Photo hat tip to labwitchy at Facebook
Welcome to Sunday OND, tonight's edition of the daily feature. The Overnight News Digest crew consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and ScottyUrb, guest editors maggiejean and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent.
You are all welcome to read and comment, share links and news, and spend some time winding down this evening with the day's news.
News To Look For In the Week Ahead
Rio+20 deal weakens on energy and water pledges
Governments are set to weaken pledges on boosting access to water and energy after a new draft negotiating text was issued at the Rio+20 meeting.
The text was issued by the Brazilian host government after it assumed leadership of the talks from the UN.
It affirms that nations must not slide back on prior pledges and names ending poverty as the "greatest challenge".
Brazil wants the text signed off before 130 heads of government and other ministers arrive on Wednesday.
The new text was not officially distributed to journalists, despite pledges that the meeting here was "accessible".
Preparatory talks were supposed to end on Friday evening, but at that stage only 37% of the UN's draft text had been agreed - which led to Brazil's decision to issue a revamped document.
Egypt Voted Morsi is leading, he is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate.
But Wait, There's More!
Right before the second round of voting, The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a constitutional annex! (in brief, the military wins).
An instant analysis of Egypt's new constitution
The supplementary constitutional declaration really does complete the coup in many obvious ways–basically returning martial law (in its more original sense rather than the “state of emergency” that just expired), making the military unaccountable, and grabbing back oversight of the political system for the military just weeks before the scheduled end of military rule. Most of this is clear on the surface and does not need much analysis.
Greece also had elections today. Analysis by our own Georgia Logothetis:
Greece’s purgatory
The world held its breath for a cataclysm in the Aegean. Instead, it appears that as the Greeks would say, the world instead saw a sea of λάδι (oil)…a stillness without major waves or currents of change.
It’s anticipated that New Democracy will form a “national salvation government” by cobbling together support from PASOK and other parties. It will be a messy process but with there are enough puzzle pieces on the table for Samaras to assemble a functioning government. However SYRIZA’s leader politely but firmly stressed that the leftist coalition — a group that saw its support nearly double in five weeks — would play the role of respectful opposition rather than hand-holder in any new government.
Where does that leave the people of Greece? The two major parties that mismanaged Greece will still hold primary power, while a third party that relished rhetoric over specifics steps a bit on the sidelines, with a pin still in the proverbial grenade. How Syriza will express its opposition to the memorandum in the weeks and months to come remains to be seen, as does the behavior of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn whose swatzika flag will fly for the first time in Greek Parliament.
Also, the Senate and House are both back in session, and the G20 is meeting in Mexico.
WAR
Conference in Kabul: Germany Calls for More Chinese and Russian Aid in Afghanistan
The issue is Afghanistan's future -- and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has clear ideas about who should lend a hand in its reconstruction. Shortly before arriving at a regional conference in Kabul on Thursday morning, Westerwelle called for greater Russian and Chinese involvement in the Hindu Kush.
Westerwelle will join the foreign ministers of about 15 neighboring states as well as other partner nations at the international meeting. There, they will discuss support for Afghanistan, both now and after the planned withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014.
For the first time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also at the table, as is a deputy Chinese foreign minister. Neighboring Pakistan and Iran are also represented, and Saudi Arabia has sent an official delegate.
For some time now, Westerwelle has been trying to get China, in particular, to assume a greater role in rebuilding Afghanistan and financially supporting its military after the NATO withdrawal for a period of time.
Because China and Russia are doing such a great job with Syria right now?
Fear-filled sect that keeps Syria's dictatorship alive
They live in a sliver of land about 50km wide, trace their ancestry back to the Canaanites and swear allegiance to a totalitarian state, which serves as their protector. And, after more than 16 months of revolt in Syria, the country’s Alawite sect remains firmly at the heart of the regime’s fight to see off its challengers.
Fuelled by a belief that the events in Syria pose an existential threat to them, and coloured by a long history of persecution and prejudice, the Alawites are showing few signs of drifting away from the regime.
Rather, the longer the uprising has continued, the more intransigent their support has become.
