The Overnight News Digest is an ongoing evening series dedicated to chronicling the day's news that the editor de la nuit finds of import or interest. Everyone is welcome to add their own news items in the comments.
Top Story
- Oregonian - KBR verdict: $85 million awarded to 12 Oregon soldiers; KBR guilty of negligence, not fraud
In a potentially precedent-setting verdict, a Portland jury found defense contractor KBR Inc. was negligent, but did not commit fraud against a dozen Oregon Army National Guard soldiers who sued the company for its conduct in Iraq nine years ago. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak announced the decision about 3:35 p.m. the U.S. Courthouse in Portland. Each soldier was awarded $850,000 in non-economic damages and $6.25 million in punitive damages.
"It's a little bit of justice," said Guard veteran Jason Arnold, moments after the verdict was announced Friday afternoon. Arnold was one of four of the soldier-plaintiffs in the courtroom was the verdict was read.
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USA
- PopSci - Meet The Climate Change Denier Who Became The Voice Of Hurricane Sandy On Wikipedia
"All I am is a contributor. I have no title, I'm just a Joe Blow," says Ken Mampel, a currently unemployed 56-year-old living in Ormond Beach, Florida. He's also largely responsible for the Wikipedia article about Hurricane Sandy. If it isn't already, that article will eventually become the single most-viewed document about the hurricane. On the entire internet.
In an unpaid but frenzied fit of news consumption, editing, correction, aggregation, and citation, Mampel has established himself as by far the most active contributor to the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Sandy, with more than twice the number of edits as the next-most-active contributor at the time this article was written.
And Mampel made sure that the Hurricane Sandy article, for four days after the hurricane made landfall in New Jersey, had no mention of "global warming" or "climate change" whatsoever…
For days, the internet's most authoritative article on a major tropical storm system in 2012 was written by a man with no meteorological training who thinks climate change is unproven and fought to remove any mention of it. |
- NBC - Sandy death toll in US rises to 109; 'there could be more,' Bloomberg warns
The death toll in the United States from Superstorm Sandy rosed to 109 victims on Friday, as Pennsylvania reported four additional deaths and New York City reported two more fatalities. Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned: "There could be more fatalities."
Two bodies were recovered Friday on Staten Island. The toll in the nation's largest city is now 41 deaths, according to the governor's office. However, the New York Police Department had reported 40 deaths in the city.
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- Guardian - Sandy forces New York to consider all options in effort to make city safe
The devastation wrought by Sandy is forcing New Yorkers to consider a whole host of measures – from fortress-like flood barriers to offering a buy-out to people living in flood-prone areas – to make the city safe from future storms.
"We are vulnerable," the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, told reporters this week. "Anyone who thinks there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is deny reality. We have a new reality and old systems." New York, with its 520 miles of coastline, is second only to New Orleans in the US for the numbers of people living within 4ft of the high tide mark, or about 200,000 people. There is also valuable property at risk – and those risks will only grow.
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Europe
- Telegraph - British butterflies could face extinction if droughts continue
If butterflies do not recover from the battering they received during the last drought, they could be wiped out completely if another drought hits…
Using data collected from 79 UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme sites between 1990 and 1999 - a period which spanned a severe drought in 1995 - the researchers found Ringlet populations crashed most severely in drier regions…
Britain has suffered from a number of severe droughts over the years - namely 1976, 1995 and earlier this year - and global warming means the frequency of summer droughts is expected to rise. |
- RIA Novosti - Romney’s Son Seeks New Business in Russia
His dad may think Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe,” but Matt Romney, son of the Republican presidential contender, wants to drum up some business opportunities there.
The second-oldest son of Republican nominee Mitt Romney, Matt Romney traveled to Moscow with a colleague looking for real estate investors this week…
The younger Romney sought to deliver a message to Putin this week that if elected, his father wants a good relationship between the two countries. |
- EU Observer - Merkel downplays EU budget vetoes
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is still hopeful a deal on the EU budget can be reached later this month, seeing the veto threats from several countries as part of the negotiating process.
