OND Editors 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 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.
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BBC
Comet lander: First pictures of Philae 'bounce' released
Images of the Philae probe moments after its initial touchdown have been published by the European Space Agency.
There was a nerve-wracking wait after the solar-powered Philae lander bounced a mile back into space following its first contact with comet 67P.
It successfully landed a few minutes later, over half a mile away from its intended spot.
Now the European Space Agency reports pictures of the tool on its rebound have been identified.
The photographs were unveiled on the Esa's Rosetta Blog, showing a few pale pixels - thought to be Philae - accompanied by a dark patch, which experts conclude is its shadow.
Observers from the agency's flight dynamics team spent hours analysing and reviewing the footage before their conclusion was made public.
Philae has been returning pictures and other data to earth via the Rosetta satellite, but until now scientists have not had access to images of the probe itself after landing.
BBC
Abdul-Rahman Kassig killing is pure evil, says Obama
US President Barack Obama has condemned the killing of US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig as "an act of pure evil".
The Islamic State (IS) militant group released a video showing a masked man standing over a severed head, which the White House confirmed was Mr Kassig.
His parents said he died "as a result of his love for the Syrian people".
Mr Kassig, 26, was taken while working for a refugee group. He is the fifth Western hostage to be killed by IS, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.
The president praised Mr Kassig as a humanitarian and said he was "taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity".
"Today we grieve together, yet we also recall that the indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance that burned so brightly in Abdul-Rahman Kassig," he said.
Raw Story
ISIS executioner ‘Jihadi John’ reportedly injured in US air strike
The British government said it was investigating reports that “Jihadi John”, the British-accented Islamic State militant apparently responsible for the beheading of western hostages, had been injured in a US air strike.
The Foreign Office could not confirm reports published in the Mail on Sunday that the masked executioner, who has appeared in a series of grisly videos posted online, had been wounded while attending a meeting of IS leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border last week.
According to the paper, he was taken to hospital following the US-led attack on a bunker in Al Qaim, western Iraq, on November 8 that killed around 10 IS commanders and wounded 40 more.
The Mail reported that it was the same attack that injured elusive IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sparking initial rumours that he had been killed.
“Jihadi John”, named after Beatle John Lennon due to his British background, is believed to be responsible for the murders of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Allan Henning.
BBC
Bird flu confirmed at Yorkshire duck farm
A case of bird flu has been confirmed at a duck breeding farm in East Yorkshire, officials have said.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the risk to public health was very low. A cull of poultry is being carried out at the site and an exclusion zone is in place.
The exact strain has not been confirmed, but the deadly H5N1 form has been ruled out by Defra officials.
The virus spreads between birds and, in rare cases, can affect humans.
The case is the first in the UK since 2008, when chickens on a farm in Banbury, Oxfordshire tested positive for the virus.
On Sunday, an outbreak of a highly contagious strain of bird flu was discovered at a poultry farm in the Netherlands.
The government there has temporarily banned the transport of poultry and eggs.
Al Jazeera America
Ferguson preps for possible unrest amid anxious wait for grand jury report
Officials and residents around the city of Ferguson, Missouri are anxiously awaiting a grand jury ruling on whether to indict a white police officer over the shooting death of an unarmed black man — a decision that could come within days, prompting fears of a reprisal of unrest in the summer that saw violent confrontations between protesters and authorities.
Schools in the St. Louis area have said they will send students home if they hear that the panel’s report is due to come down while classes are being held. Meanwhile, the National Guard has been put on standby and shops have been observed boarding up windows.
Many in the St. Louis area fear that another wave of rioting could follow the grand jury's decision, particularly if it decides not to bring criminal charges against Darren Wilson, the 28-year-old officer who shot and killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
Police in Clayton, Missouri, where the grand jury is sitting, told residents they had learned that protesters were planning demonstrations for the first business day after the news breaks of whether Wilson is indicted.
"Numerous demonstrations have taken place in our city related to the events that began in Ferguson over the summer. To date they have been largely peaceful, with few arrests," Police Chief Kevin Murphy said in a statement Friday.
Al Jazeera America
Nigerian army says Chibok seized back from Boko Haram
The Nigerian army has said it recaptured and secured the northeastern town of Chibok, where Boko Haram rebels kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April.
The feared armed group, which has been engaged in a lengthy and bloody campaign of deliberate civilian atrocities, had captured the town on Thursday after a battle lasting several hours. The army reportedly fled the assault on Thursday, leaving the town's vigilantes to fight on their own. Given the town's symbolic significance, its fall raised fresh doubts about Nigeria's ability to handle the Boko Haram threat.
