Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editor is annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
USA Today
WASHINGTON — A key senator criticized the National Security Agency on Monday for spying on friendly foreign leaders and questioned President Obama over apparently not knowing about it for years.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and is an NSA supporter, said she is "totally opposed" to collecting intelligence on leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"It is my understanding that President Obama was not aware Chancellor Merkel's communications were being collected since 2002," she said. "That is a big problem."
Feinstein — who indicated she and her committee were also not told about the spying -- said that "the White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support."
Reuters
The White House moved to reassure U.S. allies and Americans concerned about the sweeping nature of U.S. surveillance practices on Monday by acknowledging that more constraints are needed to assure that privacy rights are protected.
Amid a growing uproar in Europe and protest from a key U.S. lawmaker, officials said they would review intelligence collection programs with an eye to narrowing their scope.
"We need to make sure that we're collecting intelligence in a way that advances our security needs and that we don't just do it because we can," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
President Barack Obama has come under fierce criticism abroad over allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and conducted widespread electronic snooping in France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.
The accusations have caused tensions between the United States and some of its closest traditional allies, potentially imperiling a U.S.-European trade deal and trans-Atlantic information sharing.
At least some of the spying appeared to have been done without Obama's knowledge.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "It is my understanding that President Obama was not aware Chancellor Merkel's communications were being collected since 2002."
The Guardian
The chair of the Senate intelligence committee, who has been a loyal defender of the National Security Agency, dramatically broke ranks on Monday, saying she was "totally opposed" to the US spying on allies and demanding a total review of all surveillance programs.
California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein strongly criticised the NSA's monitoring of the calls of friendly world leaders such as German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Feinstein, who has steadfastly defended the NSA's mass surveillance programs, added that both Barack Obama and members of her committee, which is supposed to received classified briefings, had been kept in the dark about operations to target foreign leaders.
"It is abundantly clear that a total review of all intelligence programs is necessary so that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are fully informed as to what is actually being carried out by the intelligence community," Feinstein said in a statement to reporters.
BBC
The White House has acknowledged the need for additional "constraints" on US intelligence gathering, amid claims of eavesdropping on allies.
Spokesman Jay Carney said an ongoing White House intelligence policy review would account for "privacy concerns".
Spain is the latest of several countries reported to have been the target of US collection of phone data.
A top Democrat in the Senate has said its intelligence panel will undertake a "major review" of US spying programmes.
Senator Dianne Feinstein said she was "totally opposed" to the National Security Agency's (NSA) intelligence gathering on leaders of US allies.
An EU delegate in Washington described the row as "a breakdown of trust".
'Genuine concern'
On Monday Mr Carney, US President Barack Obama's spokesman, told reporters the administration "recognise[s] there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence".
Al Jazeera America
NEW YORK — Several weeks ago, Todd Huckabone looked out his fourth-floor window above the Rockaway shoreline in Queens. A chain of black sandbags reminded him of the boardwalk destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. And something else caught his attention: dark humpback whales feeding along Rockaway Park, the midpoint neighborhood of New York City’s baguette-shaped Rockaway peninsula.
Last year, on the third day of Superstorm Sandy, the National Guard carried Huckabone down the pitch-black stairwell of his seaside apartment, then did the same for his wheelchair. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he joined other storm refugees in a conference room turned shelter.
The storm changed things for Huckabone, who lost his natural mobility in middle age to primary lateral sclerosis. Because it took him three months to return home after Sandy — the elevator was the last thing to be fixed — his part-time aide had to find other work, and his sense of community was damaged.
“Without the boardwalk, we don’t have that place to meet,” Huckabone said. “People would go there and walk their dogs. I know a lot of people from just sitting out there, so I miss it.”
Al Jazeera America
A bitter fight in Washington state over whether to label foods with ingredients that have been genetically modified has attracted tens of millions of dollars in spending, more than $27 million if you add the funds of both sides together.
