OND Editors OND is a community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
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BBC:Obama orders curbs on NSA data use
Obama orders curbs on NSA data use
President Barack Obama has ordered curbs on the use of bulk data collected by US intelligence agencies, saying civil liberties must be respected.
Mr Obama said such data had prevented terror attacks at home and abroad, but that in tackling threats the government risked over-reaching itself.
However civil liberties groups have said the changes do not go far enough.
The announcement follows widespread anger after leaks revealed the full extent of US surveillance operations.
BBC:James Dutschke pleads guilty to sending ricin letters
James Dutschke pleads guilty to sending ricin letters
A Mississippi man has pleaded guilty to sending President Barack Obama letters laced with the poison ricin.
James Everett Dutschke, 42, admitted he also sent poisoned letters to Republican US Senator Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge.
Dutschke is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Police initially arrested a local Elvis impersonator in the case but later determined Dutschke had framed him.
BBC:IMF and UN officials killed in Kabul restaurant attack
IMF and UN officials killed in Kabul restaurant attack
A senior IMF official and three UN employees were among 14 people killed in a suicide bomb and gun attack on a restaurant in Kabul, officials say.
Wabel Abdallah, the head of the IMF's Afghanistan office, and the UN civilian staff died in the capital's popular Taverna du Liban, in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon said was a "horrific attack".
The other victims were Afghans, a Briton and another Lebanese national.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack late on Friday.
BBC:Mexican government says 'vigilantes not the target'
Mexican government says 'vigilantes not the target'
The Mexican government has tried to reassure vigilantes in the western state of Michoacan that they are not the target of its security operation.
Hundreds of troops have been sent to the area to restore order after groups of vigilantes clashed with members of the Knights Templar drug cartel.
Many of the "self-defence groups" have refused to heed the government's call to lay down arms.
The interior minister said "they're not our target, the criminals are".
BBC:Ukraine's president signs anti-protest bill into law
Ukraine's president signs anti-protest bill into law
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed into law a bill aimed at curbing anti-government protests.
The bill was passed in parliament on Thursday with a quick show of hands by MPs loyal to the president, rather than the usual system of electronic voting.
The changes include a ban on unauthorised tents in public areas and criminal responsibility for slandering government officials.
The move has sparked uproar among the opposition, who say it is illegal.
BBC:Uganda President Yoweri Museveni blocks anti-gay law
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni blocks anti-gay law
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has refused to approve a controversial bill to toughen punishments for homosexuals.
He has written to the parliamentary speaker criticising her for passing it in December without a quorum.
Homosexuals were "abnormal" or were so for "mercenary reasons" and could be "rescued", a local paper quotes his letter as saying.
The bill provides for life imprisonment for homosexual acts and also makes it a crime not to report gay people.
Reuters:In wake of JPMorgan settlement, big banks add to defense funds
In wake of JPMorgan settlement, big banks add to defense funds
(Reuters) - Several large U.S. banks have set aside extra money to pay for potential legal costs in part because of JPMorgan Chase & Co's massive $13 billion settlement with U.S. authorities over bad mortgages, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
The size of the JPMorgan settlement, which the government called the largest in U.S. history, led many banks to realize that the cost of resolving some of their own legal problems was likely to be higher than they had initially believed, the sources said.
Justice Department officials have said in public statements they want to use the JPMorgan settlement as a template for deals with other banks.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all added hundreds of millions of dollars to funds they have set aside to pay for the cost of litigation, including legal fees, fines and settlements. All four banks are facing mortgage-related investigations by federal prosecutors located in different parts of the country.
Reuters:The U.S. government's bitcoin bonanza: How, where and when to sell?
The U.S. government's bitcoin bonanza: How, where and when to sell?
(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan are sitting on a multimillion-dollar bitcoin gold mine. And it could get much bigger.
Federal authorities hauled in 29,655 units of the digital currency - worth $27 million at current exchange rates - through an official forfeiture by Bitcoin this week.
The bitcoins had belonged to Silk Road, an anonymous online black market that authorities say was a conduit for purchases of drugs and computer hacking services - even a place where assassins may have advertised. It was shuttered after an FBI raid in September, when agents took control of its server and arrested the man they say was its founder in San Francisco.
No one stepped forward to claim these bitcoins, which were found in electronic "wallets" used to store the digital currency. An additional 144,336 bitcoins, worth more than $128 million today, were also discovered, but the government's claim on them is being disputed by Ross William Ulbricht, 29, who U.S. authorities say was the founder and main operator of Silk Road. They had been stashed on his laptop.
