ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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November 7, 2013 (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 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.

WORLD

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

 

U.S.

Supreme Court to hear case on separating church and state (LA Times)

Justices will consider whether to let city councils open their meetings with explicitly Christian prayers.

Texas abortion ruling: Abortions instantly curbed in Texas as nation takes stock (+video) (CS Monitor)

A US appellate court has upheld a new law in Texas that restrictions access to abortion, immediately causing some clinics to close. Given the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion, the Texas case likely will advance to the US Supreme Court.

LAX shooting suspect charged with murder in rampage (CBS)

Federal prosecutors filed charges of murder and commission of violence at an international airport against the unemployed motorcycle mechanic suspected of carrying out the deadly shooting at the Los Angeles airpor

Court strikes down mandate for birth control on Obamacare (The Hill)

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down the birth control mandate in ObamaCare, concluding the requirement trammels religious freedom. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — the second most influential bench in the land behind the Supreme Court — ruled 2-1 in favor of business owners who are fighting the requirement that they provide their employees with health insurance that covers birth control.

Heat, Drought Draw Farmers Back To Sorghum, The 'Camel Of Crops' (NPR)

 Consumers in search of novelty are turning to once-obscure grains like quinoa, spelt and sorghum. But sorghum's great virtue for farmers is the fact that it can thrive with so little water.

Super-rich buy newspapers, but... (SD Reader- Don Bauder)

Fat cats are buying newspapers. Should journalists rejoice? Not yet. The nabobs’ widely varying strategies for turning around their papers have not yet been tested. Warren Buffett, the multibillionaire wizard of Omaha, has his company, Berkshire Hathaway, buying newspapers, which he once said were dinosaurs. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com founder who is worth $28 billion, bought the Washington Post. Billionaire John Henry bought the Boston Globe.

NSA secretly taps Yahoo, Google (Washington Post)

 The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world... / By tapping those links, the agency has positioned itself to collect at will from hundreds of millions of user accounts, many of them belonging to Americans. 

ACLU Report Questions 'Suspicious Activity' Reporting (NPR)

The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained internal documents from the federal government's anti-terrorism programs — relying on "suspicious activity reports" — that suggest that state law enforcement officials and others have repeatedly questioned their value.

WORLD

Gunfights kill 13 in Mexican city on U.S. border (Reuters)

Thirteen people were killed in shootouts on Sunday around the northeastern Mexican city of Matamoros in one of the worst recent outbreaks of violence in an area ravaged by drug gangs. Three gunfights took place around the city opposite Brownsville, Texas, two of which were exchanges between gunmen and Mexico's armed forces... Eight men died in the fighting with Mexican Marines after four men and one woman were killed in an earlier clash between unidentified armed groups.

Amnesty International: Jordan is deporting Syrian refugees (CS Monitor)

Amnesty says Jordan has already sent hundreds of Syrian refugees home. The government recently announced it would deport 5,000 Syrians for working there illegally. 

Nazi Art Trove Includes Previously Unknown Matisse, Chagall Works (NPR)

Of nearly 1,400 oil paintings, prints and other works, 1,285 had been stacked in a drawer, unframed. They include work by German expressionists such as Franz Marc and Max Beckmann, in addition to previously unknown paintings by Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse.

Brazil: Water shortage dries Rio de Janeiro taps (UT San Diego)

Taps were dry across a wide swath of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, some for nearly a week straight, prompting a flurry of criticism of the state water company and forcing some desperate residents of this Olympic city to fill plastic bottles with water from streams.

Japan ruling-party panel to propose break-of Fukushima operator: media (Reuters)

 A Japanese ruling-party panel will recommend the break-up of Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) after shortcomings in the firm's handling of clean-up operations at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Japanese media said on Wednesday.

Insight: Starvation in Syria: a war tactic (Reuters)

One Syrian security official called it the "Starvation Until Submission campaign", blocking food and medicine from entering and people from leaving besieged areas of Syria.

'No Woman No Drive:' Who is Hisham Fageeh? (CS Monitor)

A video making fun of Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving has gone viral, drawing attention to a protest Saturday in which scores of women got behind the wheel.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: a political odyssey turns stranger (+video)  (Christian Science Monitor)

The embattled mayor of Canada's largest city admitted that he had in fact smoked crack cocaine. It's the latest twist in Mayor Ford's dizzying political career, which is captivating much of Canada.

 

 


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