Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular 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.
Special thanks to JekyllnHyde for the OND banner.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
The protesters, who were mostly high school and college students, vented anger over the shooting of an unarmed biracial teenager by a white policeman.
Nineteen-year-old Tony Robinson Jr was shot on Friday evening in an apartment. He was unarmed, but police say he attacked the officer who shot him.
A series of police shootings have stoked racial tensions in the US.
Students from all of the city's high schools walked out of classes to attend the peaceful rally inside the capitol building's rotunda, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
Inside the building, they carried a "Black Lives Matter" banner and chanted "Justice for Tony!"
This latest demonstration marks the fourth day of protest since the shooting on Friday evening.
The Guardian
A judge in Ferguson, Missouri, who is accused of running a modern-day debtors’ prison while fixing traffic tickets for himself and owing $170,000 in unpaid taxes, resigned on Monday as state authorities seized control of the city’s court system.
Ronald J Brockmeyer stepped down as Ferguson’s municipal court judge after Missouri’s supreme court ordered that all the court’s cases be transferred to the St Louis County circuit court, according to a source who was not authorised to speak publicly about the decision.
Under the same ruling, Judge Roy L Richter of the Missouri court of appeals will be assigned to the county’s circuit court, where he will hear all of Ferguson’s municipal court cases “to help restore public trust and confidence” in the system.
The Guardian
Members of one of the largest fraternity groups in the US were condemned on Monday by the the University of Oklahoma president, David Boren, after students were caught hurling racist epithets towards black Americans in a video published online.
Boren, a former US senator who also served as the state’s governor, called the students’ behaviour sickening, and said Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) would not be welcome on the University of Oklahoma campus again.
“This is not who we are,” said Boren in a Monday press conference. “Those students will be out of that house by midnight tomorrow night, the house will be closed, and as far as I’m concerned it won’t be back – at least not as long as I’m president of the university.”
The Guardian
Muslim leaders in Texas have expressed their fears over rising anxiety in the community following the murder of an Iraqi migrant who was shot dead in Dallas as he stood outside his apartment to photograph his first snowfall.
Ahmed al-Jumaili had waited a year for paperwork to be completed so he could join his wife, Zahraa, in the US, where they hoped they could start a new life together in a safer country. She greeted him at the airport with balloons, flowers and a sign that said she had “waited 460 days … for this moment”.
Less than three weeks later, Jumaili was dead: killed in an apparently random shooting by unknown assailants who are still at large. Police said that Jumaili, his wife and her brother were outside their apartment complex in a north Dallas suburb late last Wednesday, taking photographs of snow in the parking lot. Four suspects entered the complex on foot, multiple shots were fired, and the 36-year-old was killed after being hit in the chest.
Los Angeles Times
37-year-old man who was shot and killed by Colorado police last week was not armed, officials said during a news conference Monday.
Naeschylus Vinzant died of a gunshot wound to the chest after a clash with police in Aurora, according to a statement by the Arapahoe County coroner's office.
Vinzant, who had absconded from parole March 2 and removed his ankle monitor, was also wanted in connection with an "assault, robbery, kidnapping and domestic violence incident" that took place the same day, according to Aurora Police Cmdr. Paul O'Keefe.
The city's SWAT team was called in because of Vinzant's "violent history," he said. It was not clear what led to the shooting.
BBC
US President Barack Obama has criticised a letter from Republican senators to Iran, accusing them of "interfering" in ongoing nuclear talks.
He said the 47 senators made an "unusual coalition" with Iran's hard-line religious leaders.
The letter reminds Iran that any deal is just an executive agreement unless it gets congressional approval.
Talks on Iran's nuclear programme are at a critical stage, with an outline agreement due on 31 March.
Last week Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress the deal currently being negotiated could "pave Iran's path to the bomb".
Separately, officials confirmed that US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Sunday in Switzerland, as part of the process.
The Guardian
A university branch of one of the largest fraternities in the United States has been closed and its members suspended after a video of members appearing to participate in a racist chant was posted online.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) said on Sunday that an investigation into footage apparently featuring students from the University of Oklahoma (OU) chanting about lynching and using racist epithets against black people had left it embarrassed and disgusted.
“We apologise for the unacceptable and racist behaviour of the individuals in the video, and we are disgusted that any member would act in such a way,” the SAE leadership said in a statement.
The Guardian
A teenage girl who was ordered by a court to undergo chemotherapy has seen her illness go into remission.
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) said on Sunday that the teenager, who is identified in court documents only as Cassandra C, was making a recovery that was better than expected after she was confined to hospital and mandated to receive chemotherapy.
The 17-year-old was given a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma last September. After initial surgery failed, she was given two rounds of chemotherapy. She then asked for treatment to be stopped and, in order to avoid further trips to hospital, ran away from home.
