ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND WORLD NEWS

May 31, 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.

• Bearing down: how safe is that bridge you’re driving over? (CNN)
• Find deficient bridges near you (Transportation for America)
• Principal recounts storm hitting Okla. school (U-T San Diego)
• Four-star general in eye of U.S. cyber storm (Reuters)
• CBO: Tax breaks cost $12 trillion over decade, benefit most wealthy  (Reuters)

WORLD

• Rockets hit south Beirut after Hezbollah vows Syria victory (Reuters)
• French anti-terror unit investigating stabbing of soldier (Reuters)
• Stretched by riots, Swedish police call reinforcements (Reuters)
• 'Assad has enough sarin to wipe out Damascus, Aleppo, Homs'  (Jerusalem Post)
•  Egypt: 3 women killed in suspected 'honor' crime (U-T San Diego)

Click "read more" for excerpts and links to full stories.

U.S.

Bearing down: how safe is that bridge you’re driving over? (CNN)

Like millions of other Americans, Dan and Sally Sligh packed up their vehicle and headed out for a Memorial Day weekend trip. As they crossed the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River outside Seattle, Washington, the bridge gave way and their pickup truck plunged into the frigid waters.

Find deficient bridges near you (Transportation for America)

Type in your zip code to find dangerous bridges in your community.

Principal recounts storm hitting Okla. school (U-T San Diego)

The principal of the Oklahoma elementary school where seven children died in a tornado says her teachers did everything they could to save their lives.

Four-star general in eye of U.S. cyber storm (Reuters)

Depending on your point of view, U.S. General Keith Alexander is either an Army four-star trying to stave off a cyber Pearl Harbor attack, or an overreaching spy chief who wants to eavesdrop on the private emails of every American.

CBO: Tax breaks cost $12 trillion over decade, benefit most wealthy  (Reuters)

The top ten U.S. tax deductions, credits and exclusions will keep $12 trillion out of federal government coffers over the next decade, and several of them mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans, a new study from the Congressional Budget Office shows.

WORLD

Rockets hit south Beirut after Hezbollah vows Syria victory (Reuters)

Two rockets hit a Shi'ite Muslim district of Beirut on Sunday, driving home the risk of spillover from Syria's civil war, after the head of Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah said it would keep fighting on the Syrian government's side until victory.

French anti-terror unit investigating stabbing of soldier (Reuters)

The stabbing of a French soldier near Paris by a man who is still on the run bore the hallmarks of Islamist terrorism, the interior minister said on Sunday, and police said it may have been inspired by the murder of a British serviceman in London.

Stretched by riots, Swedish police call reinforcements (Reuters)

Police in Stockholm called in reinforcements on Friday after youths set cars and a school ablaze in a fifth night of rioting, the worst to hit Sweden for years.

'Assad has enough sarin to wipe out Damascus, Aleppo, Homs'  (Jerusalem Post)

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has enough of the nerve gas sarin to "eradicate the whole of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo," a former Syrian chemical weapons scientist told Al Jazeera on Friday.

 Egypt: 3 women killed in suspected 'honor' crime (U-T San Diego)

A mother and two daughters were allegedly killed by male relatives in southern Egypt who believed they'd had affairs, the latest apparent example of so-called "honor killings" in which women are slain for violating traditional morals in the conservative region, a security official said Friday.