“That seems to be the way it is for the core group of supporters among the Alawites,” said a British diplomat in Beirut. “There has been messaging directed at them to let them know that their futures aren’t tied to Assad [president] and his gang. But it would be fair to say that a large majority of them still see themselves indelibly linked to the ruling clan.”
US seeks British help to stop arms delivery
THE US government has enlisted Britain's help to stop a ship suspected to be carrying Russian attack helicopters and missiles to Syria.
The MV Alaed, a Danish-operated cargo vessel, is thought to be sailing across the North Sea, after allegedly picking up a consignment of munitions and MI25 helicopters, known as ''flying tanks'', from the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad.
Washington, which last week condemned Moscow for continuing to arm the Syrian regime, has asked British officials to help stop the Alaed delivering its alleged cargo by using sanctions legislation to force its London-based insurer to withdraw its cover.
Under the terms of the European Union arms embargo against Syria, imposed in May last year, there is a ban on the ''transfer or export'' of arms and any related brokering services such as insurance. Withdrawal of a ship's insurance cover would make it difficult for it to dock legally elsewhere and may force it to return the cargo to port.
AROUND THE WORLD
Taliban praise India for resisting US’s Afghan call
In an unusual turn of events, the Afghan Taliban praised India as a “significant country” in the region and said New Delhi has done well to resist US calls for greater military involvement in Afghanistan.
“No doubt that India is a significant country in the region... They are aware of the Afghans’ aspirations, creeds and love for freedom. It is totally illogical they should plunge their nation into a calamity just for the American pleasure,” the Taliban said in a statement.
The group, accused of repeatedly targetting Indian interests in Afghanistan and believed to be close to Pakistani spy agency ISI, praised India for what it called sending US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta “empty handed towards Kabul.”
Regional chess.
India firm shakes up cancer drug market with price cuts
Indian pharmaceutical tycoon Yusuf Hamied revolutionised AIDS treatment more than a decade ago by supplying cut-price drugs to the world’s poor – and now he wants to do the same for cancer.
Hamied, chairman of generic drugs giant Cipla, last month slashed the cost of three medicines to fight brain, kidney and lung cancer in India, making the drugs up to more than four times cheaper.
“I hope we’ll cut prices of many more cancer drugs,” he told AFP, adding that he wants to supply the cheaper drugs to Africa and elsewhere.
“Reducing the price of cancer drugs is a humanitarian move.”
Hamied, 76, was pilloried by Western drug giants 11 years ago when he broke their monopoly by offering to supply life-saving triple therapy AIDS drug cocktails for under $1 a day – one-thirtieth the price of the multinationals.
House to debate gay marriage bills
PARLIAMENT will once again be embroiled in the controversial issue of gay marriage from today, as two separate private members' bills to legalise same-sex marriage are debated in the House of Representatives, with a vote on the bills likely to come following the winter session of Parliament.
A report on the two bills, one from Labor's Stephen Jones and one from Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent Andrew Wilkie, by the House of Representatives social policy and legal affairs committee will also be tabled this morning.
Committee chair and Labor MP Graham Perrett said it was the largest committee inquiry ever held, with responses ''pretty strongly in support'' of change.
The committee used an online poll to gauge community sentiment, with 276,437 people responding - 64 per cent backed legalising same-sex marriage.
RAKHINE RIOTS: True stripes revealed in Myanmar
The timing of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's return to Europe after a 24-year absence could have been better. She leaves her country amid turmoil in its western Rakhine State, where sectarian rioting has claimed scores of victims. The period of unrest has shed a rare light on the volatile tensions that have simmered for years between the country's dominant Buddhist population and its Muslim minority.
The week of rioting has also put Myanmar's much lauded democratic transition under new international scrutiny. A realization seems to be emerging of the many shortcomings of President Thein Sein's reform program that, for all its surface glint, has failed to address the deep underlying grievances among the country's many ethnic groups.
The Rohingya, who have consistently been denied citizenship, have borne the brunt of the rioting. Medicins Sans Frontieres says that state-sponsored abuse of the group has put them "in danger of extinction", but their protectors in Myanmar are nowhere to be seen. As the United Nations has noted, they are "virtually friendless".
