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 editors are Doctor RJ and annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
How I posed as a football journalist on Twitter and fooled the world
Sam Gardiner did imaginary interviews with football players, asked his followers for questions, and then made up imaginary answers. He invented rumours of imminent transfers, pretended to be reporting live from stadia, and gathered a following of more than 20,000 people on Twitter - including countless sports journalists and a number of footballers. And all from his bedroom in High Barnet.
"My motive wasn't to deliberately mislead people, my motive was to air my opinions on the biggest possible platform, and to flood them around the world," he told BBC Trending radio. Fed up with being a teenager who no-one takes seriously, he began - aged 16 - to pose as a football scout turned journalist by the name of Dominic Jones, borrowing a profile picture he found online. His big break came in November 2012 when he correctly predicted the sacking of Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo - the day before it happened
BBC
Woody Allen calls renewed sex abuse claim 'disgraceful'
Woody Allen has called renewed claims by his adopted daughter that he sexually abused her as a child "untrue and disgraceful", his publicist says.
In an open letter published on Saturday, Dylan Farrow accused Mr Allen of molesting her in a "dim, closet-like attic" at the age of seven.
Mr Allen was investigated over the abuse allegations at the time of the incident, but was not charged.
Publicist Leslee Dart said Mr Allen would respond directly "very soon".
Ms Dart pointed out that "a thorough investigation was conducted by court-appointed independent experts" when the allegations were first made.
"The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation; that Dylan Farrow had an inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality; and that Dylan Farrow had likely been coached by her mother Mia Farrow," Ms Dart continued.
Mr Allen has previously accused Dylan's mother, Mia Farrow, of fabricating the claims after their highly publicised break-up in 1992 and has always maintained his innocence
.
BBC
Mexico castaway dreams of home after '13-month' sea ordeal
A Mexican castaway, who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific, has pleaded to be taken home after washing up in the Marshall Islands.
"I want to get back to Mexico," Jose Ivan reportedly said as he was taken to the islands' capital, Majuro, for a medical examination.
Mr Ivan said he left Mexico with a friend for a trip in a fibre-glass boat in December 2012.
He was found by people living on the island of Ebon Atoll on Thursday.
Emaciated and wearing only ragged underpants, Mr Ivan washed ashore when his boat floated onto a reef at the small, isolated island.
He apparently survived the 5,000-mile (8,000km) ordeal by catching fish, birds and turtles with his bare hands.
Raw Story
Australia claims ‘substantial’ progress on reef protection
Australia said it had made "substantial" progress on UNESCO benchmarks for protection of the Great Barrier Reef Sunday in a report aimed at staving off a world heritage downgrade.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt said a progress report delivered to the world heritage committee "demonstrates unequivocally the government's commitment to better managing and protecting this natural wonder".
UNESCO has warned that without action on rampant coastal development and water quality the reef -- which covers an area roughly the size of Italy or Japan -- will be declared "World Heritage in Danger" in June.
Hunt released Canberra's latest state party report on the reef Sunday which he said showed significant progress was being made to address UNESCO's concerns.
This was despite the government in December approving a massive coal port expansion in the region and the reef's governing body -- which is under investigation for its links to mining companies -- green-lighting the dumping of up to three million cubic metres of dredge waste within its waters.
Raw Story
Lethal batches of ‘bad heroin’ hit East Coast the same week Philip Seymour Hoffman died
For the past three weeks, authorities have been tracking batches of deadly fentanyl-laced heroin that has been moving east from Pittsburgh.
Twenty-two people in western Pennsylvania died of overdoses in the past week. Authorities believe that most of the deaths were related to heroin laced with fentanyl, a powerful narcotic typically prescribed to terminal cancer patients as means of pain management.
It is 100 times more powerful than morphine, and in combination with heroin can shut down the respiratory system of users.
The laced heroin went by the street names “Theraflu” and “Bud Ice” in Pennsylvania, but as it made its way to Long Island it was re-branded as “24K.”
