News in Brief -2024-08-02

Under pressure from allies, Maduro asks
Supreme Court to audit polls result
CARACAS (Venezuela), Aug 01: Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said he asked the country's Supreme Court to conduct an audit of the presidential election, after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory and amid international calls to release detailed vote counts. Maduro told reporters Wednesday that the ruling party is also ready to show the totality of the vote tally sheets from Sunday's election. "I throw myself before justice," he said to reporters outside the Supreme Court's headquarters in Caracas, adding that he is "willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated." — AP
Russia to free 3 US citizens in prisoner swap
MOSCOW, Aug 01: Three US citizens imprisoned in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, were expected to be released on Thursday under a prisoner exchange deal. Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva will be released under the deal agreed by the Biden administration, a senior US official confirmed. In total, the exchange will involve 24 prisoners held in Russia, the US, Germany and three other Western countries. The swap has not happened yet but is expected later on Thursday. — BBC
UK PM holds crisis meeting over unrest
LONDON, Aug 01: Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned British police chiefs for a crisis meeting on Thursday over violent unrest that followed a stabbing attack that left three young girls dead. A 17-year-old suspect was due in court to face three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder. The attack on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem. — AP
Bomb attack in north Nigeria kills 19
KANO, Nigeria, Aug 1: A bomb exploded in a teahouse in a village in northeast Nigeria, killing 19 people and wounding two dozen more in the second major attack in a few weeks, security sources said on Thursday. — AFP