Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editor is annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
NPR
As President Obama travels to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service on Tuesday, it might seem as though Mandela was an eternal object of admiration for U.S. presidents and the American public. But that wasn't the case by a long shot.
During Mandela's 27 years behind bars, successive U.S. administrations worked with, or at least tolerated, South Africa's white leaders. Only in his final years of incarceration did Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement become a cause that that gained traction in the United States.
In 1981, when apartheid was still in full force, President Ronald Reagan told CBS that he supported the South African government because it was "a country that has stood by us in every war we've ever fought, a country that, strategically, is essential to the free world in its production of minerals."
Al Jazeera America
Nelson Mandela was an “inspiration for defenders of liberty,” a free-market champion, an anti-imperialist radical, the leader of a “terrorist” group or a communist, depending on who you believe.
It's certainly rare that an international figure, upon his death, is eulogized by both Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush and the Communist Party of the United States.
From his release from prison in 1990 (and before that as well) to his death on Dec. 5, Mandela was able to capture the imagination and attention of world leaders and citizens from disparate backgrounds, countries and political persuasions in a way few others could.
The near universal praise showered on Mandela after his death on Dec. 5 says a lot about the power — and also the flexibility — of his image: Mandela was able to unite people across national and political boundaries. Millions around the globe from many different political persuasions have been inspired by his story of imprisonment for his ideals and his triumphant release to assume the presidency and set his country on the path to reconciliation.
DW
Some South Africans here say they are sad that they are so far away from home at this time Africans in Germany say they prefer to celebrate his life rather than grieve over his death. For many of them he remains a hero.
It is a normal business day in Munich but not for the South African Consulate. The office was busy receiving well-wishers wanting to express sympathy and their condolences at the death of Nelson Mandela.
South Africa's Consul General in Munich, Mathula Magubane, told DW she was numb when she first heard the news of the Madiba's death. She has fond memories of him and what she calls the ‘Madiba Jive’.
“He was such a multifaceted man. I would say my favourite thought is him doing what we called the Madiba Jive. Him dancing and chatting with children,” she said.
Spiegel Online
With Nelson Mandela's passing, the world has lost one of the past century's great leaders, a man who fought oppression and spent decades in prison in his battle against apartheid. In the end, he was forced to watch as his successors jeopardized his life's work.
Nelson Mandela wanted to withdraw into the land of his fathers. As he got older, the man who changed the face of Africa like no other loved to gaze out on the tranquil hilly landscape of the province of Eastern Cape. But instead of gently passing away in his modest home in the village of Qunu, Mandela died after a long struggle in his house in Johannesburg, which was surrounded by the media.
USA Today
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Presidents and grandchildren will join a massive throng of mourners Tuesday for a tribute to Nelson Mandela, the embodiment of this nation's struggle for democracy and champion of human rights.
On Monday, police and the government were bracing for the crush of mourners at the soccer stadium where the service would take place. South Africans would be met with high-level security measures to protect heads of state that included President Obama, India President Pranab Mukherjee and Cuban President Raul Castro.
The stadium seats nearly 100,000 people. Overflow crowds were expected to push that number far higher. Several "overflow" stadiums had been established.
BBC
Nelson Mandela's daughter Makaziwe has told the BBC about the "wonderful" final hours of the former president, who died aged 95 last Thursday.
Ms Mandela said his wife Graca, the children and grandchildren were all there to say goodbye.
South Africa is observing a series of commemorations over the next week, leading up to the funeral on Sunday.
More than 100 current or former heads of state or government will attend the funeral or Tuesday's national memorial.
Makaziwe Mandela told the BBC's Komla Dumor: "Until the last moment he had us, you know... The children were there, the grandchildren were there, Graca was there, so we are always around him and even at the last moment, we were sitting with him on Thursday the whole day."
Reuters
World leaders, from U.S. President Barack Obama to Cuba's Raul Castro, will pay homage to Nelson Mandela at a mass memorial in South Africa on Tuesday that will recall his gift for bringing enemies together across political and racial divides.
Obama and Castro, whose countries maintain an ideological enmity lasting more than 50 years, are among the designated orators at a Johannesburg soccer stadium where 23 years earlier Mandela - freshly freed from apartheid jail - was hailed by cheering supporters as the hope for a new South Africa.
Coinciding with U.N.-designated Human Rights Day, the memorial service for Mandela in the 95,000-seat Soccer City stadium is the centerpiece of a week of mourning for the globally-admired statesman, who died on Thursday aged 95.
New York Times
Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents.
Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels.
McClatchy
WASHINGTON — Billions of dollars in foreclosure settlements between big banks and government regulators haven’t helped Laura Biggs. The California woman is scheduled to lose her home nine days before Christmas because her mortgage company concluded that the house is no longer the primary residence of her husband, who’s been dead since 2003.
