OND is a community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
OND Editors consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and ScottyUrb, guest editor and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains
BBC:UK to end financial aid to India by 2015
UK to end financial aid to India by 2015
The UK is to end financial aid to India by 2015, international development secretary Justine Greening has said.
Support worth about £200m ($319m) will be phased out between now and 2015 and the UK's focus will then shift to offering technical assistance.
Ms Greening said the move, which will be popular with Tory MPs, reflected India's economic progress and status.
Giving his reaction, India's foreign minister Salman Khurshid said: "Aid is the past and trade is the future."
BBC:Lockheed Martin executive quits over relationship
Lockheed Martin executive quits over relationship
US defence company Lockheed Martin says its incoming president and chief executive officer has resigned over a relationship with a subordinate.
Christopher Kubasik resigned after an internal ethics investigation confirmed the "close personal relationship", the company said in a statement.
He was due to take over as head of the company next year after serving as its chief operating officer.
Another Lockheed executive, Marillyn Hewson, will now become CEO in January.
BBC:Astronaut uses space internet to control robot on Earth
Astronaut uses space internet to control robot on Earth
The interplanetary internet has been used by an astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) to send commands to a robot on Earth.
The experimental technology, called Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol, could be a future way to communicate with astronauts on Mars.
Currently, if there is a problem when data is sent between Earth and Mars rovers, information can be lost.
The DTN could offer a more robust way to send data over the vast distances.
BBC:Banana war ends after 20 years
Banana war ends after 20 years
An international trade dispute over bananas dating back two decades has finally been settled.
The European Union and 10 Latin American countries signed an agreement to formally end eight separate World Trade Organization (WTO) cases.
The head of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, called it a truly historic moment.
The formal agreement followed the EU agreeing in December 2009 to gradually reduce the tariffs on Latin American bananas.
BBC:Sudan rebels 'shoot down' Khartoum bomber
Sudan rebels 'shoot down' Khartoum bomber
Rebels in Sudan say they have shot down a government military aircraft after it had bombed rebel targets.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) says the Antonov bomber crashed on Wednesday in the Jau area, South Kordofan state.
The Sudanese authorities have not commented on the rebel claim.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes to escape fighting between government troops and rebels in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
BBC:China imposes tariffs on EU and Japanese steel
China imposes tariffs on EU and Japanese steel
China has said it will impose anti-dumping tariffs on imports of stainless steel tubes from the European Union (EU) and Japan.
The duties, ranging from 9.2% to 14.4%, will be implement from Friday, China's ministry of commerce said.
Dumping refers to a process where firms allegedly sell goods at prices below fair market value.
China had previously imposed tariffs on some US steel alleging that its makers were given state subsidies.
Reuters:Supreme Court to review law on minority voting rights
Supreme Court to review law on minority voting rights
(Reuters) - The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to review a legal challenge to the Voting Rights Act, a landmark law adopted in 1965 to protect African-American voters who had faced decades of discrimination at the polls.
The court's decision comes just days after a presidential election in which Latino and African-American voters played a big role in re-electing Democratic President Barack Obama, reflecting a basic shift in national demographics.
The high court accepted an appeal brought by Shelby County, Alabama, challenging a core provision of the act that requires nine states and several local governments with a history of bias to get federal permission to change their election procedures.
Arguments in the case will likely be heard by the Supreme Court in early 2013, with a decision expected by the end of June.
Reuters:Ally near $4 billion unit sale, GM seen in lead
Ally near $4 billion unit sale, GM seen in lead
(Reuters) - Ally Financial Inc is nearing a deal to sell its auto financing operations in Europe and Latin America for around $4 billion, with General Motors Co emerging as the lead bidder if the company decides to sell those operations as a whole, two sources familiar with the situation said.
Ally is still considering whether to split the business geographically - Europe and Latin America - and sell it to two different parties, the sources said on Friday. A deal could come as soon as next week, they said.
Details of an agreement have not been finalized, and the outcome could change, the sources said. Ally is still talking to a handful of financial institutions that have made separate bids for its European and Latin American assets, they said.
Ally, which is 74 percent owned by the U.S. government after a series of bailouts during the financial crisis, announced in May a plan to sell its international operations in a bid to speed up repayment to taxpayers.
