Egypt's top court rebukes president's decree - Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has rebuked newly elected President Mohamed Morsi, meeting in a special session to assert that Morsi has no right to reconvene parliament after the court ordered it dissolved last month.
On Sunday, Morsi issued a decree reconvening the parliament in defiance of the court and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), both of which wanted parliament dissolved.
Saad el-Katatni, the speaker of the erstwhile parliament, said lawmakers would convene at 10am on Tuesday in reponse to Morsi's decree, two hours earlier than their usual meeting time. But it remained unclear which MPs would join.
Katatni and Morsi are both members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which won nearly half of the parliament, and the ongoing political conflict between the military and Egypt's elected officials is seen by many liberal and secular politicians as a battle to determine the Brotherhood's post-revolution political powers.
--.AlJazeera
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
(graphic by palantir)
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Regular editors are jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, JML9999, and chief cat herder NeonVincent; with guest stints from maggiejean and annetteboardman. .
Mexican leftist rejects election results - The runner-up in Mexico's presidential election has rejected the final results of the contest, saying he has evidence that about 5 million votes were bought by opponents.
Sunday's official tally said leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who led six weeks of protests when he lost the 2006 presidential election, finished second with 31.59 per cent of the vote.
That left him about 3.3 million votes behind winner Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with 38.21 per cent.
...
"We cannot accept those results ...," said Lopez Obrador, who also said he was a victim of voter fraud in 2006. "We have evidence to support this and when the time is right we are going to prove that around 5 million votes were bought."
Thousands accuse President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of buying votes and paying off TV networks for support [Reuters]
--AlJazeera
Obama pushes middle-class tax relief - President Barack Obama has called for a one-year extension of tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year, seeking to put Republicans on the defensive ahead of the November presidential election.
Obama's proposal, which attempts to reinforce his campaign mantra of being a middle-class champion, is unlikely to sway his opponents in Congress, who have argued consistently that the tax cuts passed by Obama's Republican predecessor should stay in place for everyone, including wealthy Americans.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters after Obama's remarks on Monday that the president would veto any bill that extended the tax cuts across the board.
"Let's not hold the vast majority of Americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax
cut for the wealthy," Obama said at the White House, standing in front of a riser filled with people who he said would be hurt if their tax cuts were not extended.
--AlJazeera
Blasts and gunshots rock Kandahar province - At least 19 people are reported to have been killed and 39 others wounded in four bombing and shooting attacks in southern Afghanistan.
Officials said Gunmen begin attacking in three locations in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, on Monday, sparking a two-hour gunfight with Afghan security forces.
Bernard Smith reports from Kabul
"Fourteen attackers, some of them equipped with explosive suicide vests, were killed in today's gunfight with Afghan forces," Kandahar Governor Toryalai Weesa told a news conference after the gunfight ended.
Three suicide bombers were on a motorcycle when their explosives went off in Kandahar, killing children [EPA]
--AlJazeera
Euro ministers agree on Spain bank bailout -Euro area finance ministers have agreed on the terms of a bailout for Spain's troubled banks, saying that 30 billion euros can be ready by end of this month.
The finance ministers for the 17 countries that use the euro as their official currency will return to Brussels on July 20 to finalise the agreement, officials said early on Tuesday morning
As part of the agreement with Spain, finance ministers from all 27 European Union countries are expected on Tuesday to approve a one-year extension, until 2014, of Spain's deadline for achieving a budget deficit of 3 per cent.
--AlJazeera
Tonight's OND is named after Chain of Fools, by Aretha Franklin
US record heatwave leaves dozens dead - At least 42 people have died in a heatwave that has brought soaring temperatures to a dozen US states from the Midwest to the East Coast.
Crops shrivelled and roads and railway lines buckled in the heat.
Hundreds of records fell across the affected area on Friday and Saturday, but the heat was expected to ease slightly on Sunday.
Severe storms are expected to follow. Many homes in the region are still without power after storms a week ago.
--BBC
Paul LePage 'Gestapo' Comment: Maine Governor Backs Away From Radio Address Remarks - Maine Gov. Paul LePage is backing away from a recent comment in which he referred to the Internal Revenue Service as "the new Gestapo."