Technically, though, it still is George “Kenny” Mitchell’s primary residence. He resides at the home in Rialto, east of Los Angeles near San Bernardino, in an urn. His cremated remains are part of an altar that Biggs, 65, keeps in memory of the trucking-company manager. Many mementos from their marriage surround his smiling photo.
Biggs faces a Dec. 16 sale date, a holiday spoiler. It’s a property in which she’s built up more than $100,000 in equity and where she’s lived for 13 years, making payments on time. Her issue is back taxes, but more on that later.
Al Jazeera America
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Business is booming at Hyatt Guns.
Inside the strip-mall gun shop, wedged between a Habitat for Humanity thrift store and a Family Dollar along a West Charlotte highway dotted with check-cashing spots and aging motels, employees wait on the layer of customers in front of the glass cases. Behind the glass are yards of handguns, neatly lined up with barrels pointed out, awaiting scrutiny under the fluorescent glare. During a lull, workers dress up the black matte barrel of a military-style AR-15 tactical rifle with an oversized metallic bow nearly a foot across.
It’s not unusual to sell 100 guns in a day, said Larry Hyatt, the second-generation owner of the shop, which bills itself as the biggest gun specialty store in the U.S. Those average sale figures, however, have little to do with holiday shopping and everything to do with customers’ making use of North Carolina’s concealed-carry laws, which Hyatt said drives about 40 percent of his business.
The state’s recent expansion of those laws bode well for gun makers and sellers and have become a victory for gun activists. In October, concealed weapons became legal inside bars and restaurants serving alcohol and on college and school campuses, provided they are locked in vehicles. The new law (PDF) also allows concealed weapons in parks and on playgrounds and strips municipalities of power to regulate firearms.
Al Jazeera America
Fred Simmons hoped he would be the next Jay-Z or 50 Cent. That could still happen, but right now he's facedown on the cold ground in a chilly wind, dressed in prison fatigues, doing push-ups.
"Motivated!" yells a drill instructor/guard.
"Motivated, motivated, motivated, sir!" yell 400 inmates spaced out across a large parade ground.
It's not yet 6 on this October morning, and the sun won't rise for another 90 minutes. By then, the inmates will have completed a 5-mile run inside the double perimeter of razor wire, jogging in groups called platoons, singing military chants.
The rest of their day will be structured down to the minute, including several hours of hard labor, until lights out in a large dormitory at 9:30 p.m.
This is New York state's Shock Incarceration program — often known as correctional boot camp — at its flagship Lakeview facility upstate, on the shore of Lake Erie.
The Guardian
A French auction house has sold sacred Hopi masks and other contested Native American artefacts for a total of £1m, after ignoring a plea from the US embassy to delay the sale.
As protesters stood outside the Drouot auction house in Paris with banners reading "Sacred masks, sacrilegious sale", 25 vividly coloured Kachina masks went under the hammer inside.
The American Indian Hopi tribe says the artefacts represent their ancestors' spirits and cannot be sold as merchandise. A judge ruled last week that the sale was legal in France.
The Guardian
The world’s biggest airline was officially created on Monday with the merger of American Airways and US Airways, capping a round of consolidation that has worried the US government, rivals and consumer groups.
The merged airline will take the American Airlines name and will have a global network of nearly 6,700 daily flights to more than 330 destinations in more than 50 countries, and more than 100,000 employees worldwide. The company has a firm order for 600 new aircraft.
Last month, the Justice Department gave the $11bn merger the go-ahead after initially raising anti-trust concerns. In order to address those concerns the two companies gave up gate slots and takeoffs at major US airports including Washington DC’s Reagan national, New York’s LaGuardia, Boston's Logan and LAX in Los Angeles.
Earlier in the month the US supreme court rejected an attempt by consumer groups and travel agents to halt the merger. The objectors had argued that the merger would cause "irreparable injury" to the domestic airline industry, driving up prices and damaging service.
New York Times
WASHINGTON — When the National Transportation Safety Board opens two days of hearings here Tuesday on the deadly crash of an Asiana jumbo jet in San Francisco this past July, investigators will have little difficulty establishing the immediate causes, including the three pilots’ failure to monitor their airspeed.
But people involved in the investigation say the board intends to show that the core issues are widespread, notably the pilots’ evidently limited ability to manage the ubiquitous automated systems in a modern cockpit.
In the Asiana crash, none of the three pilots in the cockpit noticed that the airspeed was far too low and that the plane was descending too fast as a result. They flew the plane as if they expected its speed to be controlled by the auto-throttle, a device that can control an aircraft’s engines to maintain safe airspeed. But the auto-throttle was off.
Los Angeles Times
Several Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who have been the subject of excessive force accusations have been charged with criminal civil-rights violations, according to the federal court's website.