Reuters:Rouhani to woo business in Davos but Iran hurdles abound
Rouhani to woo business in Davos but Iran hurdles abound
(Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will court global business in Davos next week after winning an easing of some economic sanctions, but any trade bonanza depends on the long-term success of nuclear diplomacy.
A U.S. stranglehold on Iran's access to the international financial system, the uncertain future of talks on its nuclear program beyond a six-month initial deal, and vested interests in the Islamic Republic suspicious of Western investment all stand in Rouhani's way.
"I would be surprised if you saw Iran shooting quickly to the top of the list of attractive markets, although it may be attractive for certain manufactured goods companies in the short to medium term," said a Western business consultant who works with many of the world's biggest companies.
"The fact that Iran is making signals in the right direction is welcome but I think the bulk of business people will be cautious and will play a bit of a wait-and-see game," he said, asking - like many involved with Iran - not to be identified due to the political sensitivities.
Reuters:Cybercrime firm says uncovers six active attacks on U.S. merchants
Cybercrime firm says uncovers six active attacks on U.S. merchants
(Reuters) - A cybercrime firm says it has uncovered at least six ongoing attacks at U.S. merchants whose credit card processing systems are infected with the same type of malicious software used to steal data from Target Corp.
Andrew Komarov, chief executive of the cybersecurity firm IntelCrawler, told Reuters that his company has alerted law enforcement, Visa Inc and intelligence teams at several large banks about the findings. He said payment card data was stolen in the attacks, though he didn't know how much.
IntelCrawler's findings are the latest sign that the cyberattacks disclosed by Target Inc and upscale department store Neiman Marcus are part of a wider assault on U.S. retailer customer data security.
On Thursday, the U.S. government and the private security intelligence firm iSIGHT Partners warned merchants and financial services firms that the BlackPOS software used against No. 3 U.S. retailer Target had been used in a string of other breaches at retailers - but did not say how many or identify the victims.
Reuters:China home price rises show signs of easing in December
China home price rises show signs of easing in December
(Reuters) - China's home prices continued to surge in December, though the pace of gains overall did not exceed the previous month's and rises eased in some major cities, suggesting that government tightening measures may be starting to bite.
Home prices in many Chinese cities have continued to set records in the past year despite a four-year long government campaign to cool the market, adding to the threat of a price bubble and forcing some local governments into a fresh round of curbs in November.
Average new home prices in 70 major Chinese cities climbed 0.4 percent in December on the month, easing from November's 0.5 percent and the fourth straight slowdown since August's 0.8 percent gain, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.
"The slower home price gains in December showed recent curbs unveiled by local governments in tier-1 and some tier-2 cities have started to stabilize market expectations gradually," said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at NBS, in a statement accompanying the data.
Reuters:Novartis employees may have violated trial protocol in Japan
Novartis employees may have violated trial protocol in Japan
(Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Friday it was looking into a report that employees of is Japanese unit may have violated clinical trial protocol by handling data from a small independent study of one of its cancer drugs.
Employees of Novartis Pharma K.K. (NPKK) transferred some data from research centers to a Tokyo hospital when that data should have been sent directly without first passing through Novartis hands, according to a report by Japanese broadcaster NHK that was picked up by the Wall Street Journal.
"NPKK is currently investigating the allegations," Novartis said in a statement.
The data was from a not yet fully enrolled 55-patient trial testing the Novartis cancer drug Tasigna, the company said.
PC WORLD:How Intel is buying a piece of the tablet market
How Intel is buying a piece of the tablet market
Intel has an ambitious goal for 2014: get its Atom chips into 40 million tablets, or four times the number of tablets that had Intel inside in 2013. But rather than do it by tailoring its products to what tablets now demand, the cash-rich company has another plan: pay tablet makers to use its chips.
That’s essentially what Intel is doing through a program first disclosed at its financial analyst meeting in November. Intel will pay tablet makers to cover the additional component costs of using its Bay Trail chips instead of ARM-based processors, and it will also help cover the engineering costs of designing an Intel tablet.
The Intel division that makes Bay Trail will incur a “significant increase” in its operating loss to pay for the plan, CFO Stacy Smith said at the November meeting, but the upshot is likely to be a lot more tablets based on Intel chips, potentially even from big players like Samsung.
”Basically, they’re making an investment to make up for them being slow to get into the market,” said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.