Reuters:New York, New Jersey governors warn of long recovery from storms
New York, New Jersey governors warn of long recovery from storms
(Reuters) - Residents of New York and New Jersey were told on Friday to prepare for a long recovery from Superstorm Sandy, as thousands of people grappled with cleaning up their properties, the extended lack of electricity and gasoline shortages nine days after the storm.
New Yorkers faced gasoline rationing for the first time since the energy crisis of the 1970s, as authorities tried to deal with long lines at gas stations and some commuters continued to struggle to get to and from work.
The White House said President Barack Obama would visit the region next week.
Sandy hammered the U.S. East Coast on October 29, killing at least 120 people and causing an estimated $50 billion in damage or economic losses. Then an early season snowstorm pummeled the region on Wednesday, knocking out power to some homes just as they were getting back on the grid.
Reuters:China, India economies set to dwarf G7 before long: OECD
China, India economies set to dwarf G7 before long: OECD
(Reuters) - China's economy is likely to overtake the euro zone's this year, India is leapfrogging Japan and by 2030 the Asian pair will be bigger than the United States, euro area and Japan combined, the OECD said on Friday.
In a crystal-ball exercise to tease out long-term trends in the global economy, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said the combined gross domestic product of China and India was likely to exceed that of all the current Group of Seven rich economies by around 2025.
Their output in 2010 was less than half the G7's GDP.
The projections of the Paris-based OECD, a club of industrial democracies, are based on 2005 purchasing power parities (PPP).
Reuters:House vote on Russia trade bill expected next week
House vote on Russia trade bill expected next week
(Reuters) - The House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a long-delayed bill to ensure U.S. companies receive all the market-opening benefits of Russia's recent accession to the World Trade Organization, congressional aides said on Friday.
The House Rules Committee has scheduled a meeting late Tuesday afternoon on the legislation to establish "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) with Russia, setting the stage for a full House vote on the bill by the end of the week, a House leadership aide said.
The Senate would also have to approve the White House-backed legislation for President Barack Obama to sign it into law.
Business groups say there is strong bipartisan support for the measure, but congressional leaders have delayed action all year in the face of concerns about Moscow's support for Iran and Syria and about its commitment to democracy and human rights.
Reuters:EU 2013 budget talks end in failure
EU 2013 budget talks end in failure
(Reuters) - Talks on the European Union's 2013 budget collapsed in acrimony on Friday, denting hopes of a swift deal later this month on the bigger issue of the bloc's long-term spending for 2014-2020.
Negotiators for EU governments and the European Parliament walked out without even discussing next year's spending blueprint, after 8 hours spent squabbling over a request for 9 billion euros in extra cash to fill a funding gap in 2012.
"Under these conditions, we felt that negotiations which hadn't really begun by six o'clock in the evening couldn't reasonably be expected to finish during the night," said the parliament's lead negotiator, French lawmaker Alain Lamassoure.
Sources in the meeting said the talks ultimately failed because lawmakers from the European Parliament refused to discuss the 2013 budget before an agreement on the extra funds for 2012, while governments wanted to negotiate both as a package.
Reuters:Apple loses bid to nix patent troll's 'screen rotation' suit
Apple loses bid to nix patent troll's 'screen rotation' suit
You might think it's obvious that when an iPhone or similar device is placed on its side, what's displayed on the screen should rotate as well.
But CNET has learned that a federal judge in Delaware yesterday rejected Apple's attempt to throw out a lawsuit over screen rotation brought by a holding company, MobileMedia Ideas, which has been dubbed "a classic patent troll."
U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson said the suit could proceed, ruling that the question of whether iOS devices infringed on the patent, No. 6,441,828, was "suitable for determination by a jury."
MobileMedia Ideas is an unusual company: it's jointly owned by Apple competitors Sony and Nokia, which make smartphones, and a Denver-based company called MPEG LA that licenses patents for the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standard. The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly been probing MPEG LA over antitrust violations, and it was the target of an antitrust lawsuit, now settled, in a Los Angeles court. MobileMedia and MPEG LA share the same chief executive, Larry Horn.