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Local News

TV drama pioneer dies

Prominent actor and director Hani al-Romani passed away on February 8, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported.

Romani, who also served as an MP, died in hospital after a battle with lung disease. He was 70 at the time of his death.

Romani was born in Damascus in 1939 and is considered a pioneer in Syria’s television drama industry. Romani’s key works include the television series Asaad Warraq, Abu Kamel and Hammam Al-Qishani. His most important films are Al-Hudoud and Wajhun Akhar Lilhob.

Gynaecologist arrested for selling baby

A Damascus gynaecologist has allegedly admitted to selling a new-born baby girl to a Lebanese man for SYP 460,000 (USD 10,000), the Syrian Days website reported on February 2.

The sale was revealed when authorities arrested two young men and a young woman in the Damascus suburb of Dummar. Following questioning by police, the young woman admitted to falling pregnant to one of the men. She subsequently went to the gynaecologist to seek an abortion, however he convinced her to keep the baby and sell it to him.

The girl said she travelled with the gynaecologist to Beirut where she gave birth in a private clinic. The baby was subsequently sold. Syria News reported that the gynaecologist had been arrested by police and admitted to his role in the crime.

Man convicted of killing former MP hanged

The man convicted of killing a former Syrian MP was hanged in Aleppo prison on February 2, the Syria News website reported on February 2.

Ahmad Muhammad Yahia, 37, had been found guilty by the Criminal Court of Aleppo of murdering former Syrian MP Zafir Kayyali and his wife Ameera al-Masri in March 2009. The court also ordered Yahia’s heirs to pay SYP 4m (USD 87,000) in blood money to family members of the victims.

Ahmad Abdallah al-Issa, 67, was also hanged at the prison on the same day. Issa was sentenced to death after killing his daughter and her two children and attempting to kill one of his own sons.