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.
OND Editors consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, jlms qkw, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you.
BBC:Ukraine accuses Russia of deploying troops in Crimea
Ukraine accuses Russia of deploying troops in Crimea
Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchynov has accused Russia of deploying troops to Crimea and trying to provoke Kiev into "armed conflict".
In a TV address, he said Moscow wanted the new interim government to react to provocations so it could annex Crimea.
Russia's UN ambassador said any troop movements in Crimea were within an existing arrangement with Ukraine.
US President Barack Obama warned of the "costs" of any Russian intervention in the Ukraine.
BBC:UK ex-Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg faces terror charge
UK ex-Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg faces terror charge
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg and a 44-year-old woman have been charged with terror offences related to Syria, West Midlands Police have said.
The force said Mr Begg, 45, of Hall Green, Birmingham, is accused of providing terrorist training and funding terrorism overseas.
The woman, Gerrie Tahari, of Sparkbrook, Birmingham, is charged with facilitating terrorism overseas.
They will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday.
BBC:John Kerry urges mediation in Venezuela crisis
John Kerry urges mediation in Venezuela crisis
US Secretary of State John Kerry says he is working with Colombia and other countries to form a mediation strategy for Venezuela's political crisis.
Mr Kerry said it would be "very difficult" for the two sides to come to an agreement without assistance.
The government and opposition accuse each other of not being open to dialogue.
Disgruntled students began protesting more than two weeks ago, leading to unrest that has killed 17 people.
BBC:Jailed Cuban spy Fernando Gonzalez freed from US prison
Jailed Cuban spy Fernando Gonzalez freed from US prison
US authorities have released jailed Cuban agent Fernando Gonzalez from prison after he completed his sentence.
He is the second of a group of spies who became known as the Cuban Five to be freed. They were convicted in 2001 on charges including conspiracy.
Gonzalez is expected to be deported within days to Cuba, where he and his fellow spies are considered heroes.
Prosecutors said the five had sought to infiltrate US military bases and spied on Cuban exiles in Florida.
BBC:Syria jihadist group Isis 'retreating after warning'
Syria jihadist group Isis 'retreating after warning'
Reports from northern Syria say a rebel jihadist group has been pulling back from positions after being given an ultimatum by a rival.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) is said to have been retreating towards the city of Raqqa.
The Nusra Front has given Isis until Saturday to accept mediation or face being expelled from Syria.
Infighting between rival rebel groups has seen more than 3,000 people killed in the past two months.
BBC:World Bank postpones $90m Uganda loan over anti-gay law
World Bank postpones $90m Uganda loan over anti-gay law
The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over its tough anti-gay law, which has drawn criticism from around the world.
World Bank officials said they wanted to guarantee the projects the loan was destined to support were not going to be adversely affected by the law.
The loan was intended to boost Uganda's health services.
Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said the World Bank "should not blackmail its members".
Reuters:Armed men seize two airports in Ukraine's Crimea, Yanukovich reappears
Armed men seize two airports in Ukraine's Crimea, Yanukovich reappears
(Reuters) - Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region on Friday in what the new Ukrainian leadership described as an invasion by Moscow's forces, and ousted President Viktor Yanukovich surfaced in Russia after a week on the run.
Yanukovich said Russia should use all means at its disposal to stop the chaos in Ukraine as tension rose on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the only region with an ethnic Russian majority and the last major bastion of resistance to the overthrow of the Moscow-backed leader.
Acting President Oleksander Turchinov accused Russia of open aggression and said Moscow was following a scenario simliar to the one before it went to war with fellow former Soviet republic Georgia in 2008.
A day after gunmen seized the Ukrainian parliament and raised the Russian flag, a representative of Turchinov in Crimea said 13 Russian aircraft had landed on the Black Sea peninsula with 150 personnel on board each one.
Reuters:U.S. GDP revised down, but hints of economic thaw emerge
U.S. GDP revised down, but hints of economic thaw emerge
(Reuters) - The U.S. government slashed its estimate for fourth-quarter economic growth on Friday in the latest sign of a loss of momentum, but some tentative signs emerged that suggested the worst of the slowdown may be over.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said, down sharply from the 3.2 percent pace it reported last month and the 4.1 percent logged in the third quarter.
