VOA News for 25 July 2013 - 20130725
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-07-25

VOA news for Thursday, July 25th, 2013
From Washington This Is VOA News.
Dozens are dead in a Spanish train derailment.
A disgraced chinese politician is indicted. 
I'm Dave Deforest reporting from Washington. 
Investigators are trying to determine what caused a train in northern Spain to jump the tracks killing seventy seven people and injuring more than one hundred forty. 
The derailment Wednesday near a station outside the city of Santiago de Compostela is Spain's deadliest train crash since nineteen seventy two. 
Emergency workers worked through the night to rescue survivors. 
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has arrived to survey the crash site. 
Officials in Santiago de Compostela have cancelled ceremonies planned for today when Christians from around the world converge on the city to celebrate an annual festival honoring St James.
For more on this story visit our website, voanews.com. 
Chinese state media say disgraced Communist Party politician Bo Xilai has been indicted for bribery corruption and abuse of power. 
The official Xinhua news agency says Bo was indicted today in Jinan .  
An indictment paper quoted by Xinhua accused Bo of taking advantage of his position as a civil servant to seek profits for others. 
It also said he accepted an extremely large amount of money and properties.
No timeframe has been given for the long awaited trial.
The US House of Representatives has voted to let the National Security Agency continue collecting hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records in the fight against terrorism.
The House narrowly rejected an amendment Wednesday that would have ended the program.
The amendment was attached to a huge US defense spending bill for 2014.
Egyptian Islamist are accusing the military chief of wanting a civil war by asking for a mandate to crack down on violence. 
Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is calling on Egyptians to rally in the streets Friday and give him a mandate to confront what he calls violence and potential terrorism.
Pope Francis is warning Latin America not to legalize drugs, saying  drug trafficking favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death.
The Pope spoke at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro where he inaugurated a treatment ward for drug addicts and alcoholics.
He said the eradication of drug trafficking requires an act of courage from society as a whole and said a reduction in drug use will not be achieved by a liberalizing the law.
Malians rank peace and stability as top priorities for the country's next president.
They go to the polls Sunday amid tensions in the far northern town of Kidal.
It had been occupied by the Tuareg separatist group the MNLA since the French led military intervention against jihadist  groups in northern Mali began in January. 
Anne Look reports.
What to do about Kidal.
Malis' 27 Presidential candidates have tried to strike a delicate balance, pledging to get tough on the countries vast security challenges, while also fostering reconciliation.
The lone female candidate in the race is a National Assembly deputy from the northern town of Bourem. 
Candidate Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was the first of four front runners to make a campaign stop in Kidal, the bastion of the Tuareg rebellion, sixteen hundred kilometres from the capital Bamako.
Anne Look VOA News, Bamako. 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has begun his country's celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
Mr. Kim today paid his respects to the war dead and laid a wreath to commemorate the opening of a new cemetery outside Pyongyang. 
It was a rare public appearance for the young leader who was joined by war veterans from the United States, China, and his own country.
The North has planned several days of celebrations of what it views as its victory in the three-year conflict.
A truce, not a formal peace treaty, ended the Korean War.
Voters in Togo were going to the polls today to take part in parliamentary elections that analysts say will test the support of the country's President.
The vote is taking place after being delayed twice by opposition demands, including electoral reforms. 
An Indian court today delayed the first verdict in the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus in December.
Officials say the verdict has been put off until August fifth because of a challenge pending in the Supreme Court seeking to change the legal definition of a juvenile.
I'm Dave DeForest. More news on the Internet at VOANews.com