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.
The OND concept was borne under the keen keyboard of Magnifico - proper respect is due.
Current Contributors are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader,Oke, rfall, JML9999 and Neon Vincent.
BBC:Syria unrest: Red Cross begins Homs evacuation
Syria unrest: Red Cross begins Homs evacuation
The Red Cross has begun moving women, children and the wounded from part of the besieged Syrian city of Homs.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent ambulances drove into the suburb of Baba Amr, which has been under heavy attack, after negotiations earlier in the day.
Injured journalists were among those awaiting rescue, but the International Committee of the Red Cross has not made clear if they are among the evacuees.
The news came as a major conference was held in Tunisia pushing for aid access.
BBC:Two men arrested in computer-hacking probe
Two men arrested in computer-hacking probe
Two men have been arrested as part of the computer-hacking investigation set up by the Metropolitan Police alongside their phone-hacking inquiry.
Officers from Operation Tuleta detained a 50-year-old man at his home in Hertfordshire, and a 51-year-old man at a Surrey address, on Friday.
Officers searched the Hertfordshire property. The men are in custody at separate London police stations.
Operation Tuleta covers privacy intrusions including computer misuse.
BBC:Christopher Tappin extradited to US on missile charges
Christopher Tappin extradited to US on missile charges
A Briton extradited to the US for allegedly selling batteries for Iranian missiles has been taken into custody after arriving in Texas.
Retired businessman Christopher Tappin, 65, landed in Houston at 23:00GMT, after flying in from Heathrow.
He will make his first court appearance in El Paso on Monday.
Dan Cogdell, Mr Tappin's lawyer in the US, said he would "vigorously argue" for his client to be released on bail.
BBC:Venezuela's Hugo Chavez heads to Cuba for more surgery
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez heads to Cuba for more surgery
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has left Caracas for more cancer treatment in Cuba.
Mr Chavez, 57, is expected to undergo an operation on a lesion which he says is probably malignant.
He gave an emotional farewell to his supporters, telling them he would fight for his life, and promised to return to stand for re-election in October.
Last year, Mr Chavez said he was free from cancer after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy in Cuba.
BBC:Deadly gun and bomb attack in Nigerian city of Gombe
Deadly gun and bomb attack in Nigerian city of Gombe
At least four people have been killed in the northern Nigerian city of Gombe in a gun and bomb attack on a prison and police station, officials say.
Police say they repulsed the attack which they blamed on the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.
The groups has carried out deadly attacks and assassinations across northern Nigeria in recent months.
Earlier on Friday, gunmen killed five people at a mosque in Kano, the main city in northern Nigeria, police said.
BBC:Iran not co-operating on nuclear programme, says IAEA
Iran not co-operating on nuclear programme, says IAEA
Iran failed to co-operate with UN nuclear officials during two sets of talks in Tehran over the past month, the UN's watchdog has said in a report.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Tehran had not cleared up questions about possible military aspects of its nuclear programme.
The agency also said Iran had stepped up uranium enrichment in recent months.
In response, Iran insisted it was co-operating with the agency but defended its right to a civil nuclear programme.
Reuters:Greece launches long-awaited debt swap offer
Greece launches long-awaited debt swap offer
(Reuters) - Greece formally launched a bond swap offer to private holders of its bonds on Friday, setting in motion the largest-ever sovereign debt restructuring in the hope of getting its messy finances back on track.
The swap is part of a second, 130-billion-euro rescue package to claw Greece back from the brink of a disorderly default that had threatened to send shockwaves through the financial system and punish other weak euro zone members.
The complex deal was finalized this week after months of tortuous negotiations between Greece and its bondholders that were complicated by European partners driving a hard bargain, hedge funds holding out for a default and pressure on public creditors like the European Central bank to chip in.
The swap, in which investors will trade bonds for lower-value debt securities, aims to slice 100 billion euros off Greece's over 350 billion euro debt load.
Reuters:Supreme Court to hear corporate human rights case
Supreme Court to hear corporate human rights case
(Reuters) - The Supreme Court will weigh next week whether corporations can be sued in the United States for suspected complicity in human rights abuses abroad, in a case being closely watched by businesses concerned about long and costly litigation.
