ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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January 29, 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.

Starving and torturing animals with $22 million of your tax dollars (Huffington Post)

…On Jan. 20, the New York Times broke the story of the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska, which is tormenting animals -- with more than $22 million in taxpayer dollars for 2014. At this lab, workers without medical or veterinary degrees are chopping open animals, "sometimes doing two or more major surgical operations on the same animal." And to repeat: Not a single one of these workers has a medical or veterinary degree. The facts and anecdotes uncovered by the Times are gut-wrenching.

Supreme Court Rules for Federal Whistleblower in Homeland Security Case (Reason)

 In 2003 a federal air marshall named Robert J. MacLean alerted a reporter at MSNBC about the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) cost-cutting decision to remove all air marshals from overnight flights originating in Las Vegas. In MacLean's view, this policy put the public at risk. So he blew the whistle on it… the TSA later reversed the policy. A few years after that, MacLean's identity as the whistleblower was discovered and the TSA terminated his employment.

Russia sends clear message - and spy ship - on eve of US-Cuba talks (CS Monitor)

In what seems unlikely to be coincidence, a huge Russian naval spy ship sailed into Havana harbor and docked in plain sight, just one day before the highest-level US delegation in decades arrives to discuss the end of over half a century of US-Cuba enmity. 

U.S. Scientist Jailed For Trying To Help Venezuela Build Bombs (NPR)

A scientist who worked for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and who pleaded guilty two years ago to promising to build nuclear weapons for Venezuela, has been sentenced to five years in jail. / Argentina-born Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, a 79-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, told undercover FBI agents posing as Venezuelan officials that he could design and supervise the building of 40 nuclear weapons for Caracas, including one targeted on New York City, in exchange for an unspecified amount of money. / Mascheroni, who was laid off from Los Alamos in 1988, is heard in recordings telling an agent that the bombs, to be developed over a decade, would keep the United States from invading Venezuela, according to The Associated Press.... / "In the recordings, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni tells an agent posing as a Venezuelan official that the bombs would prevent the United States from invading the oil-rich nation and brags to his wife that the passing of secrets would make him wealthy. / " 'I'm going to be the boss with money and power,' the naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina is heard saying. 'I'm not an American anymore. This is it.' "

 

WORLD

Gas truck blast rocks Mexico hospital; two dead, 66 injured (Reuters)

A gas truck explosion decimated large parts of a maternity hospital on the western edge of Mexico City on Thursday, killing one woman and a child and leaving dozens injured, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said.... / Mancera said the explosion destroyed around 70 percent of the maternity hospital and left 66 people injured, 22 of them seriously. Three people have been detained for their roles in the gas truck explosion, and two of them have been hospitalized, he said. / Several babies were found alive under the rubble. Scores of rescue workers continued digging through the concrete and twisted metal for survivors.... / Around 100 people were in the hospital at the time of the explosion, according to a city official.

Mexico university campus shuttered over gang threats (AP)

The Universidad Valle de Mexico campus in the city across from Laredo, Texas, shut down Jan. 15 and security personnel have been withdrawn, a spokeswoman said Friday.  "The campus closed in response to a threat received from a criminal gang. ..The Nuevo Laredo campus has about 700 students enrolled and is part of the network of U.S.-based Laureate International Universities, which operates educational institutions in over 20 countries.

Afghan air force ascent slow, imperiling battle with Taliban (Reuters)

Afghanistan's armed forces are so short of combat-ready aircraft that, late last year, they began fitting machine guns and rockets to Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters, dubbed "flying tractors", to bolster their air power.  With new planes capable of engaging Taliban insurgents delayed by over two years, and NATO air missions backing up troops on the ground now at a minimum, the fledgling Afghan Air Force is scrambling to provide even basic support.  That is a worry for 350,000 police, soldiers and other security personnel fighting militants across the country and dying at a rate of around 100 every week in the heaviest fighting of a 13-year conflict.

Palestinian terrorist stabs 12 aboard crowded Tel Aviv bus (JPost)

Palestinian man from the West Bank town of Tulkarm stabbed a dozen commuters early Wednesday morning in a terrorist attack on a No. 40 bus in central Tel Aviv.

Police arrest 153 in South Africa after xenophobic attack (CS Monitor)

Foreign-owned stores were on the receiving end of violent looting in the Johannesburg township of Soweto after a shopkeeper shot a 14-year-old boy trying to rob his store. A high unemployment rate has amplified deep-rooted xenophobic resentment in South Africa.  The targeting of Soweto area shops owned by immigrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries recalled a wave of deadly violence against foreigners in South Africa in 2008.... 

Greek leftist leader Tsipras claims victory over austerity (Reuters)

Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras promised on Sunday that five years of austerity, "humiliation and suffering" imposed by international creditors were over after his Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on Sunday.

HarperCollins omits Israel from school atlas (Telegraph)

The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has accused the publishing giant HarperCollins of harming peace efforts in the Middle East by leaving Israel off its maps.

Piece By Piece, Monks Scramble To Preserve Iraq's Christian History (NPR)

Fleeing ISIS, an order of Dominican monks had to leave much behind. But when Father Najeeb Michaeel helped the Christian community escape, he took one thing with him: a collection of manuscripts.


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