"On the multi-annual budget, we still have tough decisions ahead. But both Germany and Ireland want to set a sign very early on that there is a planning for the future EU funds and we hope we will succeed," Merkel said on Thursday (1 November), with Ireland taking over the rotating EU presidency in January.
She downplayed veto threats by Britain, Sweden, Denmark and France on the proposed €1 trillion EU budget for 2014-2020, saying they are "part of the negotiations." |
- Guardian - Italian provinces merger reignites ancient rivalries
The Tuscan cities of Pisa and Livorno lie only 15 miles apart, but they have been separated for centuries by a relationship of "cordial loathing," – hence the Livorno saying "Better a death in the house than a Pisan at the door."
Small wonder that sparks are flying after a government decreed that the proud provincial capitals would be merged to create a single province as part of a cost-cutting drive.
The decree, which was issued on Wednesday and deemed "irreversible" by one government minister, will reduce the number of Italian provinces, which sit below the country's regional authorities and above its municipal councils, from 86 to 31. |
Africa
- WaPo - CIA rushed to save diplomats as Libya attack was underway
The CIA rushed security operatives to an American diplomatic compound in Libya within 25 minutes of its coming under attack and played a more central role in the effort to fend off a night-long siege than has been acknowledged publicly, U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday.
The agency mobilized the evacuation effort, took control of an unarmed U.S. military drone to map possible escape routes, dispatched an emergency security team from Tripoli, the capital, and chartered aircraft that ultimately carried surviving American personnel to safety, U.S. officials said.
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- NYT - Nigerian Forces Kill Dozens in Night Assault, Fueling Long Battle With Sect
The spiral of violence in northern Nigeria took another deadly turn this week as security forces in the city of Maiduguri shot dead dozens of young men whom they accused of belonging to the radical Islamic sect Boko Haram, according to hospital staff members, local journalists and a human rights activist there.
Nigeria has waged a grinding, low-intensity war with the sect since 2009, with nearly 3,000 people killed by Boko Haram or soldiers and the police, rights groups say.
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- Guardian - Uganda vows to withdraw peacekeepers over UN's Congo claims
Uganda has said it will withdraw its forces from military operations in regional hotspots including Somalia in response to UN allegations that it is supporting Congolese rebels.
The security minister, Wilson Mukasa, described the decision as "irreversible" and said another cabinet minister was travelling to New York to explain Uganda's position.
In a report leaked last month, a UN panel of experts accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the so-called M23 rebel group commanded by Bosco Ntaganda, a warlord indicted by the international criminal court. |
- NPR - In A Tanzanian Village, Elephant Poachers Thrive
It's midday in Mloka, a cheerless village that is the gateway to one of Africa's greatest nature sanctuaries, the Selous Game Reserve, which is larger than Switzerland and has vast numbers of giraffes, zebras and hippos in addition to elephants. The sun is stultifying, and the streets are lifeless, but business is booming for the poachers in Mloka.
Two poachers agreed to talk about their illegal work in the courtyard of a low-cost guesthouse in Mloka, where laundry hangs on a line and prostitutes slip in and out of rooms.
A 46-year-old elephant killer who gives his name as Mkanga slouches in a plastic chair. "Ivory buyers come to Mloka and look for us. They say they want 200 kilograms [440 pounds] of ivory, can you arrange for that? The businessmen are mainly Chinese," he says. |
Middle East
- NYT - Iran Sanctions Take Unexpected Toll on Medical Imports
Iranian doctors, patients and officials say that, in particular, a ban on financial transactions is so effective that even medicines and other critical supplies that are exempted from the sanctions for humanitarian reasons are no longer exported to the Islamic Republic.
The trade measures have led to widespread shortfalls of imported goods and a plunge in the value of the national currency, the rial. On Friday, when Iranians celebrated the annual “Day of Fighting the Global Arrogance,” a k a the United States, student demonstrators in Tehran carrying an effigy of President Obama handed out fliers denouncing the sanctions.
Officials here estimate that potentially about six million patients, many of them with cancer, are affected by the shortages. For Iran’s sick, it amounts to life on what feels like the front lines of a battle between governments. |
- Guardian - West backs Qatari plan to unify Syrian opposition
Britain, the US and other western powers are backing a new attempt to create a single coherent Syrian opposition that could take part in peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad's regime or, if talks fail, provide a channel for greater military support to the rebels.
