VOA Special News

[Greight]

Here we provide you with VOA Special News voice files with their transcriptions. These will help you improve your listening to be able to power up your conversation abilities.

مجموعه ي اخبار اختصاصي وي ا اي به همراه متن آنها در اينجا قرار مي گيرند. اين به شما كمك مي كند تا مهارت شنيدن خود را براي تقويت مكالمه ي خود قدرتمند نماييد.

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[Greight]

It is twenty-three hours thirty Universal Time. I'm Steve Ember in Washington.
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President Bush says an international force must be immediately sent to Lebanon to supervise a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Mr. Bush said world leaders must decide who will lead the force as soon as possible. He also said the United States is increasing its aid to Lebanon to more than two hundred thirty million dollars. Also Monday, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said his country is willing to command the expanded United Nations force in Lebanon. Mr. Prodi spoke after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked Italy to lead the force. Also Monday, Israeli troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Three Hezbollah fighters were reported killed. Earlier, the Emir of Qatar became the first head of state to visit Lebanon since the fighting there started.

President Bush says that it would be a huge mistake for American troops to leave Iraq now. He said such a move would make Iran and other extremists stronger. Mr. Bush also said that failure in Iraq would threaten the security of the United States. He spoke to reporters in Washington. In Iraq, the United States military says four American troops have been killed in the past twenty-four hours.

Iran plans to officially answer the West's offer in return for stopping its uranium enrichment on Tuesday. Earlier, the leader of Iran said his country will continue to research nuclear technology. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States wants Iran to stop nuclear research though it knows Iran is not making nuclear weapons. The United Nations Security Council has given Iran until the end of this month to stop uranium enrichment activity or face possible restrictions. President Bush says he hopes the Security Council will quickly take action if Iran fails to satisfy the U.N. demand. International nuclear inspectors say Iran refused to permit them to enter part of a nuclear fuel center during an inspection last week.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, heavy gunfire has been reported near the home of presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. Forces loyal to Congolese President Joseph Kabila battled supporters of Mr. Bemba near his home in Kinshasa. No injuries have been reported. United Nations officials say peacekeeping troops have rescued foreign diplomats who were trapped inside the house. The battle followed gunfights Sunday between supporters of Mr. Bemba and Mr. Kabila. At least, five people were killed. The violence began after Congolese officials announced that neither man had won a majority of the votes in the country's presidential election. President Kabila will face Mr. Bemba in a second election on October twenty-ninth.

British officials have charged eight suspects with plotting to bomb passenger airplanes on their way to the United States from Britain. They say three other suspects were charged with other crimes. Top police official Peter Clarke said the investigation was huge. He said the police seized about eight thousand pieces of evidence including bomb-making materials and computers. All of the suspects were arrested on or since August tenth when officials announced the attempted terrorist attack on several airplanes. Eleven more suspects remain in British jails under investigation. One has been freed without charges. Seven others are being held in Pakistan.

[You are listening to the news in VOA Special English.]

Officials in Egypt have begun to investigate a train crash north of Cairo that killed fifty-eight people and injured more than one hundred forty. Most of the victims were farmers and government workers traveling to their jobs in Cairo from the city of Mansoura. Their train crashed into the back of another train near the town of Qalyoub. Police say the driver of the Mansoura train failed to observe a stop signal. One of the trains caught fire. Several cars turned over.

Officials in Saudi Arabia say four suspected militants surrendered after a battle with security forces in the city of Jeddah. Earlier, Saudi forces had reported two militants were killed. But, an Interior Ministry spokesman later said no one was hurt.

Italian rescue workers continue to search for Africans lost while crossing the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to reach Italy. Italian Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi said his agency needs about thirteen million dollars for almost daily coast guard rescue efforts. He called for strong action from the European Union. Earlier, at least forty people landed on Lampedusa and other Italian islands between Africa and Europe. Many have drowned in recent days.

Health officials from eleven Asian member countries of the World Health Organization have finished a two-day meeting in Bangladesh. They agreed to increase their efforts against diseases including AIDS, malaria and bird flu. Bangladeshi Health Minister Khandoker Mosharraf Hossain told reporters the members also agreed to improve plans for natural emergencies like tsunamis and earthquakes. The WHO director for Southeast Asia said the officials also improved plans to fight malaria in Asia. A larger area conference of the World Health Organization is to begin in Dacca on August twenty-second.

