VOA News for Monday, August 12th, 2013 - 20130812
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-08-12

Monday, August 12th, 2013 
From Washington this is VOA news.
Coming up, demonstrations continue in Egypt.  Counting the votes in Mali's run-off election.
Hello everyone I'm Steve Norman.  Thousands of supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi continued ongoing vigil into the late hours of Sunday despite warnings that authorities [would step] take steps, that is, to empty out two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo.
Densely packed camps of Pro-Morsi supporter are the main flash points in the confrontation between the army which toppled Mr. Morsi last month and Morsi supporters.
Western and Arab mediators and some senior Egyptian officials have been saying that they're trying to persuade the army to avoid using force against the protesters who at times can number in the tens of thousands.   Egyptian officials say the military has carried out airstrikes on militant targets in the Sinai Peninsula killing at least 12 fighters in response to an escalation of violence in the area.
Islamist fighters and tribesmen have intensified attacks on Egyptian security forces in Sinai since the Morsi ouster on July the third.  Militants have used the peninsula for smuggling and cross border attacks on Israel for years.
An Egyptian military spokesperson denied the militant groups claim that an Israeli drone was responsible for an airstrike that killed four of its members on Friday.
Poll workers in Mali began counting votes in Sunday's Presidential run off with former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita expected to claim the job of stabilizing Mali after more than a year of turmoil.
Voting took place at some 21000 polling locations across the country from the south home to ninty-per-cent of Malis sixteen million people to northern cities of Timbuktu and Gao where Islamist imposed Sharia law.  Shageal Shurreal is an election observer.
He said everything went well even though police did arrest some voting office officials for fraud.
Final results expected in two or three days with the Constitutional Court requiring that they have them certified by Friday.
In a statement issued Sunday the office of South African President Jacob Zuma said ninty five year old former President Nelson Mandela is making slow but steady progress but remains in critical condition in a Pretoria hospital where he's been for more than two months because of a recurring lung infection.
Mr. Mandela's youngest daughter says her father has been able to sit up by himself.
South African government has released few details about Mr Mandela's illness citing privacy concerns.
Many South African's see him as the father of their nation and have been praying for his recovery.
Also in the news, Israel  is inviting contractors to build some twelve hundred new homes in occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians.
The controversial move comes three days before Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are set to resume in Israel.
Officials in Yemen, say suspected al Qaeda militants have attacked a natural gas terminal killing five soldiers.
The attacks come after a series of US drone strikes in the past two weeks that have killed militants in Yemen.
U.S. lawmakers continue to slam Russia over Moscow's decision to grant temporary asylum to former federal contractor and surveillance program leaker, Edward Snowden.
VOA's Michael Bowman reports.
Sunday American lawmakers took to the airwaves to heap scorn on the Russian government and in particular President Vladimir Putin.
Republican Senator John McCain spoke on the Fox News Sunday television program.
He's an old KGB Colonel that has no illusions about our relationship and does not care about our relationship with the United States continues to oppress his people, continues to oppress the media and continue to act in an autocratic and unhelpful fashion.
McCain said the Snowden episode signals  "incredibly bad relations between the United States and Russia" adding that the President Putin has  "put his thumb right in America's eye" Michael Bowman VOA News Washington.
American popular music star Eydie Gorme, whose sixty year partnership with husband Steve Lawrence made them top nightclub and TV stars has died at the age of eighty four.
During her career she had her own program on the voice of America called a date with Eydie.