The plan, to be launched in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, will bring the external opposition together with the revolutionary councils leading the insurrection inside Syria, behind a common programme for a democratic transition. The Syrian National Initiative (SNI) will create a council of about 50 members chaired by Riad Seif, a Sunni businessman who left Syria in June after being imprisoned by the regime.
The Doha initiative has been organised by the Qatari government and has drawn support from the US, Britain and France. Russia, however, opposes the plan, arguing it reneges on an earlier international agreement to pursue the formation of a new government by "mutual consent" of the parties to the conflict. |
South Asia
- BBC - Petrol station attack 'kills 18' in Pakistan
At least 18 people have been killed after attackers opened fire at a petrol station in south-western Pakistan, triggering a huge blaze, officials say.
Reported victims of the attack in the Balochistan town of Khuzdar included seven women and four children who had been sitting in a van at the station.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Balochistan is seen as a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold. Separatists are also active in the province.
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- Guardian - Saudi Arabia funding $100m Kabul mosque and education centre
Saudi Arabia is funding a $100m mosque and Islamic education centre in Kabul that will teach thousands of students a year and help bolster Saudi influence in Afghanistan as the west withdraws.
Work on the sprawling 30-hectare (75-acre) hilltop complex is due to be completed by early 2016, when Afghan security forces will likely be trying to hold off the Taliban with little Nato support.
"This Islamic centre has several aims, one is to ensure good relations between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia," said the acting Saudi minister of hajj and Islamic affairs, Dr Dayi al-Haq Abed. |
- Times of India - Digitization of driving licences gathers pace
Just ahead of the government pushing for legislation to allow higher penalty for repeating traffic offences, the road transport and highways ministry has stepped up digitization of all driving licences (DLs) and vehicle registration certificates (RCs).
The total number of registered vehicles stands at 15.25 crore over 10% of the country's entire population and there are 8.46 crore drivers with valid driving licences…
Digitization of RCs and DLs is being seen as the first major move to improve enforcement of traffic rules across the country and also to eliminate duplicity as far as DLs are concerned. |
Asia
- WaPo - In Communist China, women officially equal but lagging far behind politically
Only one woman, State Council member Liu Yandong, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, which effectively runs the country. But her chances appear to be slim, particularly amid suggestions that the Standing Committee could be cut from its current nine members to just seven.
Besides Liu, the only woman on the 25-member Politburo, the list of women in top positions in China’s Communist Party hierarchy is remarkably short.
China has 22 provinces, five autonomous regions and four centrally controlled municipalities, but only one — Anhui province in the east — is run by a woman governor, Li Bin, who was appointed in February. And there is only one female Communist provincial chief, Sun Chunlan, the party secretary in Fujian province, on the east coast. |
- China Daily - Rapid yuan appreciation 'to benefit no one'
China should not heed calls from some US and European politicians for a rapid appreciation of the renminbi, as this would harm both the Chinese and global economies, said leading European experts.
The experts made the comments after the renminbi-dollar exchange rate has risen for several days and electioneering US politicians continue to claim China is "manipulating" its currency.
"My opinion is not the same as what some people in America say, so do some Europeans, that they want to see the renminbi appreciate rapidly," said Giles Merritt, secretary-general of the Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe.
Merritt said rapid appreciation would harm China's export industries in its coastal regions, and a further slowdown in the Chinese economy would drag down global growth. |
- BBC - Cambodia approves Lower Sesan 2 hydroelectric dam
Cambodia's government has approved a controversial hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Mekong River.
The joint venture involves Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese investment of $781m (£488m) and is due to be completed within five years. The project in northern Stung Treng province is known as Lower Sesan 2.
Environmental campaigners say the dam will damage the river's biodiversity and devastate the livelihoods and homes of thousands of people. |
- Japan Times - U.S. needs Japan to remain nuclear, expert says
A "zero-nuclear" Japan will be a serious concern for the United States as its key ally both from economic and security standpoints, the chief of an influential U.S. think tank said at a recent seminar on Japan-U.S. relations.