Pope: Irish clergy child sex abuse a 'mystery'
Pope Benedict XVI has told Irish Catholics it is a mystery why priests and other clergy abused children entrusted in their care, undermining faith in the church in an "appalling" way.
By calling the cause of the abuse often over a period of decades in Catholic parishes, schools and church-run institutions and parishes in predominantly Catholic Ireland a "mystery," the pontiff could further anger rank-and-file faithful in Ireland.
Benedict commented on the scandals of sexual abuse and cover-ups by church hierarchy in a pre-recorded video message for the closing session of a week-long gathering in Dublin aimed at shoring up flagging faith, including obligatory Mass attendance.
I could not resist this headline. I tried. I had to go back and find it again. Mystery my ass.
Far right's Le Pen beaten, but niece stages upset
France's far-right National Front returned to parliament for the first time since 1998 on Sunday but the anti-immigrant and anti-EU party's leader Marine Le Pen lost her bid for a seat by a handful of votes.
Official results from Sunday's run-off parliamentary vote showed the 22-year-old granddaughter of FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, and lawyer Gilbert Collard were elected in southern constituencies.
But his daughter and political heir Marine Le Pen lost her bid for a seat in a former mining constituency near the northern city of Lille by only 118 votes, with Socialist Philippe Kemel scoring 50.11 percent to Le Pen's 49.89 percent.
Marine Le Pen said she would demand a recount, nonetheless hailing the party's result as "an enormous success."
France voted too. I like this Sunday voting idea. Oh, the winning Le Pen is named Marion.
AROUND THE COUNTRY
Oakland attorney John Burris remembers tough life of Rodney King, 'the face of police brutality'
King's drowning was reported to police in Rialto -- a working class city 50 miles from Los Angeles -- by Cynthia Kelley, one of the jurors in the civil rights case that awarded King $3.8 million in damages. The two were engaged to be married. In an interview earlier this year with the Associated Press, King insisted he was a happy man. "America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all," he said. "This part of my life is the easy part now."
A next door neighbor in Rialto said that about 3 a.m., she heard music, people talking and also someone talking very emotionally. "It seemed like someone was really crying, like really deep emotions," said Sandra Gardea, 31. "And it just got louder and louder. Everybody woke up. Even the kids woke up."
Gardea said this went on for some time, then it was quiet for several minutes. "After that, we heard a splash in the back," she said. Shortly after 5 a.m., King's fiancee called police to say she had found his body in the pool.
Burris said King was never comfortable with the curious fame that followed him through subsequent arrests and appearances on reality TV shows. "This was an example of a very common person being thrust into martyrdom unwittingly," said Burris, who later went on to represent Oscar Grant's family in a civil rights trial against BART.
"This was a guy who was not emotionally or mentally equipped to be a public figure," Burris said. "It's not anything he wanted, and it was a challenge for him to handle it. He became sort of a trophy, who was passed around and placed in situations that he really wasn't equipped to handle."
Willard Invades Iowa
Mitt Romney’s next target in Iowa is the Mississippi River Valley — battleground territory in the Hawkeye State important to both presidential campaigns.
The GOP presidential candidate will make two stops in crucial swing-state Iowa Monday – a private event in Dubuque and a public speech in Davenport.
Virtually deadlocked in national polling with President Barack Obama, Romney is barnstorming states in the upper Midwest, trying to pressure the Democrat in the heart of places where the Republicans think his challenges lie.
Romney embarked on Friday on a five-day bus tour of six states — New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. All are states that Obama won in 2008 but are very much in play for this fall’s general election.
Is Willard actually on the bus? Is Ann?
Colorado wildfire: Winds ground air support to High Park fire crews; new evacuations ordered Read more: Colorado wildfire: Winds ground air support to High Park fire crews; new evacuations ordered
Wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour have been screaming across the High Park fire forcing helicopters that have been helping to fight the blaze west of Fort Collins to stay on the ground, and prompting a number of new evacuations.
The choppers — 18 are fighting the fire — are down until further notice.