And, German lawyers say Lebanon's military intelligence agency gave German officials information that led to the arrest of a suspect accused of putting bombs on trains last month. Lawyers in Karlsruhe said German officials were told Friday where to find the suspect, Jussuf Mohammed EH, he was captured Saturday at a train station in the northern city of Kiel. He faces attempted murder and other charges.
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And now briefly, here again is the major news of the hour.

President Bush says an international force must be immediately sent to Lebanon to supervise a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Mr. Bush also says it would be a huge mistake for American troops to leave Iraq now. He said such a move would make Iran and other extremists stronger. And, Iran plans to officially answer the West's offer in return for stopping its uranium enrichment on Tuesday.

That's the news in VOA Special English, Steve Ember reporting.

[Greight]

It is one hour thirty Universal Time. I'm Jim Tetter in Washington.
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United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan has called on Israel to stop blocking air and sea traffic to Lebanon. He made the appeal after meeting in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Hezbollah cabinet minister Mohammed Fneish. Mr. Anan also called on Hezbollah to release the two Israeli soldiers whose capture started thirty-four days of fighting in Lebanon. Mr. Anan is expected to visit Israel, Syria and Iran to discuss the ceasefire. Turkey says it has agreed to send troops to the U.N. peacekeeping force. And, Italy says it will send two thousand five hundred troops. In Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced an investigation into how Israel fought the war against Hezbollah.

Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian reports say Israeli troops killed a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Separately, Palestinian officials say Israeli forces operating in Gaza City killed five Palestinians. The officials say two of the dead were from Hamas and two were from Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's security guard. They say the fifth victim was a civilian.

Iraqi officials say at least forty Shiite fighters and twenty Iraqi soldiers have died in fighting in the southern Shiite city of Diwaniyah. A United States military official in Baghdad said Iraqi security forces pushed back the attacks after what he called heavy fighting. The fighting began Sunday as Iraqi security forces were collecting illegal weapons from fighters loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that he wants to disarm fighters like these who are not part of Iraqi security forces.

A United States anti-terrorism official says Iran is providing money to pay for terrorism carried out by the militant group Hezbollah. Stewart Levi told reporters that Iran is a country that includes terrorism in its yearly budget. Mr. Levi is the undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism. He spoke as Iran faces a Thursday United Nations time limit to stop enriching uranium or possibly face restrictions.

Reports say Mexico's election committee has rejected the charges of cheating from the disputed presidential election last month. The committee's seven judges suggested that the charges about the July second vote would not change the result. The election gave Felipe Calderon the lead over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. But, the judges did not name Mr. Calderon the winner. They must declare a winner by September sixth. Results from the election showed that Mr. Calderon won by less than one percent. Mr. Lopez Obrador had demanded that the votes be counted again. The court ordered a recount of nine percent of the voting places. Mr. Lopez Obrador and his supporters have protested the results in a series of demonstrations.

The woman said to be the oldest person in the world has died in the South American country of Ecuador. Maria Esther de Copovilla was one hundred sixteen years old. Her granddaughter said she died Sunday in a hospital in the coastal city of Guyaquil. She was suffering from the lung disease pneumonia. The Guinness Book of World Records says the oldest person in the world now is Elizabeth Bolden who lives in the southern United States. She is also one hundred sixteen years old.

[You are listening to the news in VOA Special English.]

President Bush is visiting the United States Gulf Coast before the one year anniversary of the severe ocean storm known as Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Bush met with state and local officials in the city of Biloxi, Mississippi. The President will also travel to the city of New Orleans for a religious service and meetings with officials involved in rebuilding efforts there. Some areas of that city are still in bad condition. The storm on August twenty-ninth of last year severely damaged parts of the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. More than one thousand three hundred people died.

The United States space agency is preparing to return the space shuttle Atlantis to its resting place in the southern state of Florida because of a storm in the Atlantic Ocean. Officials said NASA would keep the shuttle on its launch area if the weather improves. American weather experts say the ocean storm that hit the eastern coast of Cuba earlier is threatening to reach the shuttle launch area in the next several days. If NASA moves the shuttle, it may not be able to launch it within the time limit of September seventh. That would delay the shuttle trip to the international space station until at least October. People who live in the southern part of the state of Florida are preparing for that storm. Weather reports say it could hit their area exactly one year after the storm called Hurricane Katrina damaged the Gulf Coast. Florida Governor Jeb Bush has warned people to take the storm very seriously and make sure they have supplies for the seventy-two hours after it hits.