The policy set out in September by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Cabinet seeking to phase out nuclear power generation in Japan by the end of the 2030s — in response to strong anti-nuclear sentiments in the country following the triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 — is not viable given Japan's vast economic needs, said John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Hamre, a former deputy U.S. defense secretary, and his CSIS colleague Michael Green were speaking at a seminar organized by the Keizai Koho Center on Oct. 25 to discuss American policy on East Asia ahead of the U.S. presidential election as well as the imminent change in leadership in China. |
Oceana
- SMH - Urgent flood prevention measures needed for Warragamba Dam
A one in 1000 flood around the Hawkesbury Nepean, such as that in Queensland early last year, would cause up to $8 billion in total damages affecting 14,000 homes and requires urgent preventative measures, according to a group of five western Sydney councils.
The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils last night called on the State Government to urgently address threats of potential floods around the Hawkesbury Nepean.
A repeat of the 1867 flood would cause up to $1.7 billion in direct damages and $3 billion in total damages the group said. |
- Fairfax NZ - War on predators takes big leap
A self-setting gas-powered rat and stoat trap being trialled at Nelson Lakes National Park could revolutionise predator control in remote areas of New Zealand. A two-year trial of the A24 trap was launched at St Arnaud yesterday.
More than 800 of the traps will be be trialled in the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project for two years. Three other "mainland islands" in the North Island will carry out their own trials.
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Americas
- MercoPress - Drought in US farms is helping Brazil’s exports of corn and ethanol
Brazil's trade ministry said the country's exports of corn and ethanol rose in October as foreign buyers turned to Brazil after the worst drought in 50 years ravaged US crops.
Brazil harvested a record corn crop of nearly 73 million metric tons this past season, which surpassed its soy output for the first time in a decade. Corn exports last month reached a record 3.66 million metric tons to beat September shipments of 3.14 million and October year-ago exports of 1.52 million.
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- AFP - Haiti faces food shortage in Sandy’s wake
Impoverished Haiti, still recovering from the 2010 earthquake, now has a million-plus people who cannot get enough to eat because of damage from Hurricane Sandy, the United Nations says.
The storm killed more than 50 people in Haiti as it churned through the Caribbean last week on its way to a deadly and destructive blast along the U.S. East Coast.
Relief workers are still trying to make a full assessment of Sandy’s ugly footprint on Haiti. But for now it is known the storm destroyed, damaged or flooded the homes of up to 20,000 people, said Johan Peleman, head of the UN relief office in Haiti, in comments published Friday on the UN website. |
- BBC - Cuba leader Raul Castro says island 'hard hit' by Sandy
Cuban President Raul Castro says the eastern province of Santiago was "hard hit" by Hurricane Sandy.
Eleven people died and more than 188,000 homes were damaged as the storm passed over Cuba last week.
President Castro said Cuba's second largest city, Santiago, looked like it had been bombed. He urged those affected not to lose hope and said that no one would be left destitute, but that the government would have to weigh up each case. |
- LAHT - Central American Moms Track Down Long-Lost Offspring in Mexico
The Central American moms touring Mexico in search of sons and daughters who disappeared after leaving their homelands have managed to find six of their missing offspring, participants said.
The caravan of mothers from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua entered Mexico on Oct. 15, and this Saturday will wind up their travels around 14 Mexican states.
Their final reunion with a long-lost family member took place late Thursday in the municipality of Huehuetan near the Guatemala border, when Leonarda Chacon hugged her son Jose Marvin Zelaya Chacon, whom she had not seen since he left Honduras five years ago. |
- Globe and Mail - Ottawa extends review of China bid for oil-sands firm
Ottawa has extended its review of China’s proposed takeover offer for Nexen Inc., a deal that has stirred controversy as Canadians debate whether it is appropriate for state-controlled companies to own large swaths of the oil sands.
The Harper government is weighing whether to approve CNOOC Ltd.’s $15.1-billion (U.S.) takeover of the Canadian company. The deal must prove to be a “net benefit” for Canada in order to win the government’s blessing. On Friday, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said the review’s new deadline is Monday, Dec. 10.
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