But a town official and vigilantes who participated in the operation confirmed to Al Jazeera that Chibok had been retaken on Saturday evening.
They said that while Boko Haram fighters had been driven out of the town, they were not confident it was safe enough to have people return there immediately. Thousands of refugees had fled Chibok for the nearby town of Damboa beginning in April, when the girls were kidnapped, Chibok residents said.
Control of Chibok is crucial to the reputation of the army and the government, both of which have come under harsh criticism for their failure to rescue the schoolgirls.
C/Net
State Dept. email offline after suspected hack attack
The US State Department has reportedly shut down its unclassified email system as it evaluates potential damage caused by a possible hacker attack.
The department's email system was shut down in a planned outage Friday to make repairs and security upgrades after "activity of concern" was detected recently on the system, according to the Associated Press. None of the department's classified email system was affected by the suspected breach, according to a senior department official who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity.
"The department recently detected activity of concern in portions of its unclassified e-mail system," a senior State department official told tech news site NextGov. "There was no compromise of any of the Department's classified systems."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The department is expected to address the outage Monday or Tuesday, according to the AP.
Raw Story
Former French president Sarkozy calls for France’s gay marriage law to be scrapped
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has embarked on a political comeback, on Saturday said France’s gay marriage law should be scrapped, in his strongest comment yet on the controversial issue.
Sarkozy was pushed to take a firm stand when he spoke at an event in Paris for the three candidates vying to lead the centre-right UMP party into the 2017 presidential election.
The same-sex marriage law, which came into force in May 2013 and also legalises gay adoption, “should be rewritten from the ground up,” Sarkozy told audience members at the debate organised by Common Sense, a conservative movement within the main opposition UMP.
His words were met with jeers and chants of “Repeal! Repeal!”, prompting the former president to add: “If you prefer that I say repeal the law… it comes down to the same thing.”
After he was elected in 2007 Sarkozy promised gay voters he would introduce civil unions, but nothing came of it during his term.
Raw Story
Thousands of Brazilians turn out for gay rights parade
Thousands of Brazilians took part in Rio de Janeiro’s 19th Gay Pride parade, speaking out against homophobia in a country that has seen years of violence targeting the gay community.
Under the slogan “A million voices!”, gays, lesbians, transvestites, transsexuals and supporters marched along Copacabana beach.
“It is important that the population understands their rights and they express themselves against homophobia,” said Carlos Tufvesson, one of the event organizers.
More than a million people were expected for the event, organizers said.
Brazil recorded 312 murders of people in the gay community in 2013. The country averages about 300 murders motivated by sexual orientation a year.
The violence prompted rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia to label the country “the world champion of homophobic crimes.”
L A Times
Princess Cruises ship docks in San Pedro after outbreak of norovirus
A Princess Cruises ship docked in San Pedro early Sunday after nearly 170 people on board fell ill in the ship's second outbreak of norovirus this year, officials said.
Passengers began to show signs of the gastrointestinal sickness a few days into the month-long voyage to Hawaii and Tahiti. All the ill passengers and crew were treated on the ship. None required hospitalization when the ship, the Crown Princess, reached port, according to cruise officials.
Norovirus is highly contagious and can be picked up from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces.
In total, 158 passengers and 11 crew members were reported having the illness, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
S F Gate
California drought hits San Mateo County coast particularly hard
The historic statewide drought has struck especially hard along the southern San Mateo County coast. While other parts of the Bay Area are served by big water agencies with steady if shrinking supplies, most of the homes and small farms here, less than an hour’s drive from Silicon Valley, rely on creeks and wells, many of which have stopped flowing.
That’s left scores of people struggling mightily to get by with little or no water.
“People don’t think there are rural communities on the San Francisco Peninsula that have run out of water,” said Chelsea Moller, project coordinator with the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District, which is trying to help families shore up their water needs. “I think they really get overlooked.”
For Doniga and her husband, Erik, 45, running their small family ranch along Highway 1 wasn’t easy even with an abundance of water. So when the rationing started in July, their routine became that much harder — flushing toilets with bathwater, running spigots slowly or not at all, and foregoing showers after a long day.
The biggest hit, though, has been to the bottom line. The family had to move their cattle herd — the heart of their grass-fed-beef business — off their property and lease wetter land elsewhere, an unforeseen and devastating expense.