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 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 editors are Doctor RJ and annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC:Ukraine crisis: President Poroshenko extends truce for east
Ukraine crisis: President Poroshenko extends truce for east
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has extended a week-long ceasefire with pro-Russian separatists in the east for another three days.
He said he was hoping for progress on his peace plan.
Some rebel leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions said they would observe the truce, but others rejected it.
Mr Poroshenko's announcement came hours after he had signed a landmark EU trade pact - the issue that has been the trigger of the recent crisis.
BBC:EU backs Juncker to head Commission in blow to UK
EU backs Juncker to head Commission in blow to UK
EU leaders in Brussels have nominated former Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker to be president of the European Commission, in a blow to the UK.
Prime Minister David Cameron called it "a serious mistake". "This is going to be a long, tough fight," he said.
He had pushed for a vote on Mr Juncker - breaking with tradition - and 26 out of 28 countries backed him.
Only Mr Cameron and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban voted against him. Mr Juncker is also likely to win a vote by Euro MPs.
BBC:Iraq crisis: Armed US drones in use to protect advisers
Iraq crisis: Armed US drones in use to protect advisers
Armed US drones are flying over Iraq to protect American military advisers on the ground, say officials.
Their role is "force protection" of US assessment teams helping Iraqi security forces repel militants now running large parts of the country.
They are supporting other manned and unmanned aircraft making 30-40 surveillance missions each day.
The news comes as Iraq's most influential Shia cleric called for a prime minister to be appointed soon.
BBC:Sierra Leone: Sheltering Ebola-infected people 'is a crime'
Sierra Leone: Sheltering Ebola-infected people 'is a crime'
Sierra Leone has warned it is a serious crime to shelter patients infected with the Ebola virus who are in hiding.
The Health Ministry said several patients had discharged themselves from hospital in Kenema district, the heart of the country's outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for "drastic action" to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed almost 400 people.
It is the largest outbreak in terms of cases, deaths and geographical spread.
BBC:Fourteen killed in India gas pipeline blast
Fourteen killed in India gas pipeline blast
At least 14 people have died after a pipeline carrying gas exploded in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a senior minister has said.
Flames could be seen erupting from a pipeline of the Gas Authority of India Limited (Gail) in East Godavari district early on Friday.
At least 10 people were injured. It is not clear what caused the blast.
Gail is India's largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company.
BBC:Paraguay floods lead to evacuation of thousands
Paraguay floods lead to evacuation of thousands
Tens of thousands of people in Paraguay have been evacuated after torrential rains caused extensive flooding.
Carlos Silva, the governor of the state of Neembucu, in the southeast, said the rains have destroyed crops, flooded homes and blocked roads.
Mr Silva also said that United Nations and Red Cross officials have evaluated the situation and he is hoping to get help from abroad.
Worst affected have been people living near the Paraguay and Parana rivers.
Reuters:Exclusive: U.N. experts trace recent seized arms to Iran, violating embargo
Exclusive: U.N. experts trace recent seized arms to Iran, violating embargo
(Reuters) - A U.N. expert panel has concluded that a shipment of rockets and other weapons that was seized by Israel came from Iran and represents a violation of the U.N. arms embargo on Tehran, according to a confidential report obtained by Reuters on Friday.
The finding comes just days ahead of the next round of negotiations in Vienna between Iran and six world powers aimed at securing a deal that would gradually lift international sanctions on Tehran -- including the arms embargo -- in exchange for curbs on the controversial Iranian nuclear program.
Despite Israel's public statements that the seized arms were destined for Gaza -- an allegation that Gaza's governing Islamist militant group Hamas dismissed as a fabrication -- the experts said the weapons were being sent to Sudan.
The experts do not speculate in the report about why the arms were being sent to Sudan, a country which Western diplomatic and intelligence sources have told Reuters has in the past been a conduit for Iranian arms shipments to other locations in Africa, as well as the Gaza Strip.
Reuters:EU signs trade pact with Ukraine, ceasefire extended by 72 hours
EU signs trade pact with Ukraine, ceasefire extended by 72 hours
(Reuters) - The European Union signed an historic free-trade pact with Ukraine on Friday and warned it could impose more sanctions on Moscow unless pro-Russian rebels act to wind down the crisis in the east of the country by Monday.
Shortly after returning to Kiev from Brussels where he signed the pact, Poroshenko announced on his website that Ukraine had extended a ceasefire by government forces against pro-Russian separatist rebels by 72 hours until 10 p.m. on Monday.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came to Brussels to sign a far-reaching trade and political cooperation agreement with the EU that has been at the heart of months of deadly violence and upheaval in his country, drawing an immediate threat of "grave consequences" from Russia.