The amount of cash and other donations rivals previous fiercely fought battles for the state's Senate seats instead of what some might consider an arcane issue of food safety.
Washington voters go to the polls Nov. 5. Their decision follows a contest in California last year in which a similar plan to label foodstuffs with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was defeated.
The dispute has raised passions on all sides in the state — as well as attracted the interest of hugely powerful lobbyist groups and giant corporations. Supporters of the measure — known as I-522, the People's Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act — see a cause rooted in transparency, environmental awareness and the free flow of information between companies and consumers.
The Guardian
A federal judge has blocked part of the extremely restrictive Texas anti-abortion law that attracted national attention after state senator Wendy Davis held an 11-hour filibuster to block it in June.
In what was a partial victory for Planned Parenthood, one of the largest women's health providers in the US, the judge ruled that a key provision of bill HB2, a requirement for abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, was unconstitutional.
Last month Planned Parenthood brought a lawsuit challenging two of the key provisions in the bill, HB2, after it was passed by special session in the state following Davis's successful filibuster against it. The bill required physicians performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a clinic. Such privileges are very difficult for abortion providers to obtain, and the effect would have been to shut down abortion providers in the state.
A second clause, to limit abortion-inducing drugs, was also challenged by Planned Parenthood, but allowed by the judge to stand.
The Guardian
A hacker group sympathetic to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad claimed responsibility Monday for an attack in which President Barack Obama's official Twitter account linked to a war propaganda video.
The hackers targeted a link-shortening service used by the Obama account, which is administered by the former campaign group Organizing for Action.
The resulting Obama tweet appeared to link to a Washington Post story about immigration.
NPR
Monday was yet another troubled day for the Affordable Care Act.
Sunday night, the outside vendor that operates two key parts of the website that lets people browse and sign up for health insurance experienced a failure.
The failure took place at a vendor called Verizon Terremark, and the problem presumably took down other clients as well as HealthCare.gov, the federal website that people use to sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
By 7 am, federal officials say, the data hub at HealthCare.gov that certifies things like citizenship and eligibility for tax credits was back up and running. And by midafternoon Monday, the rest of the website was back up and running as well, they say. It's not known how many people tried and failed to get on the site Sunday.
But not all the news was bad. Monday brought good news for the 49 million people on Medicare, with officials announcing that premiums and deductibles won't increase in 2014.
That's the third straight year those patient costs have been less than projected or stayed the same. And Medicare officials also said seniors have saved more than $8 billion since the Affordable Care Act closed the prescription drug donut hole gap in coverage. It's a bit ironic, because public opinion polls consistently show that seniors are the least enthusiastic about the Affordable Care Act.
NY Daily News
The poster girl for Obamacare has gone into hiding.
The youthful looking brunette who welcomed the non-insured to enroll for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act became the object of scorn and her image has been deleted from the site.
After much chatter about the mystery model, her face was replaced with four informational icons.
"The woman featured on the website signed a release for us to use the photo, but to protect her privacy, we will not share her personal or contact info with anyone," a rep from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, told the website about the mystery woman.
Instead of her friendly face, now there are four icons showing visitors the multiple ways they can sign up for coverage.
The Guardian
The BBC has come under fire from the chairman of an influential committee of MPs for favouring climate change sceptics in its coverage – and, according to documents seen by the Guardian, replied by saying that putting forward opinions not backed by science is part of its role.
That has enraged MPs further. Andrew Miller, chair of the science and technology committee, told the Guardian: "At a time when poor editorial decisions have dented trust in the BBC, the organisation should be taking much greater care over the accuracy of its reporting – especially in the area of science where misreporting can cause disastrous results, as the MMR media scare has shown."
It is the second time in less than a month that the BBC has been slammed by a senior figure for giving too much credence to climate sceptics, who represent a tiny but vocal minority of scientific opinion. A few weeks ago, the UK's former most senior civil servant on climate said the corporation had laid itself open to "vultures" by giving disproportionate air time to sceptics.
Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that global warming was occurring and was "unequivocally" linked to human actions.