It has already been linked to five Long Island overdoses.
Raw Story
US abortion rate falls to lowest point in 40 years
The number of abortions performed in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 40 years, a study said Monday, pointing to more contraception use rather than increased restrictions on access to the procedure.
In 2011, an estimated 16.9 abortions were carried out per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 — 1.1 million in absolute terms.
It was the lowest number since 1973, when the figure stood at 16.3 per 1,000, the Guttmacher Institute found.
Between 2008 and 2011, the abortion rate fell by 13 percent, as procedures were performed increasingly earlier in pregnancy.
The study noted that during that same period, the number of abortion providers fell by just four percent and clinics offering the service by just one percent.
The number of abortions had reached a peak in 1981, with 29.3 terminations for every 1,000 women.
L A Times
Sochi Olympics dogged by wide belief funds were misspent, pocketed .
SOCHI, Russia — Tired of hearing reports about alleged corruption and budget overruns, some Russian citizens have given the 2014 Sochi Olympics a nickname.
Kickbacktiada.
The Games, which begin Friday, rank as the most expensive in Olympic history with an estimated cost of more than $50 billion and counting.
A recent study by a Russian watchdog group alleges that organizers paid far more than the going rate for numerous venues built in and around the Black Sea resort. One former official fled the country and has been accused of embezzlement.
"Athletes are not the only people who compete in Sochi," the Anti-Corruption Foundation report stated. "Officials and businessmen also took part in the Games and turned them into a source of income."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has fought back against critics.
L A Times
Glove law has many chefs steamed
For decades, Toshiaki Toyoshima has followed the same ritual each morning at his downtown restaurant: He ties on his indigo happi — a short-sleeved Japanese chef's jacket — and dons a white cap before he begins cutting fish for nearly 500 customers who dine at Sushi Gen daily.
But in January, Toyoshima's tradition-bound routine was upset. He had to add a step: A new law now forces him to snap on a pair of thin vinyl gloves before he can touch the fish.
His gloved hands seem to move no less deftly as he stands behind mounds of tuna fillets glistening on his counter and slices the raw fish with a long knife.
But the normally stoic Toyoshima can't hide his frustration. Having to wear gloves, he says, is the worst thing that has happened to him in 48 years as a sushi chef.
"I don't feel connected to my food," says Toyoshima, known to diners as "Toyo-san." "It's like I'm not making sushi with my own hand."
In a regulatory war against food-borne illnesses in the U.S., where 1 in 6 people are projected to get sick every year, more states are adopting laws that prohibit bare hands from touching food.
CNN
Volcanic ash smothers part of Indonesia, kills 15
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- The 15 victims simply couldn't outrun the searing debris that billowed out of Indonesia's Mount Sinabung.
Plumes of ash had spewed more than a mile into the sky Saturday and descended in superheated clouds. Scalding ash up to 700 degrees in temperature raced down the slope in just two to three minutes.
By the end of several eruptions, at least 15 people had been killed, a government official told CNN. It was the first time Mount Sinabung's volcanic output had resulted in deaths, the Jakarta Post reported.
On Sunday, the sky above the North Sumatra mountain was still the color of murky gray ash, as shown on video from the Indonesia Geologic Agency.
Al Jazeera America
Environmentalists say strong legal case could derail Keystone XL permit
Environmental groups vowed Saturday to challenge the legality of a State Department decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a day after the project cleared the major political hurdle.
In a report released yesterday, the department said it had no major objections to the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would carry controversial tar sands oil from Canada through the heartland of America to Texas refineries.
Despite the setback to environmental groups and other opponents, those against the project say there is still a strong legal case for denying the federal permit Keystone needs to move forward.
The pipeline now goes to a 30-day comment period and a review by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other agencies.
In the lead up to the final decision, 16 environmental groups -- including the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and the National Resource Defense Council – intend to pursue a possible legal challenge to the State Department decision. Last week, the umbrella movement sent a letter to Kerry outlining their case against the report.