ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

East County News Service

September 13, 2016 (San Diego's East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect 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.

• Think Wells Fargo ripped you off? Here’s what to do (Los Angeles Times)
• U.S. strategic bombers fly over S. Korea in show of force after N. Korea nuclear test  (Reuters)
• Feds lose billions on stadiums, study says (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Jill Stein faces charges in North Dakota: What's next in pipeline protest? (CS Monitor)
• U.S. Attorney General launches inquiry into Trump Foundation (Politico) 
• Scrutiny of Hillary Clinton’s health puts new scrutiny on Tim Kaine (New York Times)
• 911 tapes reveal raw and emotional Hillary Clinton (Guardian)
• Dallas Morning News: 'Trump Is No Republican.’  (Dallas Morning News editorial)

WORLD

• Syria cease-fire plan reached, U.S. and Russia announce (KPBS)
• Iran vessel 'harasses,' sails close to U.S. Navy ship in Gulf: U.S. officials (Reuters)
• Suspected Aleppo chlorine attack chokes dozens, rescue workers, monitors say  (Reuters)
• UK radical Choudary jailed for encouraging support for Islamic State  (Reuters)
• Bye bye burka: ISIS bans burka in Iraqi city after killings by veiled women (Jerusalem Post)
• Two Dozen Dead, More Than 90 Wounded in Twin Bombings in Kabul (NPR)
• Report: PA President Mahmoud Abbas worked as KGB agent in Damascus during 80’s (JPost)
• Turkey replaces elected Kurdish officials with appointees, sparking protests (CS Monitor)
• Russian jet intercepts US aircraft with 'unsafe’ maneuvers (CS Monitor)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

U.S.

Think Wells Fargo ripped you off? Here’s what to do (Los Angeles Times)

The $185 million that Wells Fargo agreed to pay Thursday to settle government allegations over its overbearing sales practices is one big figure. But an equally staggering sum is the more than 2 million accounts that Wells Fargo employees may have opened for customers without their knowledge or permission. That’s as many 565,000 credit card accounts and a shocking 1.5 million checking and savings accounts since 2011 — all in the hopes of hitting sales targets that regulators say encouraged employees to use “underhanded” tactics.

U.S. strategic bombers fly over South Korea in show of force after North Korea nuclear test  (Reuters) Two U.S. supersonic B-1 Lancer strategic bombers flew over South Korea on Tuesday morning in a show of force and solidarity with its ally amid heightened tension following North Korea's fifth nuclear test on Friday.

Feds lose billions on stadiums, study says (San Diego Union-Tribune)

…. Petco Park has long been touted as having hastened the redevelopment of the once gritty East Village. Authors of the Brookings study say that most professional sports stadiums deliver little economic benefit to the cities where they are based. What’s more, they collectively represent $3.7 billion in lost revenue to the federal government since 2000 because interest payments on the bonds issued to pay for such projects weren’t taxable, says Brookings, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Jill Stein faces charges in North Dakota: What's next in pipeline protest? (CS Monitor)

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will face criminal charges for her role in a protest of the North Dakota Access pipeline.

U.S. Attorney General launches inquiry into Trump Foundation (Politico) 

…. Trump’s charity has faced growing questions in the wake of a damaging series of stories by The Washington Post and The Associated Press. A Post story published over the weekend cited tax records showing that Trump had not donated to his own foundation since 2008, and had, among other allegations, "spent $20,000 of money earmarked for charitable purposes to buy a six-foot-tall painting of himself." The foundation also made an illegal donation of $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013 as she was considering joining Schneiderman in pursuing a fraud case against Trump University.

Scrutiny of Hillary Clinton’s health puts new scrutiny on Tim Kaine (New York Times)

When Hillary Clinton was searching for a running mate, she made clear her top criterion: Her selection needed to be ready to become president “if something were to happen,” as she put it. When she announced Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her choice, Mrs. Clinton affirmed that he had passed that test.  Now, after Mrs. Clinton had to be helped into a van while departing a Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony on Sunday and the later disclosure that she had been given a pneumonia diagnosis on Friday, Mr. Kaine is coming under a more intense spotlight.

911 tapes reveal raw and emotional Hillary Clinton(Guardian)

It was 26 August 2003, almost two years since 9/11, and the sickening plume of smoke that hung over Ground Zero in lower Manhattan had long since dissipated. But steam was rising from the steps of city hall, three blocks away, where Hillary Clinton was venting her rage at the Bush administration for having lied to the American people. “I don’t think any of us expected that our government would knowingly deceive us about something as sacred as the air we breathe,” she said, her voice tightening in anger. “The air that our children breathe in schools, that our valiant first responders were facing on the pile.”

Dallas Morning News: 'Trump Is No Republican.’  (Dallas Morning News editorial)

The Dallas Morning News has endorsed every Republican since 1968…until now.

WORLD

Syria cease-fire plan reached, U.S. and Russia announce (KPBS)

At a news conference in Geneva late Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the beginnings of a peace plan for Syria, reports NPR's Alice Fordham.

Iran vessel 'harasses,' sails close to U.S. Navy ship in Gulf: U.S. officials (Reuters)

 A U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship changed course after a fast-attack craft from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came within 100 yards (91 meters) of it in the central Gulf on Sunday, U.S. Defense Department officials said on Tuesday.

Suspected Aleppo chlorine attack chokes dozens, rescue workers, monitors say  (Reuters)

 A suspected chlorine gas attack on an opposition-held neighborhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo caused dozens of cases of suffocation on Tuesday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said.

UK radical Choudary jailed for encouraging support for Islamic State  (Reuters)

 Anjem Choudary, Britain's best-known Islamist preacher, was jailed on Tuesday for five years and six months for encouraging support for Islamic State, ending years of frustration for police who had struggled to pin charges on him.

Bye bye burka: ISIS bans burka in Iraqi city after killings by veiled women (Jerusalem Post)

In light of security threats aimed at Islamic State commanders, the terror group has banned the full-face cover in sensitive areas of Mosul, Iraq.

Two Dozen Dead, More Than 90 Wounded in Twin Bombings in Kabul (NPR)

The blast struck near the Defense Ministry in the Afghan capital. Reporter Jennifer Glasse says that, according to witnesses, the second explosion targeted those aiding victims of the first.

Report: PA President Mahmoud Abbas worked as KGB agent in Damascus during 80’s (Jerusalem Post)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a KGB agent in Damascus in 1983, Channel 1 reported on Wednesday night, based on a treasure trove of documents former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin brought to the West. According to the report, Abbas’s code name was Krotov, or “mole.”

Turkey replaces elected Kurdish officials with appointees, sparking protests(CS Monitor)

Turkish police used water cannons and teargas to disperse protesters Sunday after Ankara announced it had replaced 28 elected municipal and district mayors in several predominantly Kurdish towns in Turkey's east and southeast.

Russian jet intercepts US aircraft with 'unsafe’ maneuvers (CS Monitor)

The Russian plane got within a dangerous 10 feet of the US plane for a duration of 19 minutes