Among the deputies who are listed as being in custody and scheduled to appear in court are deputies Fernando Luviano and Pantamitr Zunggeemoge, who allegedly took part in a controversial force incident involving a jail visitor, Gabriel Carrillo.
Carrillo alleged he was beaten while handcuffed while visiting his brother at the Men's Central Jail in February 2011. Carrillo was initially charged with battery against the deputies following the incident but prosecutors abruptly dropped the case, telling a judge they were awaiting more reports from the Sheriff's Department.
FULL COVERAGE: Jails under scrutiny
Both Luviano and Zunggeemoge are charged with conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of law, according to the website.
Bryan Brunsting, a supervisor in the department's training unit, was also listed on the website as having been charged with civil-rights violations.
Reuters
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich backed a call for talks with the opposition on Monday to end weeks of protests in Kiev, but tension was high with pro-Europe demonstrators barricading their protest camp in preparation for police intervention.
As riot police took up new positions in the capital, heavyweight boxing champion-turned-opposition politician Vitaly Klitschko called on the protesters to stand their ground, and warned Yanukovich that he would have blood on his hands if security forces tried to end the standoff violently.
Klitschko later tweeted that some protest barricades were being taken down by police in a southern part of the city. Across town, police dismantled protest tents to free the main road near the government hq and herded protesters back.
But no clashes were reported. Reuters correspondents at the scene said there were no attempts by police to move against the large encampment of protesters on Kiev's Independence Square, focal point of the demonstration.
Reuters
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved parliament on Monday and called a snap election, but anti-government protest leaders pressed ahead with mass demonstrations in Bangkok seeking to install an unelected body to run the country.
Police estimated about 160,000 protesters converged on Yingluck's office at Government House, but there was none of the violence and bloodshed seen before the demonstrations paused last Thursday out of respect for the king's birthday.
The protesters want to oust Yingluck and eradicate the influence of her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006 and has chosen to live in exile rather than serve a jail term for graft.
There was a carnival atmosphere as protesters gathered at Government House, with unarmed police and troops inside the gates. The demonstrators made no attempt to get into the grounds but said they would camp outside overnight.
DW
Jerusalem city council has issued demolition orders for a set of high rise buildings that were built without permission in a part of the city otherwise ignored by the authorities. Homeowners there are devastated.
Shadee knew when he bought an apartment in a half-finished tower block in East Jerusalem that he was taking a risk. The project hadn't been approved by the city council, which meant the building was illegal and could be knocked down. He hoped he'd be lucky - but last month he came home to hear his new apartment was due to be demolished.
Ras Khamis is a rundown district of East Jerusalem behind the giant separation wall built by Israel. Home to hundreds of Palestinian families, it's on top of a hill next to an over-populated refugee camp, and although it's officially part of what is considered by the Israeli government to be the country's capital, it receives few municipal services. The roads aren't paved and rubbish piles up outside houses because the refuse collection company refuses to come here. People burn it when there's too much.
NPR
Russian President Vladimir Putin dissolved one of the country's official news agencies and an international radio broadcaster on Monday, setting up a new organization to be run by a news anchor known for his ultra-conservative views.
RIA Novosti, the news agency, and Voice of Russia, the broadcaster, will be absorbed by a new entity, Russia Today.
Jessica Golloher is reporting on the story for our Newscast unit:
"A decree published on the Kremlin's website announced Dmitry Kiselyov's appointment as the head of Russia Today, Replacing RIA Novosti in a major overhaul of the state news agency. The news anchor is known for holding controversial views; over the summer, Kiselyov said he believed that the organs of homosexuals are not fit for transplants, maintaining they should be burned. Putin holds the power to appoint and dismiss the head of the country's news agency. The announcement effectively transfers all property of RIA Novosti to Russia Today."
In a story on its own demise, RIA Novosti called the move "the latest in a series of shifts in Russia's news landscape, which appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector."
Al Jazeera America
French troops in Central African Republic manned checkpoints in the capital, on Monday and searched for weapons in an operation to disarm rival fighters responsible for hundreds of killings since last week.
Shooting erupted near the Bangui airport after gunmen refused to hand over their weapons. France said it was prepared to use force if fighters rejected calls to disarm or return to barracks.
The plan to seize weaponry comes after the president of CAR, Michel Djotodia, told Al Jazeera that he was not in complete control of his country.
Djotodia said he could not stop armed groups responsible for a wave of killings. Conflict between rival Christian and Muslim factions has left hundreds dead in just a few days.
"It is too much to say I have no control. I control my men. The men I can't control are not my men," said Djotodia, who came to power after a predominantly Muslim group, now known as Seleka, overthrew President Francois Bozize earlier this year.
The Guardian
An investigation into the fatal police helicopter crash in Glasgow has found no evidence of a major mechanical failure.
An interim report from the Air Accident Investigation Branch has revealed that at least one of the helicopter's two engines was in full working order, even though its main rotors and rear tail blades had stopped rotating in the moments before it crashed.
