ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

October 7, 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.

• This We Do Know About TPP: The Shouting Is Already Loud (NPR)
• Why China won't be joining the TPP...for now (APM Marketplace)
• Military vet shot seven times as he protected Oregon classmates (Reuters)
• As deadlines pass, Biden remains opaque about a 2015 candidacy (Washington Post)
• Obama says he won’t sign another ‘short-sighted’ spending bill (CBS)
• Donald Trump:”I would send Syrian refugees home” (BBC)
• Clinton e-mails: Did donors get special State Department access? (CS Monitor)
• Vatican says ‘private audience’ in Washington D.C. was with Pope’s gay ex-student, not Kim Davis (Los Angeles Times)
• FAA Proposes Nearly $2 Million Fine To Drone Operator For Restricted Flights (NPR)
• Why Justice Department's plan to free 6,000 inmates is only the beginning (CS Monitor)

WORLD

• Hospital hit, 3 staff killed in bombing of Afghan hospital (Reuters)
• Nicholas Kristof: The secret of declining global poverty (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Nuclear smugglers sought terrorist buyers (AP)
• U.S. charges ex-U.N. General Assembly president, five others for corruption (Reuters)
• Israeli couple killed in West Bank shooting attack, 4 children escape unhurt (JPost)
• Terrorist shot dead by police after stabbing youth in Jerusalem (JPost)
• Palestinians celebrate while leaders withhold comment on Henkin terror attack (JPost)
• Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China’s Rich Kids (Bloomberg)
• 'ISIS militants blow up ancient Arch of Triumph in Palmyra' (JPost)
• Indonesia's dry-season forest fires could be worst on record, says NASA (CS Monitor)

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

U.S.

This We Do Know About TPP: The Shouting Is Already Loud (NPR)

When President Obama announced a massive trade deal on Monday, he heard cheers from business groups. But the unions and public-interest groups that usually support him rejected the trade proposal.

Why China won't be joining the TPP...for now (APM Marketplace)

One glaring absence from the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal? China. 

Military vet shot seven times as he protected Oregon classmates (Reuters)

An Iraq war veteran and mixed martial arts fighter whose son turned 6 years old on Thursday was shot seven times as he blocked the gunman from entering a classroom, possibly saving lives during a mass shooting in southern Oregon.

As deadlines pass, Biden remains opaque about a 2015 candidacy (Washington Post)

Another deadline has come and gone with no decision from Vice President Biden about his possible late-breaking entry into the presidential campaign.

Obama says he won’t sign another ‘short-sighted’ spending bill (CBS)

President Obama said Congress cannot flirt with another government shutdown, and although he just signed a resolution to fund the government until mid-December, he issued a veto threat. "I will not sign another short-sighted spending bill like the one Congress sent me this week."

Donald Trump:”I would send Syrian refugees home” (BBC)

Donald Trump has said he would send home all Syrian refugees the US accepts, if he becomes president. The billionaire, who is the current frontrunner in the Republican race for the White House, told a New Hampshire rally: "If I win, they're going back." It marks a reversal in policy - earlier this month he told Fox News the US should take in more refugees.

Clinton e-mails: Did donors get special State Department access? (CS Monitor)

A batch of e-mail exchanges between Hillary Clinton and donors to the Clinton Foundation raises questions about conflicts of interest during her tenure as secretary of State.

Vatican says ‘private audience’ in Washington D.C. was with Pope’s gay ex-student, not Kim Davis (Los Angeles Times)

A week after Pope Francis met Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for her refusal to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples, the Vatican on Friday suggested that she exploited the meeting to promote her views, denied that the pope fully supports her and cast doubt on her account of the encounter.

FAA Proposes Nearly $2 Million Fine To Drone Operator For Restricted Flights (NPR)

The Federal Aviation Administration charges the company, SkyPan International, conducted 65 flights in the skies over Chicago and New York, some of the nation's most restricted and congested airspace.  

Why Justice Department's plan to free 6,000 inmates is only the beginning (CS Monitor)

The decision last year to retroactively reduce sentences for some nonviolent drug offenders in federal prisons is part of a larger effort to make US justice 'work smarter.'

WORLD

Hospital hit, 3 staff killed in bombing of Afghan hospital (Reuters)

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz was partially destroyed, three staff were killed and 30 staff were unaccounted for after overnight bombing.Fighting has raged around the northern provincial capital for the last six days after Taliban militants captured the city in their biggest victory of a nearly 14-year insurgency.

Nicholas Kristof: The secret of declining global poverty (San Diego Union-Tribune)

One survey found that two-thirds of Americans believed that the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has almost doubled over the last 20 years. Another 29 percent believed that the proportion had remained roughly the same. That’s 95 percent of Americans – who are utterly wrong. In fact, the proportion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty hasn’t doubled or remained the same. It has fallen by more than half…

Nuclear smugglers sought terrorist buyers (AP)

In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists…

U.S. charges ex-U.N. General Assembly president, five others for corruption (Reuters)

U.S. authorities arrested a former president of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday for engaging in a wide-ranging corruption scheme.... / From 2012 to 2014, Ashe deposited more than $3 million from foreign governments and officials in accounts at two major American banks, the complaint said. 

Israeli couple killed in West Bank shooting attack, 4 children escape unhurt (JPost)

Hamas praises terror attack.  Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israeli parents in a shooting attack on their vehicle in Samaria.

Terrorist shot dead by police after stabbing youth in Jerusalem (JPost)

The perpetrator was shot with the knife still in his hands. An Israeli teenager was stabbed in at a gas station near Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday morning.... The attack comes amid heightened tension in the capital, and less than 12 hours after a Palestinian terrorist murdered two Jewish menand wounded a mother and her son in the Old City of Jerusalem in a stabbing and shooting spree Saturday night. The suspect was shot dead following the attack. ...

Palestinians celebrate while leaders withhold comment on Henkin terror attack (JPost)

....A Fatah-affiliated armed group claimed full responsibility for the shooting attack. Fatah spokesman Osama Qawassmeh said that his faction has decided to “defend the Palestinians against attacks by Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers.”  He did not say whether Fatah was indeed behind the attack. Mahmoud al-Aloul, a senior Fatah official, announced that Palestinians have chosen “martyrdom as their option toward the establishment of a Palestinian state and ending occupation.”  

Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China’s Rich Kids (Bloomberg)

The fuerdai, China’s second-generation rich kids, are the most loathed group in the country. They’re also its future.

'ISIS militants blow up ancient Arch of Triumph in Palmyra' (JPost)

Syria's antiquities chief says jewel in the exquisite collection of ruins in the oasis city, had been blown up.

Indonesia's dry-season forest fires could be worst on record, says NASA (CS Monitor)

Indonesian authorities are scrambling to respond after fires spewed haze across the country and blanketed parts of neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Monsoon rains are due to arrive in the next month.