military wing of Hamas, which blamed Israel for his death.

"We hold the enemy responsible for the assassination of Mahmoud Mabhouh," the militant wing said in an online statement. "The enemy will not escape punishment."

It said Al-Mabhouh was responsible for capturing two Israeli soldiers during the first intifada and named the pair: Sgt. Avi Sasportas and Cpl. Ilan Saadon

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Sasportas was kidnapped on Feb. 16, 1989 and shot to death. His body was found in May 1989.

The ministry said the same Hamas terror cell that kidnapped Sasportas abducted Saadon on May 3, 1989. Saadon's body was discovered in 1996.

Government officials in Israel declined to comment on the militant wing's statement.
One official in Dubai told CNN that al-Mabhouh died of natural causes.

But the Emirates News Agency said authorities determined that the man was killed and were working with Interpol to hunt down alleged perpetrators thought to be part of a "criminal gang," some of whom have European passports.

Hamas said it is investigating the death and that it would publish details "in a timely manner."

Al-Mabhouh's brother, Fayek al-Mabhouh, said that preliminary results of Hamas' investigation show he was killed by electrocution and strangulation with a piece of cloth. Fayek said his brother had survived other assassination attempts. The Emirates News Agency report quoted a security source saying the gang had been tracking the victim.
Al-Mabhouh had lived in Syria for about 20 years. He traveled from Syria to Dubai on January 19 and died the next day, Hamas officials in Gaza said.

It's not clear why he traveled to Dubai, but Fayek al-Mabhouh said his brother arrived at a Dubai hotel in charge of the Hamas mission.

His body was returned to Damascus on Thursday night and was buried after Friday prayers, Hamas officials in Gaza said.

CNN's Kevin Flower, Saad Abedine, Caroline Faraj, and Talal Abu Rahma contributed to this report

From CNN.com

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) - An Ethiopian airliner with 90 people aboard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Lebanon early Monday, authorities said.
The Lebanese army and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon were scouring the area off the Lebanese coast where the Boeing aircraft was thought to have gone down.

Lebanese rescuers scan the sea as search operations continued off the Lebanese coast south of the capital Beirut on Monday.

Rescue crews had not found the wreckage, said Ghazi El Aridi, Lebanon's minister of public works and transportation.

The Ethiopian Airlines flight left Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut at 2:27 a.m. and was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

It disappeared from radar a few minutes after takeoff, El Aridi said.

The Boeing 737-800 had 83 passengers: 54 Lebanese nationals, 22 Ethiopians, two British-Lebanese, an Iraqi, a Syrian, a Lebanese-Canadian, a Russian-Lebanese and a person from France, the minister said.

Among them was the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, said Anne Charlotte of the French embassy.

The plane also had seven crew members.

Authorities did not immediately know the cause of the crash.

The plane crashed about 3.5 km (2.1 miles) west of the town of Na'ameh. Naa'meh is 15 km (9 miles) south of Beirut.

<a href="">Ethiopian airliner crashes off Lebanon; 90 on board

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) - An Ethiopian airliner with 90 people aboard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Lebanon early Monday, authorities said.
The Lebanese army and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon were scouring the area off the Lebanese coast where the Boeing aircraft was thought to have gone down.
Rescue crews had not found the wreckage, said Ghazi El Aridi, Lebanon's minister of public works and transportation.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight left Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut at 2:27 a.m. and was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
It disappeared from radar a few minutes after takeoff, El Aridi said.
The Boeing 737-800 had 83 passengers: 54 Lebanese nationals, 22 Ethiopians, two British-Lebanese, an Iraqi, a Syrian, a Lebanese-Canadian, a Russian-Lebanese and a person from France, the minister said.
Among them was the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, said Anne Charlotte of the French embassy.
The plane also had seven crew members.
Authorities did not immediately know the cause of the crash.
The plane crashed about 3.5 km (2.1 miles) west of the town of Na'ameh. Naa'meh is 15 km (9 miles) south of Beirut.

Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie blew away the competition at the Dubai marathon. CNN's Cal Perry spoke to the winner.