The Republican governor made the remark in his weekend radio address, criticizing the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the federal health care law. He said it gives Americans no choice but to buy health insurance or "pay the new Gestapo – the IRS."
--Huffington Post
Melinda Gates: Give women the power to determine their future - The vast majority of women in the United States use birth control. Some of us may even consider it a minor annoyance. Sometimes we forget to take our pills. The side effects can be painful. But we put up with it because it's so important to have the power to determine our future.
I didn't fully appreciate how much contraceptives changed my life because I never lacked access to them.
That is, I didn't fully appreciate them until I got involved in global health and learned that hundreds of millions of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia don't have access to contraceptives. The lack of birth control is more than a minor annoyance. It can be a significant barrier to a better life. When I learned what many women in poor countries faced, I asked myself: What would my life have been like if I hadn't been able to use birth control?
This week at the London Summit on Family Planning, a partnership of national governments from developing and developed countries, foundations, the private sector and NGOs is launching a groundbreaking effort to make sure no woman has to ask herself that question. Our goal is to make modern contraceptives and family planning information and services available to an additional 120 million women and girls in the world's poorest countries over the next eight years.
--Melinda Gates, Special to CNN
Study Says Meeting Contraception Needs Could Cut Maternal Deaths by a Third - A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University shows that fulfilling unmet contraception demand by women in developing countries could reduce global maternal mortality by nearly a third, a potentially great improvement for one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
The study, published on Tuesday in The Lancet, a British science journal, comes ahead of a major family planning conference in London organized by the British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is an attempt to refocus attention on the issue. It has faded from the international agenda in recent years, overshadowed by efforts to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases, as well as by ideological battles.
--SABRINA TAVERNISE, nytimes
India may provide free drugs at state-run hospitals - In what would be a landmark increase in the Indian government’s spending on public health, New Delhi is completing a proposal to provide hundreds of essential drugs free to patients in government-run hospitals and clinics at a cost of nearly $5 billion over five years, officials said Thursday.
The proposal, which could receive government approval next month, would try to fill a gaping hole in the provision of health care at state-owned hospitals, many of which require patients to buy their own drugs, including substances as basic as intravenous fluids. Specialists say it could also be the first step toward a more comprehensive universal health care system in India, which, with 1.2 billion people, is the world’s most populous country after China.
Drugs account for more than 70 percent of out-of-pocket medical costs for Indians. Government hospitals and clinics provide free or low-cost care, but most of them struggle to keep up with demand, and the quality of care can be poor.
--VIKAS BAJAJ, nytimes.com
Perry Declares Texas’ Rejection of Health Care Law ‘Intrusions’ - Gov. Rick Perry of Texas told federal officials on Monday that the state had no intention of expanding Medicaid or establishing a health insurance exchange, two major provisions of President Obama’s health care overhaul.
... On Monday, Mr. Perry made the state’s position official in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, calling both provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state.”
...
Mr. Perry’s opposition to the provisions, while not surprising, angered Democrats and community health advocates in Texas. According to the Texas Medical Association, 25 percent of the state’s population lacks health insurance — 6.2 million people, including 1.2 million children — the highest rate of any state. In Houston, the state’s biggest city, 30 percent of the population is uninsured, while the rate is 34 percent to 37 percent in Brownsville and other cities near the Mexican border, according to the medical association.
--MANNY FERNANDEZ, nytimes
Uncle Lionel Batiste, Treme Brass Band bass drummer, dies - "Uncle" Lionel Batiste, the Treme Brass Band’s longtime bass drummer and a beloved, dapper character who reveled in charming women of all ages on the dance floor, died early Sunday at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center after a brief battle with cancer. He was 80.
Mr. Batiste was an iconic figure in the brass band community and the larger world of New Orleans music. With his omnipresent sunglasses, a wristwatch worn across his hand, and his kazoo, he literally moved to the beat of his own drum.
In the traditional brass band cap, white shirt and black tie, Mr. Batiste appeared in numerous commercials and TV shows, including HBO's "Treme." He was also featured on the 2010 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell's souvenir Congo Square poster by artist Terrance Osborne.
--Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune, nola.com