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.
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BBC:Ebola crisis: Virus spreading too fast, says WHO
Ebola crisis: Virus spreading too fast, says WHO
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading faster than efforts to control it, World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan has said.
She told a summit of regional leaders that failure to contain Ebola could be "catastrophic" in terms of lives lost.
But she said the virus, which has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February, could be stopped if well managed.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected.
BBC:Mexican journalists denounce Sinaloa state 'gag law'
Mexican journalists denounce Sinaloa state 'gag law'
Journalists in Mexico have criticised a new law that restricts crime reporting in north-eastern Sinaloa state.
The legislation bans journalists from taking pictures and recording video or audio at a crime scene.
Journalists will have to rely on official information approved by the Prosecutor's Office to report on crime.
Media organisations, journalist unions and campaign groups have denounced the law as a serious threat to press freedom in Mexico.
BBC:BMJ 'right' in statins claims row
BMJ 'right' in statins claims row
An investigation has backed the British Medical Journal's handling of two controversial and inaccurate articles it published on the harms of cholesterol-reducing statins.
Both claimed that 20% of users would suffer harmful side effects.
The journal withdrew the claim, but refused calls for a full retraction.
Yet prominent academics have criticised the investigation, saying the articles still damage confidence in statins and are continuing to demand a retraction.
BBC:'Nine militants killed' in violence in China's Xinjiang
'Nine militants killed' in violence in China's Xinjiang
Nine militants have been shot dead by police and one captured in the restive Chinese region of Xinjiang, the Xinhua news agency has reported.
It quoted officials as saying that the violence took place in the south of the autonomous region as police were chasing "a terrorist group".
Xinjiang, in China's far west, is home to the Muslim Uighur minority.
Uighurs have been unhappy for years over large-scale Han Chinese migration and tight Chinese control of Xinjiang.
BBC:GSK detective held in China visited by son
GSK detective held in China visited by son
The son of a detained private investigator who is linked to a GlaxoSmithKline corruption investigation in China has been allowed to visit his father.
Harvey Humphrey has not seen his father, Peter, since his arrest more than a year ago.
The businessman and his wife, Yu Yingzeng, have been charged with illegally obtaining data.
Harvey Humphrey, 19, has told the BBC that his parents appeared well.
BBC:Military dominates new Thailand legislature
Military dominates new Thailand legislature
Thailand's junta has appointed an interim legislature of 200 people, with most from the security forces.
More than 100 have military ranks, while another 11 come from the police.
The rest comprise academics, businessmen and politicians who opposed ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, reported The Nation.
The legislature will appoint an interim prime minister - widely expected to be army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha - who will in turn choose a cabinet.
Reuters:Obama says that after 9/11, 'we tortured some folks'
Obama says that after 9/11, 'we tortured some folks'
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the CIA "tortured some folks" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that the White House had handed over to Congress a report about an investigation into "enhanced interrogation techniques."
"We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values," Obama told a White House news conference.
Obama's comment was a reaffirmation of his decision to ban the use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding shortly after he took office in January 2009.
The administration of President George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, authorized the use of harsh questioning techniques of militant detainees in the wake of the 9/11 attacks after deciding they did not amount to torture. Obama told reporters the techniques were used because the United States was afraid more attacks were imminent.
Reuters:Experts recover human remains at Ukraine crash site despite new fighting
Experts recover human remains at Ukraine crash site despite new fighting
(Reuters) - International experts found the remains of more victims of the downed Malaysian airliner in east Ukraine on Friday but fighting nearby between government forces and pro-Russian rebels renewed security concerns around the wreckage.
The expert group, which Ukrainian authorities said numbered 101 people, was the largest to access the wreckage since Flight MH17 crashed in rebel-held territory on July 17. All 298 people aboard were killed.
Roads had for days been too dangerous to use because of heavy fighting, frustrating efforts to recover all the victims' remains and push ahead with an investigation.
"The team has finished its work for today. They found and recovered human remains. They will... be brought back to the Netherlands for identification," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in the Netherlands. "The security situation at the site is unstable and unpredictable."