The girl’s mother supported her choice but the DCF claimed custody of the girl and took the case to court, arguing that it had a responsibility to treat her after doctors said the cancer would almost certainly kill her without chemotherapy.
Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday revived the University of Notre Dame's religious objections to the requirement for contraception coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, throwing out a lower court decision in favor of the federal government.
The justices asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision against the South Bend, Indiana-based Roman Catholic university in light of the June 2014 Supreme Court ruling that allowed certain privately owned corporations to seek exemptions from the provision.
The case is part of national litigation concerning religious objections to the contraception provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known widely as Obamacare.
The law requires employers to provide health insurance policies that cover preventive services for women including access to contraception and sterilization.
Reuters
The Supreme Court on Monday spurned two appeals involving U.S. treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees, barring a Syrian man from suing the United States over alleged torture and blocking the release of images purported to show evidence of a Saudi man's mistreatment.
The justices in both cases left intact lower-court rulings in favor of the U.S. government.
In one case, the court left in place a January 2014 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit against a Syrian former detainee, Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko. He had sought to sue the United States for damages stemming from his treatment during seven years at the U.S. facility in Cuba.
Janko says he was tortured and suffered physical and psychological degradation at Guantanamo from 2002 to 2009 after being detained in Afghanistan in 2001. Janko was seeking damages for the way he was treated.
Reuters
Republican senators warned Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal made with U.S. President Barack Obama could last only as long as he remains in office, in an unusual intervention into U.S. foreign policy-making.
The letter, signed by 47 U.S. senators, says Congress plays a role in ratifying international agreements and points out that Obama will leave office in January 2017, while many in Congress will remain in Washington long after that.
"We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei," the letter read.
Al Jazeera America
Forty-seven Republican senators warned Monday that any the nuclear agreement currently being negotiated between Iran and world powers could be overturned if their party wins the White House in 2016.
In an open letter addressed to Iranian leaders, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and 46 other Republicans claimed that absent congressional approval, the proposed deal would be merely an agreement with President Barack Obama — and could be reversed by his successor.
"The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen," they wrote, "and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time."
That may be a simpflication, since the agreement to limit Iran's nuclear work would be an international one, concluded not only with the U.S. but also with Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. If the next U.S. President or Congress moved to reverse or revoke such an agreement, particularly if Iran was judged by others to be in compliance, such a move would put Washington at odds with the international consensus on which the current sanctions against Iran are based.
Al Jazeera America
President Barack Obama issued an executive order Monday declaring Venezuela a national security threat, sanctioning seven individuals and expressing concern about the Venezuelan government's treatment of political opponents.
"Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.
"We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government's efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela's problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent," he added.
The White House said the executive order targeted people whose actions undermined democratic processes or institutions, had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, were involved in prohibiting or penalizing freedom of expression, or were government officials involved in public corruption.
UN expert slams US as only nation to imprison kids for life without paroleAl Jazeera America
NEW YORK — The United States was singled out Monday by a United Nations expert on torture for being the only country in the world that continues to sentence children to life in prison without parole.
“The vast majority of states have taken note of the international human rights requirements regarding life imprisonment of children without the possibility of release,” Juan Méndez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, said in his report, before noting that the United States is the only country to continue the practice.
A sentence of life without parole means life and death in prison — a practice considered cruel and inhumane punishment for juveniles under both international and U.S. law.
“Life sentences or sentences of an extreme length have a disproportionate impact on children and cause physical and psychological harm that amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment,” the report reads.
Dr. Louis Kraus, the chairman of the juvenile justice reform committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, called the practice “a devastating process to even conceptualize.”
NHK World News
The leaders of Japan and Germany have agreed to work closely on a variety of issues, including the Ukrainian crisis and reform of the UN Security Council.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at his office on Monday. The German leader is on a 2-day visit to Japan, her first in 7 years.
Abe said Japan and Germany share such fundamental values as freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law. He added that both countries have been peaceful nations since the end of World War Two, and have contributed to the international community.
Abe praised Merkel's efforts for a solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The 2 leaders agreed to work closely on the Ukrainian issue and to hold regular Japan-Germany talks.
DW
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the moment he claims to have ordered the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation. Details of the overnight meeting came to light in a forthcoming documentary.
Putin said he decided to begin the annexation of Crimea when he met security officials to discuss rescue plans for ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
In a trailer for the documentary titled "Homeward Bound," Putin said it had been decided upon in an overnight meeting from February 22 to 23. At the end, he told defense ministry officials and special forces commanders to start work on the annexation.
"We ended at about seven in the morning," Putin said in the trailer.
"When we were saying goodbye, I said to all my colleagues: we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia."
