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Fox apologises for Birmingham 'Muslim-only city' gaffe

[email protected] (PTI)
January 19, 2015

Fox apologises

London, Jan 19: US Broadcaster Fox News today apologised for airing comments from an American terrorism expert who claimed that the British city of Birmingham is "a totally Muslim city" where non-Muslims simply "don't go".

Steven Emerson, an American terrorism commentator, made the claims as he spoke to the channel about the terror attacks in France last week.

Emerson retracted his claims after being contacted by media outlets.

Fox yesterday said it "deeply regrets" the errors and apologised to the people of Birmingham.

Issuing the apology presenter Jeanine Pirro, who was interviewing Emerson when he made the claims, said a guest had made "a series of factual errors that we wrongly let stand unchallenged and uncorrected."

"The guest asserted that the city of Birmingham, England, is totally Muslim and that it is a place where non-Muslims don't go," she said.

"Both are incorrect." She went on to say census data from 2011 indicated 22 per cent of the population of Birmingham identified themselves as Muslim.

"We could find nothing that indicated Birmingham is a so -called no-go zone.

"We deeply regret these errors and apologise to the people of Birmingham, our viewers and all who have been offended."

Emerson's comments led to a Twitter backlash with the hashtag Fox News Facts trending with people inventing humorous "facts".

British Prime Minister David Cameron had also criticised Emerson dubbing him as a "complete idiot".

"Frankly I choked on my porridge and thought it must be April Fool's Day. This guy is clearly a complete idiot," Cameron had said last week.

The apology also comes after Emerson attempted to make amends by donating 500 pounds to Birmingham Children's Hospital, and telling Sky News listening back to his comments is like "water-boarding", the Telegraph reported.

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Agencies
March 6,2020

Up to 2,241 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported across the globe as of Thursday, bringing the total count to 95,333, according to the latest official data by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Five countries, territories and areas reported COVID-19 cases for the first time in the past 24 hours, the Xinhua news agency reported.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasised the importance of implementing a comprehensive approach to mitigate the impact of the virus in a briefing on Wednesday.

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News Network
June 6,2020

Islamabad, Jun 6: Pakistan has reported a record 97 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, taking the total number of fatalities to 1,935, while the number of confirmed cases in the country approached 94,000 after over 4,700 infections were detected, the health ministry said on Saturday.

Punjab registered 35,308 COVID-19 cases, Sindh 34,889, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 12,459, Balochistan 5,776 Islamabad 4,323, Gilgit-Baltistan 897 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 331 cases, the Ministry of National Health Services said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases reached 93,983 after 4,734 new infections were detected across the country, it said.

With a record 97 fatalities in one day, the death toll in the country has reached 1,935, while 32,581 people have recovered from the disease.

The ministry said that the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Pakistan are 59,467, out of which 1,265 patients are in critical condition.

More than 100 labs in the country have so far conducted 660,508 tests, including 22,185 in the last 24 hours.

There are 747 hospitals across the country with COVID-19 treatment facilities where 5,060 patients are being treated. Others have been asked to self-isolate at home.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Washington, Mar 28: A US-based lab has unveiled a portable test that can tell if someone has COVID-19 in as little as five minutes, it said in a statement Friday.

Abbot Laboratories said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given it emergency authorization to begin making the test available to healthcare providers as early as next week.

The test, which is the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology, also shows negative results within 13 minutes, the company said in a press statement.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus," said Abbot president and chief operating officer Robert Ford.

The test's small size means it can be deployed outside the "traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots," Ford said, and Abbott is working with the FDA to send it to virus epicenters.

The test has not been cleared or approved by the FDA, and has only been authorized for emergency use by approved labs and healthcare providers, the company said.

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