As your faithful scribe, I welcome you all to another edition of Overnight News Digest.
I am most pleased to share this platform with jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, rfall, JLM9999 and side pocket. Additionally, I wish to recognize our alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb along with annetteboardman as our guest editor.
Neon Vincent is our editor-in-chief.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Lead Off Story
Sharing The Wealth Of Minerals:
Policies, Practices and Implications
It is now well recognised across the world that wealth generated by the mining sector comes at a substantial development cost, along with environmental damages and economic exclusion of the marginalised. This has also been exhaustively documented in India. In fact, the major mining districts of India are among its poorest and most polluted. Considering the negative externalities of the mining sector, new policies and practices are being explored and implemented across the world to ensure that mineral wealth can be converted into sustainable development benefits for local communities.
Many mineral rich countries have enacted legislations in which provision of benefit sharing with the local communities is explicitly stipulated. Many of these legislations are built around a comprehensive framework in which compensation, benefit sharing and community development plans are integrated and the roles of local communities, governments and mining companies are clearly delineated.
The government’s proposal to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR Act), to include a specific provision for sharing profits with local communities is an important step ahead in building an inclusive growth model. This proposal is also in line with the best practices being followed in the world. The principles are not new and many mineral rich countries have been following it for years without impacting the genuine profitability of mining companies.
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The current MMDR Act draft, which we understand has been cleared by the Group of Ministers (GoM) and is ready to be presented to Parliament, includes a provision that 26% of the net profits will be shared with local communities. The Ministry of Mines, which has piloted this amendment has even worked out the broad modalities for this profit sharing arrangement to be implemented. This can be detailed out further but what is important is to establish the key principle of sharing profits from minerals with people who are affected by mining leases and do not benefit from this extraction otherwise.
Center For Science & Environment (India)
World News
Mursi Faces Trial As U.S. Reviews Aid To Egypt
Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Mursi will face trial on November 4 on charges of inciting killings at protests, a prospect sure to raise concern in Washington, already considering cutting aid to Cairo to press for democracy.
Mursi has been held in a secret location since his overthrow on July 3. If he is brought before the court, it will be the Islamist leader's first public appearance since then.
The trial could further inflame tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood and the army-backed government and deepen the political instability that has decimated tourism and investment in the most populous Arab state.
The upheaval worries Cairo's Western allies, who were hoping the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule would turn the region's biggest country into a democratic success story.
reuters
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US Expected To Slash Aid To Egyptian Government
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei — U.S. officials said Wednesday that the Obama administration is poised to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt. The announcement is expected this week, once official notifications have been made to all interested parties.
The U.S. has been considering such a move since the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected leader in June. It would be a dramatic shift for the Obama administration, which has declined to label President Mohamed Morsi's ouster a coup and has argued that it is in U.S. national security interests to keep aid flowing. It would also likely have profound implications for decades of close U.S.-Egyptian ties that have served as a bulwark of security and stability in the Middle East.
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The U.S. provides Egypt with $1.5 billion a year in aid, $1.3 billion of which is military assistance. The rest is economic assistance. Some of it goes to the government and some to other groups. Only the money that goes to the government would be suspended.
Officials told The Associated Press in September that the recommendation calls for a significant amount to be withheld. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations. The money could be restored once a democratically elected government is returned.
thestate
U.S. News
Rep. John Lewis Arrested During Washington Rally
A spokeswoman for Democratic Rep. John Lewis says the congressman was arrested during an immigration rally in Washington.
Brenda Jones says Lewis, whose district covers Atlanta and some of its neighboring areas, was arrested Tuesday afternoon during the Camino Americano Rally for Immigrant Dignity and Respect. Jones says Lewis was taken into custody in front of the U.S. Capitol, near the reflecting pond.
Jones says Lewis has now been arrested five times as a member of Congress. Lewis was arrested twice at the South African embassy protesting apartheid and twice at the Sudanese embassy protesting genocide in Darfur.
Jones says Lewis was also arrested more than 40 times during the civil rights movement.
sfgate
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Chesterfield Registrar Delays Purge Of Voter Rolls
The Democratic Party of Virginia is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the State Board of Elections and the commonwealth’s 132 local registrars from purging names from their voter registration lists.