But in several programmes the BBC gave substantial air time to climate change sceptics – who take an opposing view – despite their tiny numbers compared with the body of mainstream scientific research on climate change.
BBC
Storm-force winds gusting up to 99mph have battered southern parts of the UK, bringing death, widespread travel disruption, flooding and power cuts.
A man and a woman were found dead at a house in Hounslow following a suspected gas explosion on Monday morning, Scotland Yard said. A 17-year-old girl died after a tree fell on her static caravan at Hever in Kent, and a man in his 50s from Harrow, north London, died after a tree fell on his car in Watford. A 14-year-old boy was feared dead after being swept out to sea at Newhaven, East Sussex.
The intense storm, one of the worst to hit Britain for a decade, swept in overnight, causing a chaotic start to the working week, leaving roads impassable because of fallen trees and disrupting rush-hour rail services.
The Met Office lifted its amber warning as the heart of the storm blew out into the North Sea towards the Netherlands, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. During the morning it had swept through the south-west, south, south-east, the Midlands and the east of England after first making landfall in the early hours.
UK Power Networks said 300,000 homes had been without power at some point. The Energy Networks Association said power had been restored to 30,000.
Spiegel Online
When Greek police stumbled upon a blond, blue-eyed girl when raiding a Roma settlement two weeks ago, it triggered a wave of worries fed by long-held stereotypes. The fears proved unfounded, but the family remains divided.
Emanuela Delibsi wants to quickly return the things to the cupboard, otherwise Nikos will start crying again. Her little 12-year-old brother has been upset and not sleeping well since Maria was taken away -- along with their parents. Sometimes he starts sobbing for no apparent reason. But Maria's things are still lying on the bed with the turquoise sheets: a Barbie and a baby doll, two stuffed animals, coloring pens and a small plastic dragon. Delibsi -- 17 years old, yet already married -- sits down on the bed's pillow. She is wearing a scrunchie on her ring finger.
Spiegel Online
Anti-corruption officials in Brussels have failed to investigate reports of squandered EU funds at a training institute in Greece, a German paper reported Friday. Well-connected teachers were allegedly paid up to €610 per hour for up to 225 work hours per month.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has reportedly ignored repeated tip-offs about squandered European Union funds in Greece, according to an article in the Friday edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The German daily reports that a Greek civil servant uncovered multiple cases of nepotism and vastly inflated salaries while inspecting the finances of a vocational training institute. Officials in Brussels have apparently not acted on any of the whistleblower's suspicions, which he communicated in several letters, the paper added.
Al Jazeera America
Cubans are taking advantage of the loosening of travel restrictions this year to go abroad in record numbers, the government said Monday, with the tally of travelers rising by 35 percent since a new law took effect in January.
The United States, Mexico and Spain were the most visited destinations by Cubans, according to Colonel Lamberto Fraga Hernandez, deputy director of immigration.
The new law did away with the much-hated requirement to obtain an exit visa when leaving Cuba and loosened other restrictions that had discouraged Cubans from traveling outside the country.
Fraga said that 226,877 Cubans had traveled abroad since the law went into effect on Jan. 14, compared to 167,684 during the same period in 2012 and far more than had traveled in previous years.
Cubans can now travel abroad for up to two years without returning home to renew their passports. Fraga said 58 percent had already returned and 24,000 had traveled more than once this year.
"The new migration measures have had a positive impact... Cubans are not fleeing, they are traveling normally," he told a Havana news conference. "Today, obtaining visas is the main obstacle that limits Cubans' travel."
SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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NPR
It's really only a sliver of time when humans build the bulk of their skeleton. At age 9, the bones start a big growth spurt. And by the time puberty ends, around 14 or 15 years old, the adult-sized skeleton is all but done, about 90 percent complete.
But doctors say a lot of children aren't getting what they need to do that. Calcium and vitamin D are essential, sure, but so is lots of time jumping and running.