Their conclusions came as funerals were held for Mark O'Prey, 44, and Gary Arthur, 48 – two of the six customers killed when the Eurocopter EC135 T2 fell out of the sky on top of the Clutha Vaults bar in central Glasgow 10 days ago.
The memorial service for its pilot, Captain David Traill, was held at Glasgow University on Saturday, with full honours from Police Scotland and an honour guard from his former Royal Air Force colleagues. A former RAF Chinook pilot with nearly 5,600 flying hours to his career, Traill was described as "an esteemed colleague, a legend amongst his peers and, above all, everyone's friend".
SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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DW
When it comes to pulling together globally in battling climate change, some small island nations have to fight to get their voices heard. Many of them have been wrestling with the effects of climate change for years.
In the small Inuit community of Uummannaq on the northwest coast of Greenland, a 1,200-meter (3,937-foot), heart-shaped mountain forms a dramatic backdrop to a town of colorful houses that dot the rocky landscape. The climate can be unforgiving here with winter temperatures commonly reaching minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit). Fishing and hunting have been a way of life in Uummannaq since the town was established 250 years ago. But nowadays, as local fishermen prepare to set out for their daily catch, they have more than just the wind and weather conditions on their minds.
NPR
Patients with severe epilepsy are giving scientists the chance to see the human brain in action, a view they could never get with an MRI or other high-tech tools.
By applying small jolts of electricity to the brain, they're able to wipe out a person's ability to recognize faces, to spark hallucinations, or even induce a will to persevere, as researchers reported last week.
None of this would be possible without patients like 41-year-old Nate Bennett of Santa Cruz, Calif. He's had epilepsy since he was a teenager, and it's getting worse, to the point where he worries that he'll lose his job as a restaurant manager.
Al Jazeera America
Eight major U.S. web companies made a joint call on Monday for tighter controls on how governments collect personal data, intensifying the furor over online surveillance.
In an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress, the companies, including Apple, Facebook and Google, said recent revelations showed the balance had tipped too far in favor of the state in many countries and away from the individual.
In June, former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden exposed top secret government surveillance programs that tap into communications on cables linking technology companies' various data centers overseas.
After Snowden's disclosure, many of the big Internet companies warned that U.S. businesses may lose revenue abroad as wary customers switched to local alternatives.
Spiegel Online
The Warsaw conference demonstrated that the "climate summit" model is broken and, more importantly, that capitalism itself is driving us to the brink. Protests are not the solution -- it's time to fight the system using its own weapons.
The municipal utility company in the city of Potsdam is currently wooing new customers with a special "BabyBonus" offer. The slogan reads, "We value little energy robbers! Welcome to the world!" Every newborn receives a credit of 500 kilowatt hours of electricity, allowing him or her to revel from the start in a world where everything, especially energy, will always be available in abundance. These babies may later find they're in for a surprise.
When the United Nations Climate Change Conference wrapped up in Warsaw the weekend before last, it did, despite what most observers and disappointed NGO representatives believe, yield a result. It just wasn't officially announced: the termination of the at-least symbolic general agreement that urgent action must be taken to counter global warming. In other words, climate change has been definitively removed from the global policy agenda.
C/NET
SEOUL, South Korea -- "It sounded like a toilet."
Samsung Electronics sound designer Myoung-woo Nam is describing the not-quite-right noise his team created for the Galaxy S3, at least initially. Here, in a dimly lit room on the eighth floor of a Samsung skyscraper, in the heart of Seoul's trendy Gangnam district -- yes, that Gangnam -- a team of audio designers create sounds to capture what they describe as the overall theme of the device, whether it's for a Galaxy phone or the just released Samsung Galaxy Gear.
Each has its own challenge. Some sounds require a 40-piece orchestra; others come about using household items such as straws and drinking glasses, which ultimately solved the toilet problem. But more on that in a moment.
For its follow-up phone, the Galaxy S4, the team wanted to create "the sound of light." It used synthesizers, and then, as it always does, tailored tones for different parts of the world. After all, what's pleasing in one country might offend in another -- as Samsung discovered when Japanese women thought a whistle it considered using for messaging on the Galaxy S4 sounded like a catcall.
The scientists have provided additional details that should lend credibility to the earlier claims
BBC
The ancient lake environment found in Mars' Gale Crater could have supported microbes called chemolithoautotrophs - if they had been present.
That is the conclusion of scientists after reviewing all the pictures and other data gathered in the deep impact bowl by Nasa's Curiosity rover.
Chemolithoautotrophs do not need light to function; instead, they break down rocks and minerals for energy.
On Earth, they exist underground, in caves and at the bottom of the ocean.
In Mars' Gale Crater, such organisms would have found just as conducive a setting, and one that the scientists now think could have lasted for many millions of years.