The economy has faced a number of headwinds, including a 16-day shutdown of the government in October and an unusually cold winter that has weighed on activity since late December.
Growth has also been dampened by the expiration of long-term unemployment benefits, cuts to food stamps and businesses placing fewer orders with manufacturers as they work through a pile of unsold goods in their warehouses.
Reuters:Fed may need to let inflation run hot to meet goals: Evans
Fed may need to let inflation run hot to meet goals: Evans
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should be willing to let inflation temporarily run above its target level so as to more quickly bring the economy back to health, a top Fed official said on Friday, even as a second policymaker signaled the very idea left him cold.
The debate, between Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, underscored a fundamental disagreement over the central bank's optimal approach to policy under new Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
To Evans, one of the Fed's most dovish policymakers, allowing inflation to run above the Fed's 2-percent target would be a small price to pay for bringing the U.S. economy back to full employment quickly, and could even signal the Fed's commitment to making good on its goals.
To Plosser, an ardent policy hawk, letting inflation rise above the target would call into question the Fed's commitment to its goals, undermining its policy effectiveness.
Reuters:Buffett letter could show Berkshire winning streak over
Buffett letter could show Berkshire winning streak over
(Reuters) - A five-year bull market may have finally outdueled one of the U.S. stock market's biggest bulls, and Warren Buffett will probably tell investors on Saturday that his 43-year run of beating the Street has come to an end.
By his own benchmark for performance, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc almost certainly lagged a red-hot stock market in 2013 and probably also fell short over the previous five years, his favored timeframe for measuring the firm's return for its investors.
Using the gain in Berkshire's book value per share after taxes, which Buffett traditionally contrasts with the pre-tax total return, including dividends, on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, Berkshire will be hard pressed to match the S&P's 128.2 percent gain in the five years ended December 31, 2013.
Investors will learn for sure when the world's fourth-richest man releases his annual letter to investors on Saturday around 8 a.m. Eastern time.
Reuters:U.S. staring contest with Japan stretches out Pacific trade pact
U.S. staring contest with Japan stretches out Pacific trade pact
(Reuters) - A standoff between the United States and Japan is holding up talks on a sweeping Pacific free trade pact and a lack of authority to push an eventual deal through the U.S. Congress without amendment may be undercutting Washington's hand.
After weekend talks in Singapore, including two separate sessions between Japan and the United States, Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari said "considerable gaps" remained with the United States on bread-and-butter issues like farm tariffs.
Other officials at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, which aim to create a free trade zone spanning 12 countries and nearly 40 percent of the global economy, noted the impasse between the two biggest economies in the bloc.
"What happens between Japan and the U.S. is pretty key because they are the big players," Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb told CNBC television, estimating that countries were about 80 percent done on market access issues, which include the tariffs and quotas causing much of the U.S.-Japan tension.
There is talk in trade circles that Japan might leave the talks if it will not drop barriers to imports of farm products such as beef and rice. But the Asian power's entry to the TPP last year was a game changer for many participants given its high-income population and relatively low import penetration.
Reuters:Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy, hit with lawsuit
Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy, hit with lawsuit
(Reuters) - Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan on Friday, saying it may have lost nearly half a billion dollars worth of the virtual coins due to hacking into its faulty computer system.
The collapse caps a tumultuous few weeks in which the company has remained virtually silent after halting trades of the crypto-currency, shaking the nascent but burgeoning bitcoin community.
Wearing a suit instead of his customary T-shirt, Mt. Gox's French CEO Mark Karpeles bowed in contrition and apologized in Japanese at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court, blaming his firm's collapse on a "weakness in our system", but predicting that bitcoin would continue to grow.
"First of all, I'm very sorry," he said. "The bitcoin industry is healthy and it is growing. It will continue, and reducing the impact is the most important point."
Reuters:Mississippi man found alive in body bag at funeral home
Mississippi man found alive in body bag at funeral home
A Mississippi man has been found literally alive and kicking in a body bag at a funeral home after being declared dead.
Workers at Porter and Sons Funeral Home were preparing to embalm Walter Williams on Thursday when he moved.
A coroner pronounced the 78-year-old dead after finding no pulse when he was called to Mr Williams' home in the city of Lexington on the previous evening.
It is thought that his pacemaker may have temporarily stopped working.