"It's the magic window of time when bone is built," says Dr. Laura Tosi, an orthopedic surgeon who directs the pediatric bone health program at Children's National Health system in Washington, D.C. And when it comes to bones, "bigger is definitely better," she says. "The wider and thicker the bone, the harder it is to break or tear."
Just about everybody knows that calcium and vitamin D are essential to build strong bones. But children and teenagers are all too often shunning the foods that would help them get enough calcium and vitamin D to build those bones.
Federal health officials recommend that children between the ages of 9 and 18 get 1,300 milligrams of calcium every day. That translates into four to five glasses of milk or the equivalent. According to Dr. Neville Golden, an adolescent medicine specialist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, most teens are not drinking anywhere near that amount.
Reuters
Apple Inc's profit and margins slid despite selling a solid 33.8 million iPhones in its September quarter, prompting disappointed investors to cash in on some of the stock's recent strong gains.
Wall Street had hoped for a stronger beat on quarterly sales after the company predicted in September that its revenue and margins would come in at the high end of its own forecasts.
Shares in Apple, which have gained 17 percent since, slipped about 2 percent after hours to $519.10 on Monday.
Investors will now listen closely to CEO Tim Cook's comments about the crucial holiday quarter.
The world's most valuable tech company said on Monday it expected revenue of $55 billion to $58 billion for the current quarter, outpacing Wall Street's average forecast for about $55.65 billion.
Gross profit margin for the fourth quarter was 37 percent, down from 40 percent a year ago as intense competition from the likes of Samsung Electronics took a toll. That was roughly level with analysts' average 36.9 percent forecast.
"We would have expected higher gross margins," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello. "With the higher price phones and clear preference toward the 5S, we were all expecting more of a gross margin boost for the December quarter."
Al Jazeera America
An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world."
Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed by what they found.
It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a gold-colored skink – a type of lizard – and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of which have ever been seen before.
"The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime – I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin, a tropical biologist from the Queensland-based university.
"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well," he added.
The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of feet high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago.
NPR
There aren't very many drugs that are also, essentially, industrial chemicals available in railroad-car volumes, pharmaceutical chemist Derek Lowe noted on his blog, In The Pipeline, this spring.
But there are a few. One is lithium carbonate, a staple of glassmaking and ceramic glazes and also the active ingredient in drugs for depression. Another is nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, for anesthesia.
Then there's Tecfidera, or dimethyl fumarate, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in March to treat multiple sclerosis. The twice-a-day pill from Biogen Idec was derived from an old, basic chemical: fumaric acid, used industrially to make foods taste sour and to preserve them.
In clinical trials the drug reduced MS relapses by almost half. In a study of more than 800 people, about 27 percent of those taking the drug had MS relapses compared with 46 percent for those who got a placebo.
New York Times
When Heather Dougherty heard the news last week that the Food and Drug Administration had recommended tightening how doctors prescribed the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, she was overjoyed. Fourteen years earlier, her father, Dr. Ronald J. Dougherty, had filed a formal petition urging federal officials to crack down on the drugs.
Dr. Dougherty told officials in 1999 that more of the patients turning up at his clinic near Syracuse were addicted to legal narcotics like Vicodin and Lortab that contain the drug hydrocodone than to illegal narcotics like heroin.
Since then, narcotic painkillers, or opioids, have become the most frequently prescribed drugs in the United States and have set off a wave of misuse, abuse and addiction. Experts estimate that more than 100,000 people have died in the last decade from overdoses involving the drugs. For his part, Dr. Dougherty, who foresaw the problem, retired in 2007 and is now 81 and living in a nursing home.
SF Gate
A strange collection of shipping containers on Treasure Island has started a frenzy of theories on what Google may or not be up to.
On Friday, after some fine gumshoe reporting, CNET's Daniel Terdiman ran a story on a four-story structure that had appeared on a barge near the old naval base. After unearthing some legal documents and chatting with locals, it became clear that Google was somehow associated with the project, though in what capacity was unclear.