Georgia and Moldova signed similar deals, holding out the prospect of deep economic integration and unfettered access to the EU's 500 million citizens, but alarming Moscow, which is concerned about losing influence over former Soviet republics.
Reuters:New York AG Schneiderman finally flexes muscles against Wall Street
New York AG Schneiderman finally flexes muscles against Wall Street
(Reuters) - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, long seen as a secondary force in policing Wall Street banks, is taking the lead in what may be the most ambitious case of his career: accusing Barclays Plc (BARC.L) of favoring its high-frequency trading clients.
By making a case against the bank, Schneiderman has seized a lead role in a contentious dispute about whether high-frequency traders have turned the stock market into a rigged game that hurts regular investors.
The case against Barclays could lead to investigations into other Wall Street banks and define Schneiderman's career as an attorney general, lawyers say.
"It is the most important attack on practices in the market that any AG has engaged in a while," said John Moscow, a former Manhattan prosecutor who now handles white-collar defense cases.
Reuters:Venezuela blackout leaves commuters scrambling, silences president
Venezuela blackout leaves commuters scrambling, silences president
(Reuters) - A blackout cut power to much of Venezuela on Friday afternoon, snarling traffic in the capital Caracas and other major cities and interrupting a televised speech by the president in the country's second nationwide electricity outage in a year.
The blackout affected Caracas for about three hours, panicking commuters anxious to get home before dark in the crime-ridden city, but power was gradually restored by early evening and underground metro trains were running again. Venezuela's second city, Maracaibo, was also hit.
An outage at a power station in the center of the country led to other generation centers going offline and disrupting the supply across a broad swath of the Andean nation, Electricity Minister Jesse Chacon told state television.
The OPEC nation has suffered an increasing number of blackouts in recent years, which critics have attributed to low electricity tariffs and limited state investment following the 2007 nationalization of the sector.
Reuters:China boat sinks in waters north of islets disputed with Japan
China boat sinks in waters north of islets disputed with Japan
(Reuters) - Five Chinese fishermen are missing after a trawler sank on Friday in waters to the north of islands disputed with Japan in the East China Sea in what appeared to be an accident, state media said.
The boat sank in the morning, north of the islands, which China calls the Diaoyus and Japan the Senkakus, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing naval sources.
The dispute over the Japanese-held islets, where Chinese and Japanese ships regularly engage in a cat-and-mouse game, has raised fears of a clash between Asia's biggest powers that could even drag in the United States.
The People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, said on its microblog that the trawler Minxiayu 01003 had taken on water while it was fishing and sunk.
Reuters:Japan set for landmark easing of constitutional limits on military
Japan set for landmark easing of constitutional limits on military
(Reuters) - Japan is poised for a historic shift in its defense policy by ending a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since World War Two, a major step away from post-war pacifism and a big political victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The change will significantly widen Japan's military options by ending the ban on exercising "collective self-defense", or aiding a friendly country under attack. It will also relax limits on activities in U.N.-led peace-keeping operations and "grey zone" incidents short of full-scale war, according to a draft government proposal made available to reporters.
For now, however, Japan is likely to remain wary of putting boots on the ground in future multilateral operations such as the 1990-1991 Gulf War or the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, activities Abe himself has ruled out.
The change will likely rile an increasingly assertive China, whose ties with Japan have chilled due to a maritime row, mutual mistrust and the legacy of Japan's past military aggression, but will be welcomed by Tokyo's ally Washington, which has long urged Japan to become a more equal partner in the alliance.
Daily TECH:Report: ASUS' Android Wear Smartwatch to Be Priced from $99 to $149 - See more at: http://www.dailytech.com/Report+ASUS+Android+Wear+Smartwatch+to+Be+Priced+from+99+to+149/article36137c.htm#sthash.egtfro6g.dpuf
Report: ASUS' Android Wear Smartwatch to Be Priced from $99 to $149 - See more at: http://www.dailytech.com/...
ASUS looks to undercut its rivals in the Android Wear market
Is $199 (Samsung Gear Live) or $229 (LG G Watch) too rich for your blood when it comes to Android Wear-based smartwatches? Now it appears that ASUS is aiming quite a bit lower for its entry into own entry into the nascent market.
According to TechCrunch’s sources, ASUS is set to launch an AMOLED-equipped Android Wear smartwatch that will be priced between $99 and $149. With Motorola definitely looking trending the high end of the market with its much-lauded Moto 360 (estimated MSRP of $249), ASUS’ entry — at least at a $99 price point — just might be enough to trigger an impulse buy from consumers that have already bought into the Android ecosystem - See more at: http://www.dailytech.com/...