ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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January 15, 2015 (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.

WORLD

 

 

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

 

U.S.

Student Tuition Now Outweighs State Funding At Public Colleges (NPR)

From 2003 to 2012, state funding decreased by 12 percent overall while median tuition rose 55 percent across all public colleges," the General Accountability Office says.

U.S. border drone program understates cost, efficiency: report (Reuters) 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's drones have had "minimal" impact on stemming illegal immigration, and the agency has drastically understated the program's cost while failing to prove its value, an inspector general's report said on Tuesday.  The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general recommended the CBP scrap plans to spend $443 million on additional unmanned aircraft systems, suggesting it put the money to better use.

Only 2 percent of US counties have recovered from Great Recession. Why? (CS Monitor)

However, a new study  by the National Association of Counties shows that only 65 out of 3,069 counties in the US have fully recovered from the 2007-08 recession. That is only 2 percent of counties.  When assessing each county the study looks at four categories: unemployment rates, job growth, GDP and housing prices. 

Coming soon to a workplace near you: 'wellness or else' (Reuters)

U.S. companies are increasingly penalizing workers who decline to join "wellness" programs, embracing an element of President Barack Obama's healthcare law that has raised questions about fairness in the workplace.

2014 attacks on Jews in U.S. Midwest detailed in report (Reuters)

A shooting spree by a white supremacist at two Jewish facilities near Kansas City was one of a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. Midwest last year, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.  The center annually looks at events targeting Jews around the world. The Wiesenthal Center report was released days after four people were killed in Paris in a Jewish supermarket by a gunman proclaiming he wanted to target Jews

Petraeus Should Face Charges, Prosecutors Say (NPR)

The retired general is accused of leaking classified documents to his former mistress when he headed the CIA. Attorney General Eric Holder must now decide whether to pursue charges.

U.S. to cut European military bases as budgets shrink (Reuters)

Facing tight budgets and a shrinking military, the United States said on Thursday it was ending operations at an air base in Britain and handing it and 14 other sites in Europe back to their home governments.

Honda Fined $70 Million For Underreporting Safety Issues (NPR)

Honda has agreed to pay a $70 million fine for failing to report more than 1,700 death and injury claims in the largest penalty levied against a carmaker by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 

WORLD

Britain's MI5 chief warns al Qaeda in Syria planning mass attacks on West (Reuters)

Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems or "iconic targets", the head of Britain's MI5 Security Service said on Thursday.

2,000 feared dead in Boko Haram’s deadliest massacre (CNN)

The attackers sped into a Nigerian town with grenade launchers -- their gunfire and explosions shattering the early morning calm. As terrified residents scattered into bushes in Baga town and surrounding villages, the gunmen unloaded motorcycles from their trucks and followed in hot pursuit.Residents hid under scant brush. Bullets pierced them. Some sought refuge in their homes. They were burned alive.

Jes Suis Charlie: Cartoonists from around the world

Cartoonists around the world take up pencils in reaction to the massacre at Charlie Hebdo.

3 million copies of Charlie Hebdo to feature Mohammed cartoons (Yahoo News)

This week's three million copies of Charlie Hebdo, the first post-attack issue of the French satirical weekly, will defiantly feature caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, its lawyer said Monday. The special issue, to come out on Wednesday, will also be offered "in 16 languages" for readers around the world…

Massive crowds join march for solidarity in Paris (Reuters)

An extraordinary chain of humanity including a coalition of world leaders linking arms and at least 1.3 million others marched down the Boulevard Voltaire in a historic show of force Sunday, meant to illustrate the power of unity and freedom of expression over the sting of fanaticism and terror. After a barrage of violence that traumatized the nation and left 17 victims dead, the boulevards of Paris produced a striking counter image: French President François Hollande, arm and arm with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and flanked by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a host of European and African leaders.

Does Islam Prohibit Images of Mohammed? Nope. Does It Command Death to Blasphemers? Nope. (Reason)

Over at On Faith, American-Iranian Muslim Omid Safi points out that the idea that Islam forbids depicting the prophet Mohammed is wrong. That is actually not the case, and marks yet another example of what is at worst an acute sense of religious amnesia, and at best a distortion of the actual history of Islamic practices: Over the last thousand years, Muslims in India, Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia and Turkey did have a rich courtly tradition of depicting the various prophets, including Prophet Muhammad, in miniatures.

Mexican mayor faces charges in kidnapping of 43 students (Reuters)

The former mayor of the southwestern city of Iguala has been charged with last year's kidnapping of 43 students who are feared to have been killed, a top security official said on Tuesday. Tomas Zeron, director of criminal investigations at the federal Attorney General's office, said that prosecutors had obtained an arrest warrant for former mayor Jose Luis Abarca and 44 others on charges of kidnapping the 43 students.

Mexico holding 13 police officers in journalist's kidnapping (UT San Diego)

Mexican authorities held 13 police officers for investigation Thursday in the disappearance of kidnapped journalist Moises Sanchez and awaited the results of DNA tests on a body found in the area to determine if it is him.  Those detained represent about a third of the police force of Medellin de Bravo in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.

Netanyahu at Paris victims' funeral: Time for civilized world to uproot enemies in our midst (JPost)

Throngs of mourners joined public figures and dignitaries in Jerusalem on Tuesday for the funeral of the four Jewish victims of the terrorist siege on a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris on Friday....  "These aren’t just enemies of the Jews, but all of humanity," the prime minister said. "It’s about time that all of the civilized world unite and uproot these enemies from our midst."

Saudi Blogger To Be Publicly Flogged For Insulting Islam (CS Monitor)

Raif Badawi was sentenced in May to a decade in prison and 1,000 lashes for comments made in Free Saudi Liberals, a website he created. Starting Friday, he will receive 50 lashes a week for 20 weeks.... and also ordered to pay about $266,000 in fines.

Man who stopped Ottawa shooter to become ambassador (AP)

The Canadian sergeant-at-arms hailed as a hero for killing the gunman who stormed Canada's parliament last year will become the country's ambassador to Ireland, the prime minister announced Thursday.  Kevin Vickers, an Irish-Canadian, has been feted by world leaders ever since the Oct. 22 attack in Ottawa

More than one million flee, Ukraine close to 'humanitarian catastrophe' (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

More than one million people have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Ukraine, hampering aid efforts and leaving the country on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, aid agencies said on Thursday.

Thousands flee intensifying India-Pakistan clashes (Reuters) - Thousands of Indians have fled from their homes as fighting between India and Pakistan spread along a 200-km (124 mile) stretch of the border in the disputed region of Kashmir.

In Iraq's war against extremists, a quiet sectarian purge (AP)

Sunni residents of this tiny village north of Baghdad are all gone. Their homes now have Shiite graffiti scrawled on the walls. Shiite banners, many emblazoned with images of revered saints, are hoisted on the roofs.

Report: Syria's Assad building facility for the production of nuclear weapons (JPost)

Intelligence sources tell Der Spiegel that underground site being developed with Iranian, North Korea and Hezbollah support.

 


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