DW
Kurdish officials say a young German woman has died in battle against IS jihadists in Syria. Nineteen-year-old Ivana Hoffman was reportedly a member of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in Turkey.
Hoffman was killed near the village of Tel Tamr in northeastern Syria on Saturday, according to Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units - a group Hoffmann is said to have joined six months ago.
The Kurdish forces, also known as YPG, fight members of Islamic State backed by US air strikes and local rebel fighters in Syria.
Tel Tamr is an area that has seen fierce fighting during recent weeks.
Spiegel Online
The heavy fighting may have stopped for the time being, but Donetsk is more isolated than ever. Those wishing to enter and leave the city need difficult-to-obtain special IDs. Meanwhile, food and other supplies are only trickling into the metropolis.
Borders can be annoying, but largely predictable -- in Europe at least. That is what truck driver Yevgeny believed until recently. Many of them are no longer monitored at all, but even those that are guarded rarely hold surprises for those wishing to cross them. "You know if you can zip across them or if you have to plan for a five-hour wait. But this one? I have no idea how it works."
The border he is referring to is that of a wartime stronghold on the edge of a largely borderless European continent. At the first checkpoint after Kurakhove, travelers must present their papers, open the trunks of their cars and submit to pat-downs as guards search for weapons. Another 500 meters down the road, there are blocks of concrete, barricades, antitank barriers and signs that curtly order travelers to switch off their headlights and stop immediately. After that, there are containers and hooded soldiers, their Kalashnikovs at the ready.
Spiegel Online
In a SPIEGEL interview, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras discusses planned reforms, the polarizing effect his government has had on Europe and the possibility of a "Graccident," Greece's accidental exit from the euro zone.
Alex Tsipras seems almost inconspicuous as he stands in his enormous office in Athens' Maximos Mansion, and very relaxed. Greece's new, 43-year-old leftist prime minister, a thorn in the side of German leaders in Berlin, has a soft handshake. On the conference table is a pad of paper bearing the government coat of arms along with neatly written notes in preparation for our interview.
Tsipras wants to explain himself and the policies of his government, he says, adding that he hopes to answer questions openly and honestly so that people in Germany understand him better. Now, he says, is the ideal time for such a discussion, coming as it does after the negotiations with Brussels and shortly before Athens intends to present its new reform plans to European Union finance ministers on Monday.
The Guardian
A colleague of Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition figure shot dead near the Kremlin in Moscow, has said suggestions he was killed by Islamists were nonsensical but useful for the Kremlin because they deflected accusations that officials were involved.
Speculation about an Islamist link grew after investigators charged Zaur Dadayev, a Chechen, over the killing. Dadayev is an associate of Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who said on Sunday the murder may have been in response to anger over Nemtsov’s support for the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
Al Jazeera America
Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series, “Terror in Coahuila.” In light of the 43 Mexican students that went missing in the southern state of Guerrero last year, Al Jazeera is investigating earlier atrocities that occurred in the northern state of Coahuila but escaped the world’s attention. Part two of this series will explore links between the region’s vast energy reserves and its so-called drug war, and part three will look at how violence and corruption in the state’s prisons mirrored what was happening on the streets.
SALTILLO, Mexico — Anita had just returned from a chemotherapy session in Monterrey, an hourlong bus ride away, after waiting two hours for her pain to subside after the radiation. The following morning, another difficult journey awaited her. She and several other mothers were meeting with Rubén Moreira, the governor of the northern state of Coahuila, to discuss the case of their missing children.
“I’m a strong woman. I have to be strong and keep going until I die because I want to find my son,” Anita said while slowly eating a bowl of vegetable soup at a local restaurant. The temperature at the eatery was pleasant, but Anita remained bundled up in her coat and a winter hat to cover her head, bald from the chemotherapy. “I’m a bit cold, but it doesn’t matter. The heart is colder when you’re missing a son.”
BBC
A regional force has recaptured the Nigerian town of Damasak a day after launching a major offensive against militant group Boko Haram, sources say.
The Islamist group had held the town near the Niger border since November, part of territory it had captured since stepping up attacks in the region.
Military sources say about 10 Chadian soldiers and 200 militants were killed.
The campaign to push back Boko Haram comes days after the group pledged allegiance to Islamist State (IS).
The militants have been fighting an insurgency to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria since 2009, and in recent months the violence has increasingly spilled over into neighbouring states.
Reuters
Ten people were killed when two helicopters collided in the western Argentine province of La Rioja, a local official said on Monday, as speculation grew that participants in French reality show "Dropped" were among the dead.
"I am sad for my friends, I’m shaking, I’m horrified, I can’t find the words," Tweeted Sylvain Wiltord, the former French footballer and cast member of Dropped.