The move, less than a month before statewide elections, comes ahead of the Oct. 15 deadline to register to vote. A judge will hear the injunction request Oct. 18 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
The purge list of 57,000 voters — broken down by locality and provided to local registrars by the State Board of Elections — is “replete with errors” and includes thousands of voters who reside in Virginia and who are lawfully registered to vote, according to a memorandum filed late last week in support of the Democratic Party’s motion.
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[Chesterfield County, Registrar Lawrence C.] Haake, a Republican who provided a statement included in the memorandum filed by the Democratic Party, said the purge list included voters whose out-of-state registration data were 10 years older than more recent, valid registration and voting history in Virginia.
timesdispatch
Science and Technology
Planning And Implementation Of Caretaker Status For U.S. Antarctic Program
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is responsible for managing and coordinating the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) on behalf of the nation. This includes providing support personnel and facilities and coordinating transportation and other logistics for scientific research. Due to the lapse in appropriation, funds for this support will be depleted on or about October 14, 2013.
Without additional funding, NSF has directed its Antarctic support contractor to begin planning and implementing caretaker status for research stations, ships and other assets. The agency is required to take this step as a result of the absence of appropriation and the Antideficiency Act.
Under caretaker status, the USAP will be staffed at a minimal level to ensure human safety and preserve government property, including the three primary research stations, ships and associated research facilities. All field and research activities not essential to human safety and preservation of property will be suspended.
As NSF moves to caretaker status, it will also develop the information needed to restore the 2013-14 austral summer research program to the maximum extent possible, once an appropriation materializes. It is important to note, however, that some activities cannot be restarted once seasonally dependent windows for research and operations have passed, the seasonal workforce is released, science activities are curtailed and operations are reduced.
usap.gov
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Proposed Treatment To Fix Genetic Diseases Raises Ethical Issues
The federal government is considering whether to allow scientists to take a controversial step: make changes in some of the genetic material in a woman's egg that would be passed down through generations.
Mark Sauer of the Columbia University Medical Center, a member of one of two teams of U.S. scientists pursuing the research, calls the effort to prevent infants from getting devastating genetic diseases "noble." Sauer says the groups are hoping "to cure disease and to help women deliver healthy, normal children."
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There are even bigger concerns, which start with whether the technique is safe for the resulting infant, and whether by trying to fix one problem, scientists may inadvertently introduce mistakes into the human genetic code.
"If mistakes are made, they won't just be mistakes in the child that is born. But if that child [is a girl and] has children down the line, those children will inherit the mitochondria from that child, and we'll have introduced new genetic diseases into the human population," says Ronald Green, a bioethicist at Dartmouth College.
npr
Society and Culture
What Happens When You Die?
Your Thoughts On The Afterlife
Polls show that a majority of Americans believe in life after death. Even so, many people choose to discuss the topic only within fairly tight circles of family, friends, clergy and others who share their faith.
So this week, All Things Considered is discussing the concept of an afterlife with leaders from several different schools of thought, including an evangelical Protestant pastor, an imam, a nun, a rabbi and a moral and political philosopher.
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Here are some of their thoughts:
On the NPR website, user EC Duncan writes "In the afterlife, if there is one - there is no money. The concept of profit does not exist. No one can sell you insurance in case there's a shortage of nectar one year. There is no APP for anything in the afterlife. There is no Wall Street. There is no commerce. I fear few Americans alive today could even conceive of such a thing since we have become consumers not citizens and everything, even religion, is about money and commerce. Can we buy a spot in heaven?"
npr
Well, that's different...
Chinese Ikea Stores Change Sheets To Accommodate Napping Customers
Ikea stores in China said they have taken to changing the sheets on their display beds once per day due to customers taking naps.
The Swedish furniture chain told the French daily Le Figaro the seven stores on mainland China and three in Hong Kong have been allowing customers to nap on the beds and workers have been changing the sheets daily as a result [...].
Chinese visitors to the store often come to enjoy the air conditioning and take naps.
They often bring picnic baskets with them.
upi.com
Bill Moyers and Company:
Wendell Berry
Poet & Prophet