From the UAE newspaper The National
David Lepeska, Foreign Correspondent

DOHA (The National) – At two and a half years old, Iqbal al Assaad taught herself to count from one to 10 in Arabic and English. At five, she was in the second grade alongside seven-year-olds. At the age of nine she passed standardised ninth grade tests for 14-year-olds with flying colours.

“My father said every year we’re going to do this, you’re going to skip one grade and go to the upper one, and it worked out,” said Iqbal, as if it were as easy as skipping rope.

Today she is a 16-year-old medical student at one of the most prestigious medical schools in the region, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. “Maybe other students don’t have this motivation, but I like to study,” she said. “Since I was very young I would go up to my father and ask him to teach me something new.”

That curiosity and a preternatural focus have Iqbal poised to become one of the youngest Arab doctors in modern times.

“It is extremely impressive to have her in class, a student so young and at the same time so mature and capable in handling a very challenging curriculum,” said Prof Marco Ameduri, a Weill Cornell physics professor who taught Iqbal in two premed courses in 2008.

Iqbal grew up in Bakaa, Lebanon, the youngest of four children. Her father ran a covenience shop and her mother ran the house, where studying became a point of pride. Her eldest sister, 25, is married, but hopes to return to university. Her eldest brother, 23, is completing his studies as a mechanical engineer, while the other is writing his master’s thesis in physics, at 20 years old.

The real prodigy is Iqbal – but she has not done it on her own. To help her pass that ninth-grade standardised test, Lebanon’s education minister wrote a letter authorising her to take the test. Soon after, Iqbal fell ill and her parents took her to a local physician.

“He didn’t give me enough time, he didn’t give enough attention to what I wanted to tell him about my sickness,” Iqbal recalled. “It didn’t have such a big impact with me but maybe in other cases, like in cancer patients, where the psychological plays a big role, if the doctor doesn’t treat that patient very well, there’s going to be an impact on the patient – that’s what drove me to become a doctor.”

Hearing of her dream, the Lebanese education minister helped Iqbal again, requesting assistance from the Qatari first lady, Sheikha Mozah bin Nasser al Missned, who oversees the Qatar Foundation, which runs Education City. Sheikha Mozah granted Iqbal a full scholarship to an undergrad program at Weill Cornell, then helped her move to Qatar with her mother in January 2006. Only 12 years old, Iqbal was not intimidated by an unfamiliar country, the vast campus or her much older classmates. She has never known classmates her own age, yet they have never rejected or troubled her.

“I don’t feel that I’m younger than my fellow students – since I was five years old I’ve been with students that are older than me, so I’ve got used to it,” she said. “My classmates have always had the ability to accept me as one of them, and that’s what has happened here at Weill Cornell.” During a recent interview at her Education City campus, she responded to a reporter’s questions eloquently and without haste or apparent anxiety.

“Just observing her interactions with other students, you would not know that she was younger,” said Prof Ameduri, who is also the assistant dean for student affairs. “In fact, I saw her as a student leader, bringing students together, forming study groups and things like that.”

Yet she is up to a decade younger than most of her class, which is set to graduate in the spring of 2013. Iqbal, however, plans to take a gap year, or perform research for a year, before returning to Weill Cornell to graduate and become a doctor in 2014.

Thus she is no threat to become the world’s youngest doctor, widely believed to be Balamurali Ambati, an Indian who in 1995 graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine two months shy of his 18th birthday. Still, after three years of undergraduate and premed studies, Iqbal began medical school last fall. She completed her first term last week, which she said was “very good”.

She looked forward to anatomy and human structure classes, and, down the line, conducting physical exams and working with real patients. She plans to be a surgeon, maybe a neurosurgeon.

“I can predict and expect a very brilliant career for her,” Prof Ameduri said. “She will be very successful in clinical care of her patients and in research, and someday I hope to see her back here.”

He will probably get his wish. “I feel responsible towards this country, Qatar, and I want to come back after I finish [medical school] to pay this country back,” Iqbal said, thanking Sheikha Mozah, the university and the Qatar Foundation.

Before leaving for term break, she reflected on her accomplishments. “I’m an example: I’m a woman, but still I made it,” she said. “If you have the motivation and you have the abilities, no one’s going to stop you, whether you’re a woman or a man.”