Among the dead were the helicopters' two pilots, Cesar Angulo, La Rioja's security chief, told reporters. The province is in a rugged area near the Andes mountains.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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Bloomberg News via McClatchyDC
Las Vegas is seeking to quench its growing thirst by draining billions of gallons of water from under the feet of ranchers whose cattle help feed the Mormon church's poor.
A legal battle across 275 miles of treeless ridges and baked salt flats comes as the western U.S. faces unprecedented droughts linked to climate change.
The surface of Las Vegas's main source of water, Lake Mead, is more than 100 feet below Hoover Dam's spillways after reaching the lowest mark last summer since the dam was filled. As it seeks new sources, the city's water supplier is waging a court fight over plans to suck as much as 27 billion gallons a year from the valley that is home to the Mormon ranch and its 1,750-head herd, as well as three other rural valleys.
Casino resorts, five of which are Southern Nevada's largest commercial water users, labor unions and the developer of a 22,500-acre mini-city west of Las Vegas argue their future depends on the water supply that the church, Indian tribes and environmental groups say is needed by local communities.
NPR
Kansas City has some of the Internet best service anywhere. Providers there jostle for customers who can now expect broadband that's about 100 times faster than the national average.
But, four years after Google Fiber landed in Kansas City, people are still trying to figure just what do with all that speed.
Kansas City's a modest, Midwestern place. Residents are proud of their barbecue and baseball team. But Aaron Deacon says that now there's something else: inexpensive, world-class Internet.
"Yeah, it's the best," he says. "Maybe Hong Kong's a little bit better than us, and Seoul."
NPR
When it comes to the current controversy over antibiotic use on farm animals, milk is in a special category.
Lactating cows, unlike hogs, cattle or chickens that are raised for their meat, don't receive antibiotics unless they are actually sick. That's because drug residues immediately appear in the cow's milk — a violation of food safety rules.
Milk shipments are tested for six of the most widely used antibiotics, and any truckload that tests positive is rejected. So when cows are treated, farmers discard their milk for several days until the residues disappear.
Yet a new report from the Food and Drug Administration reveals that a few farmers are slipping through a hole in this enforcement net. These farmers are using antibiotics that the routine tests don't try to detect, because the drugs aren't supposed to be used on dairy cows at all.
NPR
It's March. It's freezing. And there's half a foot of snow on the ground. When is this winter going to end?
Many scientists think that climate change might be one cause of this year's "snowpocalypse" in Boston and bitter cold snaps in New York and Washington.
But physicists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been looking into another culprit: air pollution in China and India.
"Over the past 30 years or so, man-made emission centers have shifted from traditional industrialized countries to fast, developing countries in Asia," physicist Jonathan Jiang writes in an email.
Reuters
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) launched its long-awaited watch on Monday, including yellow or rose gold models with sapphire faces costing up to $17,000, but some investors questioned whether Chief Executive Tim Cook's first product would be a breakaway hit.
Apple's first new device since Cook became CEO will be available for order on April 10 and in stores on April 24, including chic boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo.
In a nod to both fashion and technology, Cook shared the stage with model Christy Turlington Burns, who used it to train for a marathon, and Apple engineers who showed how to send drawings, pictures and even heartbeats with the watch.
NPR
There are many reasons women need cesareans. Sometimes the situation is truly life-threatening. But often the problem is that labor simply isn't progressing. That was the case for Valerie Echo Duckett, 35, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. After receiving an epidural for pain, Duckett's contractions stopped. By late evening she was told she'd need a C-section to deliver her son, Avery. Duckett says she has vague memories of being wheeled into the operating room, strapped down and shaking from cold.
"They were covering me up with warm blankets,"she says. "I kind of slept in and out of it." Her only memory of meeting her newborn son for the first time was from some pictures her husband took.
This is the experience many women have. The cesarean section is the most common surgery in America — about 1 in 3 babies is delivered this way. But for many women, being told they need a C-section is unpleasant news. Duckett says she felt like she missed out on a pivotal moment in her pregnancy.
C/NET
Apple users will get first crack at HBO Now, a standalone online service from HBO that doesn't force you to subscribe to an entire lineup of cable channels.
Starting in April, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV owners will be able to subscribe to HBO Now to the tune of $14.99 per month. That means Apple users will be able to watch all HBO content past, present and future.
C/NET
Apple on Monday unveiled its newest MacBook, a super-thin and light device that could help it keep demand going for its sleek but high-priced Mac computers.
"We challenged ourselves to reinvent the notebook," CEO Tim Cook said at a press event in San Francisco. "And we did it."
Apple has already been growing faster than the rest of the personal-computer industry, but it needs to keep enticing customers to its Mac laptops and desktops to draw revenue from more areas than just its blockbuster iPhone business. The new device could help it do just that by bringing together many features that have long been on peoples' wish lists for the MacBook line, especially by offering more laptops with higher-resolution displays.