By Yadnom Awu/Asaba
United Kingdom
Trump Gives BBC Ultimatum To Retract Report On Him
The President of America, Donald Trump, has given the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, up till Friday this week to retract its report on his speech.
He threatened to sue the corporation, the single largest public broadcaster in the world, with a $1 billion suit, if it fails to do so.
The threat was contained in his letter to the corporation .
Trump has taken exception to the editing of his speech by the organization.
The BBC has conceded to have edited the speech out of context and apologized for what it termed an error if judgment.
The copy was broadcast last year based on the January 6, 2021, speeches in Washington.
The BBC ran its edited version of the speeches on its programme, Panorama.
Two of its chiefs, the Director – General, Tim Davies, and the Director of News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness, have both resigned following the media blitz on the error which arose when different speeches of Trump on the 2020 presidential poll in the country, which he lost to Joe Biden, were edited out of context to give the wrong impression that he actively encouraged the attack on Capitol Hill after the loss.
Pakistani
12 Die In Car Explosion
More than 12 persons died this morning in Islamabad after a car exploded outside a packed court house in Pakistan.
More than 20 others were injured in the explosion .
The blast set fire to the suicide car and other nearby vehicles.
The police have cordoned off the area , and investigations have begun.
There has been no claim of responsibility by any group .
Today’s incident came a day after a suicide bomb attack at a cadet college in the Western part of the country.
The explosion also came against the backdrop of a similar explosion in Delhi , capital of India, in which eight persons died and scores of others were injured.
The authorities said it would leave no unturned to locate those behind it, and Interior Minister, Amit Shah, vowed stiff punishment for those behind the attack.
America
Senate Votes On Interim Pact To End Shutdown
The Senate has voted in favour of an interim measure to end the shutdown of the American government.
The shutdown has been on since October 1, and has led to the closure of many government offices.
Some 678,000 Federal Government employees have been without pay since the shutdown started at the end of the last fiscal year.
But , in a new twist to the debacle, the Senate,last night, surprisingly got the 60 votes to pass the interim measures.
By a vote of 60 to 40, the Senate passed the measures, after eight Democrats broke faith with their party’s stance, and voted in support of the move.
The House of Representatives is due to vote on the package y measures on Wednesday before it can be presented to the President for signing.
Aside from the non- payment, the shutdown triggered 1,400 flights across 40 airports.
More cancmationsare expected today
Iraq
Iraqis Vote In Parliamentary Polls
More than 20 million voters are casting ballot in parliamentary polls in Iraq.
They are voting to elect their representatives for 329 seats.
The polls are running on the basis of proportion representation.
Some 7,700 candidates, including 2,300 women, are vying for the seats.
Under the law, 25 per cent of the seats are reserved for women, and 9 per cent for religious minorities.
America
US Suspends Sanctions On Syria Fir A Further 6 Months
President Donald Trump has extended the lifting of the sanctions regime it had placed on Syria.
The extension was announced by Trump after his meeting with the Interim President of Syrya, Ahmed Al- Asharaa.
The meeting was historic because Asharaa is the first such leader to meet the President of America,in 80 years.
In return for the extension gesture, Syria is to join the American coalition against the terror group,ISIS, to which the new Syrian leader was once an ally.
