ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

July 23,  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.

• Reaching Out to Diaspora Communities in U.S. for War Crimes Tips (Reporting SD)
• These Native American Tribes Legalized Weed, But That Didn't Stop Them From Getting Raided By The Feds (Huff Post)
• Affair-Enabling Website Ashley Madison Is Compromised By Hackers (NPR)
• U.S. imposes sanctions on Hezbollah officials for Syria support (Reuters)
• U.S., allies target Islamic State with 23 strike in Syria and Iraq (Reuters)
• Forget peanuts and Cracker Jack: These baseball teams have stadium-grown greens (CS Monitor)
• Judge slams State Department over Hillary Clinton-related records (Politico)
• Jeb Bush Shows What GOP Primary Could Be. Donald Trump Shows What It Is. (Reason)

WORLD

• Worried about political Islam, UAE outlaws religious, racial discrimination (JPost)
• Americans Seek Compensation For Assets Lost In Cuban Revolution (NPR)
• How 5 International Cities Are Going Car-Free (MNN)
• Holocaust survivor, 95, repays ultimate debt via rescue of Syrian Christians (JWR)
• Taiwan's first female president: Not 'if,' but 'who?' (CS Monitor)
• Indonesia closes down five airports after volcanoes erupt (CS Monitor)
• Surfer Mick Fanning survives shark attack: What did he do right? (CS Monitor)
• Britain's Cameron announces anti-militant plan, tells internet firms to help (Reuters)
• U.N. Council backs Iran nuclear deal but Tehran hardliners object (Reuters)
• ISIS suicide bombing kills more than 100 people in Iraq market (CS Monitor)
• In an IS training camp, children told: Behead the doll (AP)
• ISIS blamed for exploding seven Hamas, Islamic Jihad cars in Gaza (JPost)
• ISIS commander forced to make deadly 'Game of Thrones' walk of shame (JPost)

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

U.S.

Reaching Out to Diaspora Communities in U.S. for War Crimes Tips (Reporting San Diego)

The FBI’s International Human Rights Unit, working with agents in the field and partner agencies, is reaching out to diaspora communities in the U.S. for leads on war criminals who may be residing among them.

These Native American Tribes Legalized Weed, But That Didn't Stop Them From Getting Raided By The Feds (Huff Post)

Despite a memo from the Department of Justice last October, the legal status of pot on tribal lands is still unclear. 

Affair-Enabling Website Ashley Madison Is Compromised By Hackers (NPR)

Threats to release some 37 million users' photographs and data come at a time when Ashley Madison's leaders have been discussing a potential $200 million stock offering.

U.S. imposes sanctions on Hezbollah officials for Syria support (Reuters)

The U.S. government on Tuesday imposed sanctions on three leaders of the militant group Hezbollah and a businessman in Lebanon, saying they were key players in the group's military operations in Syria.

U.S., allies target Islamic State with 23 strike in Syria and Iraq (Reuters)

The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State militants with nine air strikes in Syria and 14 in Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

Forget peanuts and Cracker Jack: These baseball teams have stadium-grown greens

Dirt is for more than filling base paths at the ballparks of these 'farm teams' – it’s for growing food too.

Judge slams State Department over Hillary Clinton-related records (Politico)

A federal judge is lashing out at the State Department for delaying for years in providing responses to Associated Press Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's schedules and her top staffers....

Jeb Bush Shows What the GOP Primary Could Be. Donald Trump Shows What It Is. (Reason)

The Republican presidential primary race has turned into a clown show dominated by its biggest clown, Donald Trump. Trump has, at least for the moment, turned the primary into a reality-TV-style performance art project, aired in endless cable news segments, in which he says stupid, awful, outrageous, verifiably false things—and then, maddeningly, is rewarded for it.

WORLD

Worried about political Islam, UAE outlaws religious, racial discrimination (JPost)

The United Arab Emirates has outlawed religious or racial discrimination, the state news agency WAM said on Monday, citing a royal decree by President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.  The law is aimed in part at countering Islamist militancy, particularly the practice known as takfir, whereby hardline Muslims label followers of other schools of Islam unbelievers, but it also outlaws insults against religions.  

Americans Seek Compensation For Assets Lost In Cuban Revolution (NPR)

Robert Siegel speaks with Richard Feinberg, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a Brookings Institution fellow, about the unsolved claims after the revolution.

How 5 International Cities Are Going Car-Free (MNN)

These metropolises are enticing residents to ditch their cars.

Holocaust survivor, 95, repays ultimate debt via rescue of Syrian Christians (Jewish World Review)

The poignant back story behind the rescue of 42 Syrian Christian families now safe in Warsaw

Taiwan's first female president: Not 'if,' but 'who?' (CS Monitor)

Taiwan's two leading political parties have both chosen female candidates to run in the 2016 race, setting the country up to elect its first woman president.

Indonesia closes down five airports after volcanoes erupt

The natural disruption has caused travel chaos for thousands of travelers in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, trying to head home to celebrate Eid with their families.

Surfer Mick Fanning survives shark attack: What did he do right?

Mick Fanning: TV cameras at a surfing competition in South Africa showed a shark approaching Australian surfer Mick Fanning. How he escaped unscathed. 

 Britain's Cameron announces anti-militant plan, tells internet firms to help (Reuters)

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that moderate Muslims in Britain should speak out against Islamist militants, saying it was wrong to deny any connection between their religion and acts of violence.

U.N. Council backs Iran nuclear deal but Tehran hardliners object (Reuters)

The U.N. Security Council on Monday backed Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers but the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards attacked the resolution, underlining powerful opposition to the deal.

ISIS suicide bombing kills more than 100 people in Iraq market

The official death toll rose to 115 Saturday, with 170 injured in one of worst suicide bombings in Iraq.

In an IS training camp, children told: Behead the doll (AP)

The children had all been shown videos of beheadings and told by their trainers with the Islamic State group that they would perform one someday. First, they had to practice technique. The more than 120 boys were each given a doll and a sword and told, cut off its head.

ISIS blamed for exploding seven Hamas, Islamic Jihad cars in Gaza (JPost)

A number of the cars reportedly exploded in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, considered a Hamas stronghold.

ISIS commander forced to make deadly 'Game of Thrones' walk of shame (JPost)

A jihadi group fighting ISIS in Libya captured the ISIS commander in Derna, a strategic port city, where ISIS has previously held a strong presence. The local ISIS commander, believed to be an Iraqi native named Abu-Ali al-Anbari, was stripped naked and forced to walk the city before being hung in the public gallows…to send a message to locals that those who support the terrorist organization are likely to face the same fate.