ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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June 26, 2014 (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.

DOJ’s Defense of Drone-Killing American Alleged Terrorist Without Trial: Because War (Reason)

 Today, in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The New York Times, the Obama administration has finally released an important memo written by the Department of Justice explaining the legal authority to use drones to sometimes kill Americans without the benefit of a trial first. 

Judge Declares Secretive No-Fly List Process Unconstitutional (Reason)

 Earlier this year a judge ordered the feds to correct a woman's improper inclusion on the no-fly list, which had made her whole life miserable for years (and it was all due to a clerical error). Today a federal district judge invoked that case in order to declare that the entire bureaucratic process for people to challenge their inclusion onto the no-fly list is unconstitutional and needs to be reformed....

House Passes Amendment Ordering Actual Restraints on NSA Searches (Reason)

 Tonight the House voted to approve an amendment to a defense appropriation bill shutting down the part of National Security Agency (NSA) "backdoor searches" that collects metadata on Americans without a warrant.

 Problems with collective action (USA Today)

 Thus we find that, even though veterans were dying, and books were being cooked,every single VA senior executive received an evaluation of "fully successful" or betterover a 4-year period. That's right. Every single one. Over four years. At least 65% of them received bonuses ("performance awards"). 

Alaska earthquake 'rings the Earth like a bell' (CS Monitor)

An Alaska earthquake touched off a small tsunami and was followed by dozens of aftershocks felt in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Originally measured as a magnitude 8.0, the earthquake has been downgraded to 7.9.

In growing US sex-trafficking business, majority of victims are American-born (CS Monitor)

 A week-long nationwide sweep has recovered 168 children forced into prostitution in 106 cities.....  “Historically, people in the US thought child sex trafficking happened in far-off places like Thailand and Southeast Asia and not here.… Unfortunately, the hard-hitting fact is that US children are being recruited and controlled and bought by US citizens right here in our own backyard,” says Staca Shehan, director of the case analysis division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. on record.

Mormon church excommunicates prominent US activist Kate Kelly (CS Monitor)

Prominent Mormon activist Kate Kelly was excommunicated by her church on Monday for violating its "laws and order" after advocating for women's ordination.

Colorado suspends oil and gas wastewater disposal well after quake (Reuters)

 Disposal of wastewater from oil and gas drilling into a Colorado well was ordered halted this week after seismic activity was detected in the area, state regulators said on Tuesday.

Violent and Legal: The Shocking Ways School Kids are Being Pinned Down, Isolated Against Their Will (Pro Publica)

Carson Luke, a young boy with autism, shattered bones in his hand and foot after educators grabbed him and tried to shut him into a "scream room." Kids across the country risked similar harm at least 267,000 times in just one school year.

 

WORLD

Obama Asks For $500 Million To Train, Equip Syrian Rebels (NPR)

The appeal is part of a larger $65.8 billion request sent to Congress to fund overseas operations. A White House statement says "moderate" rebels would be vetted before being funded.

Global refugees highest since WWII, pointing to lack of political solutions  (CS Monitor)

 If the world's refugees made up a country, it would be the 26th most populous. 

Iraq government claims gain in anti-militant fight ((CNN)

Iraqi officials insisted Tuesday they were holding on to a key oil refinery while making gains elsewhere against militant fighters.

Russia's Putin renounces right to send troops to Ukraine (Reuters)

 President Vladimir Putin asked Russia's upper house on Tuesday to revoke the right it had granted him to order a military intervention in Ukraine in defence of Russian-speakers there.

Report Of Drone Crashes A 'Record Of Calamity' (NPR)

More than 400 U.S. military drones have been involved in major crashes around the world since 2001. NPR's Scott Simon reflects on the news, which was revealed in a Washington Post investigation.

Children being lured into Syrian civil war, suicide missions (Jerusalem Post)

Militant Islamist groups in Syria are recruiting children as young as 15 and sending them into battle after promising them a free education, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said on Monday.  The report said the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has made rapid territorial gains across the border in Iraq, had given children weapons training in Syria and told them to carry out suicide bombings./ Citing personal accounts, the rights group also found evidence of children being mobilized by the more moderate Western-backed Free Syrian Army, the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, the Islamic Front coalition and security forces in Kurdish-controlled areas....

Hamas leader says terror group capable of targeting any Israeli city with rockets (Jerusalem Post)

 Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Tuesday that his movement was now capable of firing rockets at any city inside Israel any time it wants.  

US drone killings: 'a secret war governed by secret law'? (CS Monitor)

A task force of former top Pentagon officials concludes that US 'heavy reliance' on targeted killings for counterterrorism 'risks increasing instability and escalating conflicts.'

 


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