ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

June 16, 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:

NATIONAL

• Second hack exposed military and intel data (AP)
• Virginia 17-year-old pleads guilty to helping to Islamic State (Reuters)
• U.S. multiracial population is growing, nears 7 percent: survey (Reuters)
• Uzbek citizen charged in New York over Islamic State plot (Reuters)
• Sewage spotted in Tex., Okla. floodwaters: What do crews focus on next? (CS Monitor)

INTERNATIONAL

• Amnesty blasts global refugee response. What more can be done? (CS Monitor)
• Mexico's deportations of Central Americans rise sharply
• Israel says Gaza militants fire rocket at south, no injuries (AP)
• Palestinian president announces government will dissolve (AP)
• Pride paints White City rainbow and illuminates its transgender community (JPost)
• Al Qaeda's Nusra Front kills 20 Syrian Druze villagers (CS Monitor)
• To Counter Russia, U.S. Mulling Tanks, Heavy Guns For Eastern Europe (NPR)
• Putin says Russia beefing up nuclear arsenal, NATO denounces 'saber-rattling' (Reuters)

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

NATIONAL

Second hack exposed military and intel data (AP)

Hackers linked to China have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, U.S. officials said Friday, describing a cyberbreach of federal records dramatically worse than first acknowledged.... The newer estimate puts the number of compromised records between 9 million and 14 million going back to the 1980s.

Virginia 17-year-old pleads guilty to helping to Islamic State (Reuters)

A Virginia 17-year-old pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to charges of conspiring to help Islamic State militants, the Justice Department said on Thursday. / Ali Amin, of Manassas, Virginia, used social media to provide instructions on how to use the virtual currency Bitcoin to send funds to militants, and he helped another Virginia resident travel to Syria to join the group, the department said. Amin faces up to 15 years in prison, the department said.... / He also admitted he helped Reza Niknejad, an 18-year-old Prince William County resident, travel to Syria to join Islamic State in January. Niknejad was charged on Thursday on terrorism charges involving the militant group.

U.S. multiracial population is growing, nears 7 percent: survey (Reuters)

The number of mixed-race people in the United States is on the rise, comprising about 7 percent of American adults, according to a Pew Research Center survey released on Thursday.

Uzbek citizen charged in New York over Islamic State plot (Reuters)

An Uzbek citizen has become the fifth person indicted along with four previously charged men from Brooklyn, New York, in an alleged plot to provide support to Islamic State militants, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

Sewage spotted in Tex., Okla. floodwaters: What do crews focus on next? (CS Monitor)

Residents hit hard by the torrential rain and heavy flooding in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana in recent weeks now have to deal with another issue: sewage on the streets.

INTERNATIONAL

Amnesty blasts global refugee response. What more can be done? (CS Monitor)

Amnesty International urged world leaders Monday to radically overhaul refugee policies and create a comprehensive global strategy to deal with the crisis, describing it as the worst emergency of its kind since World War II. / The human rights watchdog issued a report Monday suggesting that world leaders have abandoned millions of refugees to "an unbearable existence" and left thousands more to die by failing to provide basic human protections. It estimated that some 50 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes in 2013.

Mexico's deportations of Central Americans rise sharply

More than 46,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed into the US in 2014, leading Washington to turn to Mexico City to try to stanch the flow. 

Israel says Gaza militants fire rocket at south, no injuries (AP)

Israel's military says militants in the Gaza Strip have fired a rocket at the south of the country but that it caused no injuries.

Palestinian president announces government will dissolve (AP)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the national unity government he formed with Hamas last year will dissolve.

Pride paints White City rainbow and illuminates its transgender community (JPost)

(Tel Aviv) -- The merriment of the revered yearly festivity began Friday morning with a gathering party at the tree-lined Meir Park, where the municipal lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender center is located, and kicked off around noon with a record-breaking 180,000 participants marching in support for the LGBT community. 

Al Qaeda's Nusra Front kills 20 Syrian Druze villagers (CS Monitor)

Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria has killed at least 20 villagers belonging to the minority Druze sect after a confrontation in northwestern Idlib province, where the militants have forced hundreds of members of the sect to covert to Sunni Islam, an activist group and a Syrian opposition faction said Thursday.... / The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shooting occurred after the Nusra Front tried to confiscate the home of a Druze government official in the village. It said the militants shot one villager dead, prompting another to grab one of the Nusra Front men's rifles and kill a member of the Al Qaeda affiliate. The Observatory said the militants later brought reinforcements and opened fire, killing 20 villagers.... / Syrian state news agency SANA said a "horrible massacre" killed 30 people, including five members of the same family in Qalb Lawzeh. SANA added that the militants torched several homes.

To Counter Russia, U.S. Mulling Tanks, Heavy Guns For Eastern Europe (NPR)

The proposal, which requires approval from Defense Secretary Ash Carter and President Obama, would put also place equipment in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Putin says Russia beefing up nuclear arsenal, NATO denounces 'saber-rattling' (Reuters)

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was concerned about an anti-missile defense system near its borders, after announcing that Russia would add more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to its nuclear arsenal this year.