VOA News for 4 July 2013 - 20130704
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 04/07/2013

Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
VOA NEWS  Thursday July 4th, 2013
From Washington, this is VOA news.  Coming up, a new interim head of state in Egypt following the ouster of President Morsi, and tensions are on the rise between the EU and the U.S.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is out.  [Egyptian's military ousted] The military ousted the country's democratically elected president and appointed an interim head of state after massive anti-government protest.
Egypt's new interim leader is 68-year-old Adly Mansour, Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court.  He will be sworn in on Thursday.
In the televised address late Wednesday, army chief Abdel Fattah Khalil al-Sisi announced suspension of Egypt's constitution.  General Sisi declared that the army is heeding the call of the Egyptian people, following a massive opposition demand that President Mohamed Morsi step down.
Following the televised address, Mr. Morsi issued a statement on his Twitter account calling the military's action a full coup.  He urged all Egyptians to reject the military action and he also called for them to be peaceful.
A number of world markets took a tumble Wednesday over fears the Egyptian unrest would continue and there was some uncertainty over the fate of the Portuguese ruling coalition.
Investors worried that the crisis in Egypt would affect Middle East oil shipments through the Suez Canal, a key transit point.
European traders were especially worried about the political uncertainty in debt-ridden Portugal after two key government ministers resigned this week in protest of Lisbon's austerity measures.
Pakistan condemned a U.S. drone attack that killed 17 suspected militants in the country's northwestern tribal area.
Pakistani officials say they fired four missiles at a compound near the market in North Waziristan.  They say the strike apparently targeted the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in China for a six-day official visit.  Ayaz Gul reports.
Prime Minister Sharif is visiting Beijing just weeks after his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang visited Islamabad and it comes at a time when Pakistan faces its worst energy crisis.  Power outages lasting up to an entire day in parts of the country have sparked violent protests and further stalled the already weakened national economy.
Officials in both the countries say the Pakistani leader will seek assistance on how to ease his country's energy troubles and increase Chinese investment in economic infrastructure development.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry says that the focus of Mr. Sharif's visit is essentially economic.
Ayaz Gul for VOA news, Islamabad.
European leaders have agreed that free trade talks with the United States should be held in tandem with discussions about U.S. surveillance.
EU leaders announced their decision on Wednesday in the wake of media reports that Washington had been spying on the EU.
The modern world is claiming yet another victim India's 163-year-old telegram service.  It will end later this month.  Anjana Pasricha has details in New Delhi.
Sixty-three-year-old Manoj Sachthey read the news that the last telegram will be sent out on July 14th with nostalgia.  "Taar" as it is called in India is inextricably linked with key moments of his life.
"Receiving a telegram used to be a very major event in the household."
The service survived the advent of the landline telephone and e-mail because of low telephone density and very limited access to the Internet.
But the proliferation of mobile phones through the remotest corner of the country during the last decade finally made it obsolete.
Anjana Pasricha for VOA news, New Delhi.
Indonesian rescuers have fanned out across Ache province to search for victims of a strong earthquake that struck the northern tip of Sumatra island on Tuesday, killing at least 24.
Authorities say the victims were killed by collapsing homes and landslides.
A series of aftershocks hit Ache in the hours after the 6.1 magnitude quake.
A U.N. agency says the decade ending in 2010 has turned out to be the warmest since modern recording history of, since the mid-1800s, they say.
The World Meteorological Organization says 2010 was the hottest year ever recorded.  The Geneva-based group says that some of the extreme weather events can be explained by natural variations.
However, WMO Secretary Michel Jarraud said rising levels of greenhouse gases are changing the climate.
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