ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

August 21, 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.

• Manning gets 35 years in WikiLeaks case  (AP)
• Judge: EPA may have tried to skirt disclosure law (U-T San Diego)
• Intermittent Nature of Green Power Is Challenge for Utilities   (New York Times)
• NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds (Washington Post)
• CIA acknowledges Area 51 in declassified documents (U-T San Diego)

WORLD

• Militants Kill 25 Egyptian Policemen In Sinai (NPR)
• Lawyer expects Egypt's Mubarak to be freed this week (Reuters)
• As Egypt lionizes police, activists worry (Reuters)
• Scores killed in 'Day of Rage' demonstrations in Egypt (Jerusalem Post)
• Smaller, transportable nuclear reactor
• American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats (Reuters)
• Egypt's military chief: Army to confront violence (UT San Diego)
• Christians confronting their own Kristalnacht-like attacks in Egypt
• In Kabul, A Juggling Act That Offers Joy For Afghan Kids
• Activists inspired by ouster of Morsi in Egypt launch campaign to overthrow Hamas in Gaza (JPost)
• Al Qaeda planning attacks on high-speed trains in Europe: newspaper (Reuters)
•  Japan to issue gravest Fukushima nuclear warning in two years: agency (Reuters)
• Syria opposition says 1,300 killed in Damascus attack, chemicals used  (Reuters)

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

U.S.

Manning gets 35 years in WikiLeaks case  (AP)

 A military judge has sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for giving a trove of military and diplomatic secrets to the website WikiLeaks.  The judge convicted the 25-year-old soldier last month of 20 offenses, including six violations of the Espionage Act. He could have been sentenced to 90 years in prison.

Judge: EPA may have tried to skirt disclosure law (U-T San Diego)

A federal judge says the Environmental Protection Agency's use of personal email accounts may have been aimed at skirting public disclosure requirements.

Intermittent Nature of Green Power Is Challenge for Utilities   (New York Times)

When a Vermont wind farm was required to cut back generation, the episode prompted a larger debate about the alternative energy's place in the nation's power supply.

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds (Washington Post) 

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

CIA acknowledges Area 51 in declassified documents (U-T San Diego)

The CIA is acknowledging the existence of Area 51 in newly declassified documents.

WORLD

Militants Kill 25 Egyptian Policemen In Sinai (NPR)

Suspected militants on Monday ambushed two mini-buses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt's northern Sinai. They killed 25 of them execution-style and wounded two, security officials said.

Lawyer expects Egypt's Mubarak to be freed this week (Reuters)

 Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president overthrown in an uprising in 2011, will be released from jail in the next 48 hours after a prosecutor cleared him in a corruption case, his lawyer Fareed El-Deeb told Reuters on Monday.

As Egypt lionizes police, activists worry (Reuters)

As the bodies of hundreds of people killed by security forces lay at a Cairo mosque, ignored by Egyptian media, four of the policemen who died in the violence were feted as heroes in a funeral broadcast live on state television.

 Scores killed in 'Day of Rage' demonstrations in Egypt (Jerusalem Post)

....Al Jazeera reported that at least 95 people were killed and hundreds were injured in Cairo's Ramses Square alone when army snipers fired at the crowds from helicopters flying overhead. Down on the ground, gunshots were heard and police fired salvos of tear gas at protesters.  More than 40 people were also killed in provincial cities, taking the overall toll close to 100, although the intense shooting eventually died down in Cairo at dusk as a curfew began....

Smaller, transportable nuclear reactor

Can the creator of the Predator drone reinvent nuclear reactors?

American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats (Reuters)

 An American al Qaeda militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the U.S. ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Sunday.  Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said.

Egypt's military chief: Army to confront violence (UT San Diego)

Egypt's military leader vowed Sunday that the army will not allow further violence after the deaths of hundreds in days of political unrest, while still calling for the political inclusion of Islamist supporters of the country's ousted president.

Christians confronting their own Kristalnacht-like attacks in Egypt

(Jewish World Review) -- The Saint Virgin Mary church in Al Nazla is one of 47 churches and monasteries that have been burned, robbed, or attacked since Aug. 14 in a wave of violence against Christians since the brutal police crackdown on the former president's supporters, according to Ishak Ibrahim of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. He adds that dozens of Christian schools, other religious buildings, homes and shops have also been attacked and burned, and seven Christians killed.

In Kabul, A Juggling Act That Offers Joy For Afghan Kids

It's an expected sight in the Afghan capital: a hundred boys and girls — on foot, stilts and unicycles — juggling tennis balls and batons. The parade was part of the national juggling championship. Organizers hope juggling builds self-confidence in children who've known only war in their lifetimes.

Activists inspired by ouster of Morsi in Egypt launch campaign to overthrow Hamas in Gaza (JPost)

 Following the Egyptian example, a group of activists has launched a Palestinian version of the Tamarod (rebellion) Campaign to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip.

Al Qaeda planning attacks on high-speed trains in Europe: newspaper (Reuters)

 Al Qaeda is planning attacks on high-speed trains in Europe and the authorities in Germany have stepped up security on the country's rail system, a German newspaper reported on Monday.

Japan to issue gravest Fukushima nuclear warning in two years: agency (Reuters)

 Japan will dramatically raise its warning about the severity of a toxic water leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant, its nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, its most serious action since the plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011

Syria opposition says 1,300 killed in Damascus attack, chemicals used  (Reuters)

 A leading Syrian opposition figure said on Wednesday 1,300 people had been killed in attacks by President Bashar al-Assad's forces around Damascus in which he said chemical weapons had been used. Images, including some taken by freelance photographers and supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies including of small children, laid out on the floor of a clinic with no visible signs of injuries.