The high court on Tuesday will consider the reach of a 1789 U.S. law that had been largely dormant until 1980, when human rights lawyers started using it, at first to sue foreign government officials. Then, over the next 20 years, the lawyers used the law to target multinational corporations.
The case before the court pits the Obama administration and human rights advocates against large companies and foreign governments over allegations that Royal Dutch Shell Plc helped Nigeria crush oil exploration protests in the 1990s.
Administration attorneys and lawyers for the plaintiffs contend corporations can be held accountable in U.S. courts for committing or assisting foreign governments in torture, executions or other human rights abuses.
Reuters:Brent oil over $125; S&P 500 ends at 4-year high
Brent oil over $125; S&P 500 ends at 4-year high
(Reuters) - Brent oil rose above $125 a barrel to end near a 10-month high on Friday as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Iran has sharply stepped up work on uranium enrichment, while the S&P 500 closed at the highest level since June 2008.
The sharp run higher in oil prices has increased worries that slower consumer demand will stymie global economic growth, particularly as the euro zone remains mired in a debt crisis and appears headed for recession.
A day after hitting a record high in euro terms, Brent crude jumped $1.85 to settle at $125.47, its fifth day of gains.
The news on Iran, in a report from the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency, was seen as certain to intensify concerns about Iran's atomic aims. For the week, Brent crude is up 4.9 percent, its biggest weekly percentage gain since the week to January 6.
Reuters:Iran has expanded sensitive nuclear work: U.N. agency
Iran has expanded sensitive nuclear work: U.N. agency
(Reuters) - Iran has sharply stepped up its controversial uranium enrichment drive, the U.N. nuclear agency said on Friday in a report that will further inflame Israeli fears the Islamic Republic is pushing ahead with atomic bomb plans.
The nuclear watchdog also gave details of its mission to Tehran this week where Iran failed to respond to allegations of research relevant to developing nuclear arms - a blow to the possible resumption of diplomatic talks that could help calm worries about a new war in the Middle East.
"The Agency continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a quarterly report about Iran issued to member states.
Iran's increase of work that can have both civilian and military purposes underlines that it has no intention of backing down in a long-running dispute with the West that has sparked fears of war.
Reuters:Yemen says vote turnout over 60 percent despite boycott
Yemen says vote turnout over 60 percent despite boycott
(Reuters) - Yemen said on Friday more than 60 percent of eligible voters had taken part in a one-candidate election to replace President Ali Abdullah Saleh with his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, though many areas of the country boycotted the poll.
Mohammed Hussein al-Hakimi, head of the body that oversaw Tuesday's election, said 6.6 million people voted out of a total of some 10 million who registered, plus others who were of voting age but had not been registered.
"This number...6,653,192 who voted for the presidential candidate, represents 99.8 of valid votes, and renders him (Hadi) the victorious candidate," he said.
"We wish him success in his future duties. Peace and God's blessings be upon you."
Reuters:U.S., Saudi maneuver to contain Iran oil market threat
U.S., Saudi maneuver to contain Iran oil market threat
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has raised oil exports and the United States is considering releasing crude from its strategic reserves as oil prices hit nine-month highs on Friday and concerns deepened over Iran's nuclear program.
Brent crude surged to over $125 a barrel after the United Nation's nuclear watchdog issued a report flagging the potential military nature of Iran's nuclear program, following an aborted U.N. inspection mission to Iran this week.
The report heightened fears of a supply disruption and could stoke worries in Israel, which has threatened Iran with pre-emptive strikes on nuclear sites. That would send shockwaves across the region and almost certainly drive oil prices even higher.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia increased exports over in the past week and offered additional crude to its biggest customers to tame runaway prices, industry sources told Reuters on Friday.
NY Times:Homes Aren’t Selling, but in Apartments, It’s a Landlord’s Market
Homes Aren’t Selling, but in Apartments, It’s a Landlord’s Market
The housing market remains a potent drag on the economy as home prices continue to slip, foreclosed homes fill some neighborhoods and millions of construction workers scramble for jobs.
But one group is sitting pretty: landlords.
Unlike home prices, rents have been rising, up 2.4 percent in January from a year earlier, according to recent data, not adjusted for inflation, released by the Labor Department.
With few rental buildings erected over the last few years, available units are going fast. Nationwide, the apartment vacancy rate is down to 5.2 percent, its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the research firm Reis Inc.