VOA News for Sunday, August 18th, 2013 - 20130818
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 18/08/2013

From Washington, this is VOA news.  Muslim Americans react to the events in Egypt, and a long sought-after terrorist has been apprehended in India.  I'm Joe Parker reporting from Washington.
Egyptian security forces have cleared most protesters from a Cairo mosque, ending a tense standoff that included eruptions of gunfire.
From Cairo, Edward Yeranian has more for VOA.
Gun shots rang out at times heavily Saturday afternoon as security forces fired at snipers in the minaret of the Al-Fatah Mosque.  The snipers were captured after they ran out of ammunition and Brotherhood supporters who were barricaded inside gave up several hours later.
Al Jazeera TV had broadcast messages urging Egyptians to go to the mosque to defend those inside.
Egypt's interim Prime Minister, Hazem le-Beblawi, said the new government will work "until its last breath."
He said "Our job is to move to a democratic system with a consensual constitution with free elections."
Edward Yeranian for VOA news, Cairo.
Meanwhile, large crowds of Morsi supporters took to the streets Saturday night in defiance of a nighttime curfew.
Egypt's escalating tension between the interim government and supporters of the ousted president is having impact in neighboring countries and beyond.
A bomb exploded outside of the Egyptian consulate in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi on Saturday.
Also here in the United States, in the section of New York City known as Little Egypt, Muslim Americans have their own takeon on what's going on in Egypt.
Adam Phillips reports for VOA.
Friday is the holiest day in the Muslim week, and many residents of the Little Egypt neighborhood of Astoria Queens took the day off to try to relax from the work week.
Mohamed, a Yemeni-American: "First they elected Morsi, right? Now they don't want him anymore.  You know, they just want to do what they want.  So they fight over it.  But thousands of people get killed every day.  And when I just logged on Facebook, I saw pictures of these Egyptians dead on the street.  Little children that want a future and all that.  They are dead."
Inside a traditional Muslim clothing shop, a young Turkish woman named Emel says that ousting President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was a setback for democracy.  "I feel like if you vote for someone you kind of have to stick with it."
Adam Phillips, VOA news, New York.
For more on the story, visit our website at voanews.com.
Indian police have arrested a top militant wanted for masterminding more than 40 attacks around the country, including the 1993 Mumbai blasts that killed at least 250 people.
Officials say 70-year-old Abdul Karim Tunda was arrested on Friday near India's border with Nepal while in possession of a Pakistani passport.  He is an alleged member of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India has listed Tunda among its 20 most wanted militants.  According to police officials, Tunda's main role has been to teach Muslim children how to make roadside bombs.
At least 23 bodies have been found in western Mexico where local vigilante groups are battling drug cartels for control.
Mexican law enforcement officials said nine men, their hands bound and shot, were found Saturday where local residents have been fighting the Knights Templar drug cartel.
In a neighboring state, another 14 bodies were found.
None of the victims has been identified and no one has claimed responsibility for the violence.
El Salvador has launched an aggressive campaign aimed at protecting school children from a deadly virus spread by infected mosquitoes.
Workers spent part of Friday spraying insecticides in puddles and standing water with mosquito's breed.
The virus is one of the main causes of sickness and death across the tropical country.
Authorities say two bomb attacks in Iraq have killed at least seven people and wounded more than a dozen others in a predominantly Sunni area.
Early Saturday, people were looking over what was left of a coffee house following an explosion in western Baghdad on Friday.
Police say that that blast killed six people and wounded two dozen others.
Stormy weather has now forced divers in the central Philippines to halt their search for up to 170 people missing at sea after a passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank.
At least 31 of the 831 passengers and crew are confirmed dead following the accident off the coast of Cebu province.
And militants have reported killed at least 17 people in three separate locations in Afghanistan.
For more on all these stories, visit our website at voanews.com.  This is Joe Parker from the VOA news center in Washington.