Lawyers in the western American state of Colorado say they will not charge suspect John Mark Karr for the killing of six year old JonBenet Ramsey ten years ago. The lawyers say the genetic material from Karr is not the same as that was found with JonBenet's body. Public Defender Seth Temin criticized the order to bring Mr. Karr home from Thailand more than a week ago when there was no physical evidence to confirm the charges against him. Mr. Karr had claimed that he was with JonBenet when she died. But, that her death was an accident.
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And now briefly, here again is the major news of the hour.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan has called on Israel to stop blocking air and sea traffic to Lebanon. And, he has called on Hezbollah to release two captured Israeli soldiers. In Iraq, at least forty Shiite fighters and twenty Iraqi soldiers have died in heavy fighting in the south. And, Mexico's election committee has rejected the charges of cheating from the disputed presidential election last month.

And, that's the news in VOA Special English. This is Jim Tetter reporting.

[John]

This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT.
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Recently, American government scientists completed an investigation of a product called StarLink corn. StarLink is the only genetically-engineered crop grown in the United States that is not approved for human use.

The scientists said they found no evidence that StarLink corn had made anyone sick. Reports said the announcement could help reduce public concern that the corn represents a threat to human health.

A company called Aventis CropScience developed StarLink corn. Scientists developed the corn by a process of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. The changed gene directs the plant or other organism to do things it normally does not do.

StarLink is among several kinds of genetically-engineered corn designed to resist insects. Three years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency approved StarLink corn as food for animals. However, E-P-A officials expressed concern that a protein in StarLink might cause allergic reactions in people.

Groups opposed to genetic engineering have been testing food products for StarLink. Last year, tests showed it was present in some corn products for people. The makers of the corn products ordered their return.About fifty people told the Food and Drug Administration they had allergic reactions after eating products they thought contained the corn. In the new study, officials from the Centers for Disease Control questioned some of the people who reported allergic reactions.

Scientists from the C-D-C and the F-D-A tested the blood of seventeen of the people. The scientists tested the blood for substances called antibodies. The presence of antibodies would show a reaction to the protein in the corn that was considered the possible allergen. No such antibodies were found.
The C-D-C said the tests did not find any evidence that extreme sensitivity to the protein caused an allergic reaction. An independent laboratory confirmed the findings.

Critics of genetic engineering say the investigation was too limited to show that the corn is safe. But a group that represents the biotechnology industry praised the findings.
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This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow.

[John]

This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS.
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In November, a Washington D-C judge found the Microsoft Corporation guilty of misusing its power to control the market for computer programs. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson announced his findings after months of trial. He said Microsoft uses its power to illegally block competition.

Judge Jackson later ordered that Microsoft be divided into two smaller businesses. The Microsoft Corporation quickly appealed Judge Jackson’s ruling to a Federal Court.

Last week, the Federal Appeals Court ruled on the case. It said Microsoft Corporation was guilty of creating a company that used its power to block competition. The seven Appeals Court judges agreed with Judge Jackson that Microsoft limited creativity in the computer industry and harmed the public. They said that Microsoft was guilty of violating several federal laws.

However, the Federal Appeals Court also said the Washington D-C court must reconsider its order to divide Microsoft into two smaller companies. The federal court dismissed Judge Jackson’s decision. The appeals court judges accused Judge Jackson of not being fair during the Microsoft Trial. They severely criticized him for comments he made about Microsoft and its chairman to reporters during the trial.

The Federal Appeals Court also said Judge Jackson repeated these mistakes several times. It said the public would lose its trust in a legal system that permits judges to speak their opinions to reporters during a trial.

Legal experts say both the federal government and Microsoft can claim small victories with the Federal Appeals Court ruling. The experts say government lawyers were able to prove that Microsoft is guilt of violating federal laws. At the same time, Microsoft can claim a victory because it may not have to divide into two smaller companies.

Legal experts say government lawyers and the lawyers for Microsoft must now choose one of three different possible paths. First, either side could appeal the Federal Court’s decision to the Supreme Court. Or, they could request a new trial before a different lower court judge to consider some of the unresolved legal questions. A third choice is for both sides to reopen negotiations to try to settle the case privately. Such efforts failed during the Clinton administration.

.Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft Cooperation. He says it is now a good time for all the groups involved to discuss the situation and see what kind of solution could be negotiated.

Most legal experts believe that the Microsoft company and government lawyers will come to an agreement during future negotiations. They say Microsoft may be punished by being forced to pay money.
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This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember.

[Greight]

Fans mourn the death of ''the King of Pop'' in Los Angeles at age 50. Next month he was supposed to start a comeback tour in London. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
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Fans around the world are remembering the man who called himself the King of Pop. Michael Jackson died Thursday in Los Angeles.
This was the emergency call from the house where he was living:
CALLER: "We have a gentleman here that needs help and he's not breathing. He's not breathing and we're trying to pump him but he's not -- "
OPERATOR: "OK, OK. How old is he?"
CALLER: "He's fifty years old, sir."
OPERATOR: "Fifty, OK."
A personal doctor was with him at the house.
Michael Jackson would have celebrated his fifty-first birthday in August. He was just days from launching what he hoped would be a comeback -- a series of fifty concerts in London.
More than seven hundred fifty thousand tickets sold out within hours of going on sale in March. The shows were set to begin July thirteenth. There were questions, though, about whether his health could handle the extended tour.
And after he died there were more questions -- this time about his use of painkillers. Medical examiners did an autopsy on Friday, but tests for drugs in the body normally take weeks.
Around the world, fans like this one reacted to news of his death.
WOMAN: "Somebody like Michael Jackson who's done so much for the world and stuff, you think almost like he's invincible."
(MUSIC)
"Thriller," his nineteen eighty-two album, earned a place in Guinness World Records as the best selling album of all time. It produced hits like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean."
(MUSIC)
Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. He was five years old when he and his brothers began performing in the Jackson 5.
He was eleven when they had their first album. "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5" was released in nineteen sixty-nine. Their album "ABC" followed less than a year later.
(MUSIC)
In nineteen seventy-one, Michael Jackson began his solo career. He went on to sell an estimated seven hundred fifty million albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- twice.
But as talented and successful as he was, he was also deeply troubled. His behavior and appearance grew increasingly strange. He was heavily in debt.
He was childlike. But in nineteen ninety-three, a thirteen-year-old boy accused him of child molestation. The case was settled out of court. Later, another accusation led to a criminal trial. But four years ago this month a jury cleared him of all charges.
Michael Jackson left his mark on popular culture. His music, his videos. His dance moves and moonwalking. The hand in a sequined white glove. The father of three was even married for a time to Elvis Presley's daughter. Now, he leaves behind family, friends and fans to mourn his death. In a sad way he did make a comeback. His death has pushed sales of his music back to the top of the charts again.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.

[Greight]

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

President Obama wants the United States to have the world's highest rate of college graduates. But his administration also wants stronger rules for colleges that operate for profit.

Career colleges receive billions of dollars from taxpayers through student loans. The Education Department says some of that goes to waste and leaves students in debt for educations of little or no value.

To receive federal aid, career colleges must prepare students for what the law calls "gainful employment" in a recognized occupation. Two tests are proposed to see if they do.

One would measure the relationship between debt loads and how much students earn after they complete a program. The other would measure the rate at which all students repay their loans, whether they complete the program or not.

Programs that fail these tests could be restricted or blocked from federal student aid.
The Education Department says for-profit colleges and training programs are important. In two thousand eight they had close to two million students -- nearly three times more than in two thousand.

Last year, the five largest received more than three-fourths of their money from federal student aid. And that amount did not include other forms of government aid.
Yet officials say for-profit colleges may be less supervised than other schools. They also point to reports of highly aggressive marketing.

For every one hundred graduates of for-profit colleges, eighteen fail to repay their federal student loans. That compares to five graduates of public colleges and universities.

The department is now collecting public comments on a number of negotiated rules. Some would require career colleges to release their graduation and job placement rates. The goal is to publish a final rule by November.

The Career College Association called the debt-to-earnings proposal unwise, unnecessary, unproven -- and unlawful. The group says it has found that students in higher priced programs are more likely, not less likely, to repay their students loans.
It says the move could eliminate programs serving three hundred thousand students. Female and minority students would face the most harm, it says, as they are more likely to attend career colleges.

The association also points to shrinking budgets for community colleges. Its president, Harris Miller, says "Students need more information, not fewer choices."

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Avi Arditti. I'm Steve Ember.