ECM WORLD WATCH: GLOBAL AND NATIONAL NEWS

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December 22, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflecting all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:
  
 
 
 
 
 
U.S.
 
  • Analyzing the GOP presidential candidates (CBS News/Face the Nation)
  • Time person of the year: Why they protest –American movements (Time Magazine)
  • Senate okays short-term extension of payroll tax cut (San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • Senate wraps up year’s work—finally (Christian Science Monitor)
  • Des Moines Register endorses Romney (CNN)
  • Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with (RawStory.com)
 
 WORLD
 
  • North Korea says its leader Kim Jong Il has died 
  • Radioactive material seized at Moscow airport (Fox)
  • Swept away, flash floods ravage unprepared Philippines (Time)
  • Troops charge into Tahir Square, protesters flee (Jerusalem Post)
 
Scroll down for excerpts and links to full stories. 

 

 

 

U.S.
 
Analyzing the GOP presidential candidates (CBS News/Face the Nation)
 
December 17, 2011 -- With only 18 days left until the Iowa caucuses, the candidates for the GOP presidential nomination are ramping up their campaigns. Russ Mitchell speaks with CBS News chief Washington correspondent and host of the "Face the Nation" Bob Schieffer for more on the Republican race.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7392032n&tag=exclsv
 
Time person of the year: Why they protest –American movements (Time Magazine)
 
December 14, 2011 -- Once upon a time, when major news events were chronicled strictly by professionals and printed on paper or transmitted through the air by the few for the masses, protesters were prime makers of history. Back then, when citizen multitudes took to the streets without weapons to declare themselves opposed, it was the very definition of news — vivid, important, often consequential. In the 1960s in America they marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War; in the '70s, they rose up in Iran and Portugal; in the '80s, they spoke out against nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Europe, against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, against communist tyranny in Tiananmen Square and Eastern Europe. Protest was the natural continuation of politics by other means.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132,00.html
 
Senate okays short-term extension of payroll tax cut (San Diego Union-Tribune)
 
December 17, 2011 -- Senators racing for the exits after a year of bitter battles passed legislation Saturday that would extend a Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, setting the stage for the next fight until February.
While a partial victory for President Barack Obama's year-end jobs agenda, the measure awaiting House approval next week contains a provision demanded by Republicans to pressure the White House into approving construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/17/senate-oks-short-term-extension-of-payroll-tax-cut/
 
Senate wraps up year’s work—finally (Christian Science Monitor)
 
December 17, 2011 -- A weary Senate, battered by fiscal crisis and gridlock, wrapped up the year on Saturday with votes to fund the government through FY 2012 and extend a payroll tax cut, set to expire on Dec. 31.
These votes avert a government shutdown and, following a House vote expected early next week, also delay for two months a Social Security payroll tax hike for 160 million Americans and a cutoff of federal emergency benefits for long-term unemployed workers in January.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/1217/Senate-wraps-up-year-s-work-finally
 
Des Moines Register endorses Romney (CNN)
December 19, 2011 -- The Des Moines Register, the largest newspaper in Iowa, backed Mitt Romney late Saturday in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
The much-anticipated endorsement gives the former Massachusetts governor special bragging rights just over two weeks before Iowa's critical presidential caucuses on January third.
Citing the candidate's "sobriety, wisdom and judgment," the editorial board said that Romney was the most qualified candidate competing in the caucuses.
Today on American Morning, Rick Green, editor of the Des Moines Register, explains to Ali Velshi why his paper chose to back Romney.
http://am.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/19/why-did-the-des-moines-register-endorse-romney-the-newspapers-editor-explains/
Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with (RawStory.com)
 
December 17, 2011 -- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down from Thursday’s Fox News debate on his vow to abolish federal courts if he disagreed with their decisionAccording to The Hill, in a conference call with reporters, Gingrich indicated that it was in the president’s power as commander-in-chief to deem any Supreme Court ruling irrelevant if he or she in the White House disagreed.
The former House Speaker used the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bush administration exceeding its constitutional authority in handling suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2008 as a basis for his extreme view.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/17/gingrich-ill-ignore-any-supreme-court-ruling-i-disagree-with/
 
WORLD
 
North Korea says its leader Kim Jong Il has died (Sacbee.com)
 
December 18, 2011 -- North Korean television announces in a "special broadcast" that its leader Kim Jong Il has died in Pyongyang. He was 69.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/18/4131690/north-korea-says-its-leader-kim.html

Radioactive material seized at Moscow airport (Fox)
 
Swept away, flash floods ravage unprepared Philippines (Time)
 
December 17, 2011 -- The water came at night, sending waves racing through sleeping cities, sweeping entire villages out to sea. On Saturday, flash flooding on the island of Mindanao, displaced tens of thousands and killed at least 650 people. The head of the Philippines Red Cross, Gwen Pang told the Associated Press that the death toll was based on body counts from from funeral homes. It is expected to rise as rescue workers continue to sift through rivers of mud and debris. Meanwhile, on the rain-battered coast, rescue boats are plying vast stretches of water, searching for survivors and pulling bodies from the sea.
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/17/swept-away-flash-floods-ravage-unprepared-philippines/

Troops charge into Tahir Square, protesters flee (Jerusalem Post)
 
December 17, 2011 --  Soldiers baton-charged demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday a day after street clashes killed eight people and wounded more than 300, marring the first free election most Egyptians can remember.

The violence highlights the tensions in Egypt 10 months after a popular revolt toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=249801&R=R3

 
 

 


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