Winds are blowing at 30 to 50 mph across the blaze which has consumed 55,000 acres.
Crews are working to re-calculate that estimate as they expect the acres burned to have increased, but fire information officer Brett Haberstick, said the fire growth is thought to be within the perimeter fire crews had already set up.
Stop-and-Frisk March, Packed and Peaceful
On a Sunday that started out with blustery winds and slightly overcast conditions, several thousand New Yorkers gathered in upper Manhattan and marched down Fifth Avenue from 110th Street in a remarkably silent protest of the city's stop-and-frisk police policy.
Today's march -- led by a coalition of organizations and prominent public figures including Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous and New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman -- was aimed at drawing attention to NYPD's controversial practice of stopping and questioning residents who seem suspicious.
The tactic -- which some say unfairly targets blacks and Latinos -- has been defended by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other members of his administration.
Many of those who participated described situations in which they often felt like they received special negative attention from police.
AROUND UTAH
BYU Does Evolution
The topic: Evolution. It's a subject Whiting has to keep up with as new fossils are discovered that provide a more complete understanding of the world we live in. His class also provides a snapshot into the intersection of science and faith and how both the learned and learning at a faith-based university develop the skills to balance science and religion in a quest for truths.
"What we try to do when we teach evolution is provide a solid course in evolutionary science," Whiting said. "There is room in LDS doctrine to believe a God who uses evolution."
New archaeological discoveries are celebrated by Whiting, a religious man teaching at a university where classes can open with prayer. And this year the discoveries keep on coming:
Dialing for Dollars
A conservative politician had better be pro-business. In terms of garnering campaign donations—the fuel that drives candidates to election-time victories—being pro-business is being pro-money.
It also helps when a business that a Utah politician supports is headquartered in Utah and brings in revenue from outside of the state.
A video circulating on the Web shows Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff enthusiastically welcoming a 2004 gathering of Usana multilevel marketers. He joked that he had convinced then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to rename the state “Utana.” “I tell you why,” Shurtleff said to convention attendees. “It’s because you guys pay a lot of taxes in the state.”
Shurtleff later gave his blessing to legislation that benefited Utah’s many multilevel-marketing companies. In 2006, after the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 182 to relax regulation of the MLM industry, there was little hue and cry. That is, except from Jon Taylor, a critic of multilevel marketing who saw the companies as thinly disguised pyramid schemes. In a 2006 Salt Lake Tribune op-ed piece, Taylor complained that politicians passed the bill because they love the tax money multilevel-marketing companies bring into the state at the expense of “millions of people, mostly out of state [that] have lost billions of dollars.”
Because telemarketing and fraud and one dominant church have nothing to do with each other.
Idealism, reality collide as Utah students build homes for Navajos
When Hank Louis looks across tribal lands of southeastern Utah, he sees a beautiful yet stark landscape inhabited by people living in conditions that have more in common with a developing country than the world’s richest society.
But he also sees troves of potential building materials that can be adapted into striking low-cost, energy-efficient homes, and the freedom to experiment with bold building ideas. Earthen berms can shore up walls, tires are perfect for retaining walls, pallet planks can sheath exterior walls.
With this inspiration in mind, DesignBuildBLUFF, the Bluff-based nonprofit Louis started in 2000, employs University of Utah graduate architecture students to design and build homes for Navajo families.
OTHER
Links
Aurora Australis Video available at link.
Electricity Shortage in Pakistan
Sports
Midwestern Sports Page Tiger lost, MLB has interleague play, Hockey is over, NBA is almost over, and Ann Romney has 1/3 of a horse going into the Olympics.
Arts
World's Longest Social Scarf: official World Record Attempt
Political Cartoons
Christ, What an Asshole Okay, not really a cartoon, but does fit a lot of political stuff ;-) h/t Roger Ebert's tweets
Pat Bagley - Salt Lake Tribune
Neil Munro Interrupting becomes a meme This twitter person has been tweeting a lot of different cartoons and pictures.
9:32 PM PT: http://angryblackladychronicles.com/...
Angry Black Lady comes through with a meme blog entry! #yay