VOA News for 02 August 2013 - 20130802
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-08-02

Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
VOA NEWS  Friday August 02nd, 2013
From Washington, this is VOA news.  Coming up, the White House disappointed over asylum for Snowden, and more delays in election results in Mali.
White House officials say they are "extremely disappointed" by Russia's decision to grant asylum for one year to Edward Snowden, who is accused of leaking U.S. government secrets.
VOA's Kent Klein reporting now from the White House where officials are deciding how to respond.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday Russia's offer of asylum to Snowden has undermined Russia's record of law enforcement cooperation with the United States.
"We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step, despite our very clear and lawful requests, in public and in private, to have Mr. Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him."
Carney described Snowden as a security risk who has been in possession of classified information both in China and in Russia.
Kent Klein, VOA news, the White House.
Officials in Mali have again delayed [the results] to have released the results, it is, of Sunday's presidential polling and now say provisional results will not be announced sometime on Friday.
The new date was announced on the presidency's Twitter account on Thursday.  There was no reason given for the delay.
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister and an observer group have cried foul over Wednesday's national vote, calling it "severely compromised."  Those charges follow allegations that the party of longtime President Robert Mugabe is trying to rig the election--a charge that he denies.
Sebastian Mhofu reporting now from Harare.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the main challenger of President Mugabe, said Thursday that the vote was illegitimate and warned it could plunge the already troubled southern African nation into a "serious crisis."
His Movement for Democratic Change party cited a number of problems--alleged manipulation of the voters' roll, intimidation of voters and a failure to enact needed reforms ahead of the election.
"This has been a huge farce.  The election does not meet SADC guidelines.  It is a shame election that does not reflect the will of the people."
His concerns mirror those of a large group of election observers, who said Wednesday's election was "severely compromised."
Sebastian Mhofu for VOA news, Harare.
U.N. Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington has made a determination to [remove its] move its relationship, that is, with Pakistan to one of full partnership and the two sides will resume high-level negotiations on security issues.
Speaking Thursday after talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and others, Mr. Kerry said both countries are looking for effective ways to manage challenges they both face.
"Along this journey in the last few years, we've experienced a few differences.  I think we came here today, both the prime minister and myself, with a commitment that we cannot allow events that might divide us in a small way to distract from the common values and the common interests that unite us in big ways."
Later in an interview with Pakistan's state television, he suggested that drone strikes, U.S. drone strikes targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan could end, in his words, "very soon" if the threat of militancy recedes.
Foreign ministers from the Philippines and Vietnam say they have agreed to work together on a framework for resolving maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Simone Orendain reports.
Maritime security was a top issue in Thursday's talks between Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.
Del Rosario told reporters after the meeting that he and Minh agreed to work more closely together to try to convince the rest of ASEAN's 10-member states to push for substantive progress in a meeting with Chinese officials later this year.
Simone Orendain for VOA news, Manila.
A Chinese online game developer has released a military-backed video game that allows players to fight alongside Chinese troops in seizing disputed Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea.
The Glorious Mission Online game series is the first to be developed jointly by a Chinese company and the People's Liberation Army.  Its release date coincides with the 86th anniversary of the PLA's founding.
And the stock market here in the U.S. got a jolt from the summer doldrums on Thursday.  Standard & Poor's 500 and the Down Jones Industrial setting records, the NASDAQ coming close.
Get more news at voanews.com.