Reuters:Argentina debt talks must continue after default: U.S. Judge
Argentina debt talks must continue after default: U.S. Judge
(Reuters) - Argentina cannot turn its back on negotiations with holdout creditors after defaulting on its sovereign debt, a U.S. judge instructed on Friday, just as the country's failure to service a June interest payment was declared a "credit event."
In a stern tone, U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in New York slammed the decision by Latin America's third-biggest economy to defy his order to pay holdout investors in full and instead default on $29 billion in debt.
As Griesa was speaking, a 15-member committee facilitated by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) voted unanimously to call the missed coupon payment a "credit event." The move triggers a payout process for holders of insurance on Argentine debt, which analysts estimate could amount to roughly $1 billion.
Argentina's economy ministry said later in a combative statement that Griesa's attitude sought to favor "vulture funds". It has asked Argentina's securities watchdog to investigate whether the litigation against the nation by holdouts was merely the "facade of speculative maneuver".
Reuters:Japan offers vessels to Vietnam to boost its sea strength
Japan offers vessels to Vietnam to boost its sea strength
(Reuters) - Japan will give six navy boats to Vietnam to boost its patrols and surveillance in the South China Sea, Japan's foreign minister said on Friday, in the latest sign of a strengthening of alliances between states locked in maritime rows with China.
The used vessels, worth 500 million yen ($4.86 million), would be accompanied by training and equipment to help the coastguard and fisheries surveillance effort, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said after talks with Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.
The deal represents a notable shift in the two countries' close diplomatic and investment ties towards defense, a move likely to irk an increasingly assertive China that is pressing hard on claims to nine-tenths of the potentially energy-rich sea, and worrying much of the region.
"International security is getting more complicated... prosperity only comes with stability in the South China Sea and the East China Sea," Kishada told a news conference in Hanoi.
Reuters:BOJ's Kuroda defends upbeat economic view despite soft data
BOJ's Kuroda defends upbeat economic view despite soft data
(Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda came out fighting on Friday, giving a spirited defence of the economy's performance after a run of weak data, and reiterated his readiness to expand stimulus if inflation faltered on the path to his 2 percent target rate.
"The BOJ is not aiming at achieving the price stability target of 2 percent temporarily. What it aims at is to achieve an economy in which inflation is about 2 percent on average year after year," he said, signalling that the central bank will not exit from its ultra-loose stimulus any time soon.
"I would like to emphasize that...given the BOJ's clear and strong commitment to the 2 percent inflation target, it is a matter of course the BOJ will make adjustments if necessary to ensure the target is met," he said at a seminar.
He stressed that the BOJ will vigilantly monitor how a decline in real income affects consumer spending.
Reuters:Japan PM tells Brazil 'Abenomics' working, time to do more business
Japan PM tells Brazil 'Abenomics' working, time to do more business
(Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe touted the success of his economic policies on a visit to Brazil on Friday and said it was time for the two nations to expand their trade and investment partnership.
On the first visit to Brazil in a decade by a Japanese prime minister, Japanese banks extended $700 million in loans to boost Brazilian soy and corn exports to Japan and help finance oil platform construction for Brazil's growing offshore oil industry.
Abe told Brazilian business leaders that Japan has closed a 15-year deflation cycle since his stimulus policies began to kick in and there is great potential to expand trade and investment with Latin America's biggest economy.
LA Times:NASA Serves Up Plans for 2020 Mars Rover Mission
NASA Serves Up Plans for 2020 Mars Rover Mission
NASA this week announced the final list of scientific instruments for the space agency's next Mars rover mission in 2020, including the most sophisticated tools for detecting signs of ancient Martian life in the space agency's arsenal.
The next Mars rover will "carry seven carefully selected instruments to conduct unprecedented science and exploration technology investigations on the Red Planet," NASA said in a statement.
Those instruments, to which NASA is devoting $130 million, were chosen from 58 proposals made by scientists and engineers all around the world, double the average number of proposals made in past instrument competitions, the space agency said.
"Today we take another important step on our journey to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "While getting to and landing on Mars is hard, Curiosity was an iconic example of how our robotic scientific explorers are paving the way for humans to pioneer Mars and beyond. Mars exploration will be this generation's legacy, and the Mars 2020 rover will be another critical step on humans' journey to the Red Planet."