ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

December 11, 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.

• Budget deal is sealed (The Hill)
• Major tech companies want government to ease up on the spying (APM Marketplace)
• Wash. Judge Rules Towns Failed Poor Defendents (NPR)
• The Googlization of the Far Right: Why is Google Funding Grover Norquist, Heritage Action and ALEC? (PR Watch)
• NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (Washington Post)
• Government pensions no longer sacred  (UT San Diego)

WORLD

• Obama, world leaders praise ‘giant of history’ at Mandela funeral (CNN)
• Mexico's dilemma: How do you safely transport radioactive cobalt? (CS Monitor)
•  Stolen radioactive pellets abandoned in Mexico rural area; gov't says no risk to nearby town (AP)
• Researchers discover massive freshwater reserves beneath the oceans (Science Recorder)
• Insight - Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor (Reuters)
•  Al-Qaida-claimed attack in Yemeni capital kills 52 (UT San Diego)

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

U.S.

Budget deal is sealed (The Hill)

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a budget deal Tuesday evening that would call for about $1 trillion in federal spending in 2014 while replacing some sequestration cuts.The deal replaces $63 billion in sequester cuts over two years and trims an additional $23 billion in long-term deficits.

Major tech companies want government to ease up on the spying

(APM Marketplace) -- Tech companies faced a lot of criticism for their role in the Edward Snowden data collection story. Now, eight major tech companies -- Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL and Twitter -- have rallied against the NSA’s spying efforts in an openly published letter

Wash. Judge Rules Towns Failed Poor Defendents (NPR)

A big ruling on whether poor criminal defendants have the right to a lawyer came this week. A judge in Washington state finds two cities have systematically violated the rights of indigent defendants by providing them with lawyers who spent less than one hour on their cases.

The Googlization of the Far Right: Why is Google Funding Grover Norquist, Heritage Action and ALEC? (PR Watch)

Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (Washington Post)

- The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals — and map their relationships — in ways that would have been previously unimaginable

Government pensions no longer sacred  (UT San Diego)

Dec. 3 may prove a landmark day in the fight over government retirement benefits.../ Judge Steven W. Rhodes held that federal bankruptcy law trumps state law, and that under federal law, all the creditors of a bankrupt government must be treated in “fair and equitable” fashion. Thus, the contracts governing retirement benefits are as subject to dissolution as other government contracts

WORLD

Obama, world leaders praise ‘giant of history’ at Mandela funeral (CNN)

They gathered in the tens of thousands -- presidents, prime ministers, royals, celebrities and ordinary South Africans -- all united to say farewell to a man hailed as a global symbol of reconciliation. In what has been billed as one of the largest gatherings of global leaders in recent history, representatives from around the world joined street sweepers, actors and religious figures to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela.

Mexico's dilemma: How do you safely transport radioactive cobalt? (CS Monitor)

Stolen radioactive cobalt-60 was found in central Mexico. The atomic energy agency said it is radioactive enough that 'it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour.'

Stolen radioactive pellets abandoned in Mexico rural area; gov't says no risk to nearby town (AP)

A missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico, the country's nuclear safety director said. / The highly radioactive material had been removed from its container, officials said, and one predicted that anyone involved in opening the box could be in grave danger of dying within days.

Researchers discover massive freshwater reserves beneath the oceans (Science Recorder)

According to a news release from Flinders University, researchers have found massive reserves of freshwater beneath oceans, offering new chances to prevent an emerging global water crisis. They discovered that approximately 500,000 cubic km of low-salinity water are hidden beneath the seabed on continental shelves around the globe.The water has been found off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.

Insight - Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor (Reuters)

 Storage tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant like one that spilled almost 80,000 gallons of radioactive water this year were built in part by workers illegally hired in one of the poorest corners of Japan, say labor regulators and some of those involved in the work.

Al-Qaida-claimed attack in Yemeni capital kills 52 (UT San Diego)

Militants stormed the Defense Ministry in the heart of Yemen's capital Thursday, killing 52 people, including at least seven foreigners, in a suicide car bombing and assault by gunmen. The brazen attack claimed by al-Qaida's local branch in Yemen follows a rise in U.S. drone strikes in this key American ally in the Middle East.