Syria’s Assad stops speech due to low blood pressure

AMMAN: Syrian President Bashar al Assad suffered low blood pressure for a few minutes while delivering a speech to parliament before resuming normally, state television said on Wednesday. It said the speech which was supposed to be delivered at around noon would now be broadcast in full at 6:30 p.m. “This was a result of a small drop in blood pressure that Mr President suffered before he resumed his speech normally,” state televisions said. State media had earlier in the day flashed that a speech was due to be delivered to deputies after a parliamentary election last month that the opposition and independent observers denounced as a farce in a country under one party Baath rule.