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.
The Guardian
American officials have denied participating in a plot to oust Iraq prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, despite a series of phone calls made by Barack Obama and Joe Biden to support the appointment of his successor.
Obama welcomed the selection of a new prime minister by Iraq’s president Faud Massoum on Monday, describing it as a “promising step forward” toward a more inclusive government.
“Under the Iraqi constitution this is an important step toward forming a new government that can unite Iraq’s different communities,” said the US president in a statement from his vacation home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
The Obama administration had become increasingly strident in its criticism of Maliki in recent weeks, accusing him of the current Islamic uprising by failing to govern in the interest of all Iraqis.
But officials rejected allegations on Monday that it was encouraging “regime change”, insisting instead that the US was merely supporting a constitutional process rather than favouring individual politicians in Baghdad.
Al Jazeera
Iraq's president has asked Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's main Shia coalition nominee for prime minister, to form a government.
Fouad Massoum tasked Abadi, first deputy speaker of parliament, with the role during a brief ceremony broadcast live on television on Monday.
"The country is now in your hands," Massoum told Abadi, who moments earlier was selected as nominee for prime minister instead of incumbent Nouri al-Maliki by the Shia National Alliance parliamentary bloc.
Maliki remains caretaker prime minister until Abadi can form a new government, which he has 30 days to do.
The official Facebook page for Maliki's State of Law coalition said Abadi's nomination had "no value," and a senior leader in the Dawa party, to which both Abadi and Maliki belong, said Abadi's nomination did not represent the group.
"Haider al-Abadi was not nominated by the Dawa party, and he only represents himself," said Khodair al-Hozaei, who served as vice-president, under former President, Jalal Talabani.
Spiegel Online
The Islamic State is conquering cities in Syria and Iraq with disturbing frequency and tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis are fleeing. The US has begun air strikes, but the Islamists are benefiting from instability in both countries.
With the exception of a few birds defying the sweltering midday heat, all is quiet on the front, with Kurdish fighters cower in the shade of the cliffs. Suddenly, sentence fragments from Friday prayers can be heard on the banks of the Euphrates River. "Gather together ... smash the traitors of the faith!" The words from the preacher, distorted by the amplifiers so loved by the jihadists, sound almost spooky.Down along the river, the jihadists with the Islamic State (IS) gather together for the next attack. A few hundred meters above on the sparse, sun-drenched hills, the Kurds are sitting, feeling like they've somehow ended up on the set of a horror film.
The Guardian
The Obama administration has announced it will arm the militia forces of Iraqi Kurdistan, to prevent the fall of the final bastion of pro-US territory in Iraq.
The weaponry is said to be light arms and ammunition, brokered not through the department of defense – which supplies Baghdad and its security forces with heavy weaponry – but the Central Intelligence Agency, which is better positioned to supply the Kurdish peshmerga with Russian-made guns like AK-47s that the US military does not use. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.
US officials say they are not currently considering providing Kurdish forces, which are not under the control of the Iraqi government in Baghdad, with missiles, armored vehicles or helicopters. The move to arm them raises questions about how the US-provided rifles will affect the military balance against the Islamic State (Isis), which has captured US-supplied armored Humvees and other heavy weapons from the Iraqi military.
The CIA declined to comment.
Reuters
Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad.
Washington, which helped install Maliki following its 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, congratulated Haidar al-Abadi, a former Maliki lieutenant who was named by President Fouad Masoum to replace him.
But Maliki's Dawa Party declared his replacement illegal, and Maliki's son-in-law said he would overturn it in court. Washington delivered a stern warning to Maliki not to "stir the waters" by using force to cling to power.
SF Gate
(08-11) 16:58 PDT TIBURON -- Robin Williams, who rose to fame on the "Mork & Mindy" television show and became a comedic icon, acting in dozens of films and winning an Academy Award, was found dead by family members in his Tiburon home Monday, the Marin County Sheriff's Office said. He was 63.
Williams had last been seen alive on Sunday night. Sheriff's office investigators, the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the scene at 11:55 a.m. Monday. Williams was declared dead at 12:02 p.m.
Al Jazeera America
Firefighters rushed to put out nine wildfires that were sparked by lightning in the northeastern corner of California on Sunday as a stubborn blaze to the west in Mendocino County continues to challenge crews.
The new fires in Lassen, Modoc and Shasta counties were not threatening any structures, but crews were trying to contain them so they can "concentrate on the large ones that we still have," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said.
She was referring to a wildfire that was sparked by lightning on July 30 and has burned 13.5 square miles of dry brush and timber near Laytonville in Mendocino County.
An evacuation order remains in effect as the fire about 160 miles north of San Francisco threatens nearly 60 structures across six communities, CalFire spokesman Brandon Rodgers said.
Eleven firefighters have been injured, including eight on Friday. All suffered minor injuries or burns, officials said.
The Guardian
A federal judge has extended a months-long moratorium on executions in Ohio into next year as questions mount about the effectiveness of a new, two-drug combination being used to carry out the death penalty.
The debate over the death penalty has been intensified in America and lethal injection has been under increased scrutiny after executions went awry in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona.
The Ohio ruling by federal judge Gregory Frost will delay executions scheduled for September, October and November and highlights the ongoing problem faced by states in obtaining drugs to put inmates to death.
The last moratorium was scheduled to expire this week.
The one-page order by Frost issued Friday extends it through 15 January. It affects Ohio’s latest death penalty policy change, which was announced in late April and increases the amount of the sedative and painkiller Ohio uses.
The Guardian
The collision was as common as any in racing. Kevin Ward Jr’s car spun twice like a top, wheels hugging the wall, before it plopped backward on the dimly lit dirt track.
In a sport steeped with bravado, what happened next was another familiar, but treacherous, move: wearing a black firesuit and black helmet, the 20-year-old Ward unbuckled himself, climbed out of the winged car into the night and defiantly walked onto the track at Canandaigua Motorsports Park.
He gestured, making his disgust evident with the driver who triggered the wreck with a bump: three-time Nascar champion Tony Stewart.
Ward, a relative unknown compared to Nascar’s noted swashbuckler, was nearly hit by another passing car as he pointed with his right arm in Stewart’s direction. As he confronted Stewart in his passing car, disaster struck.
The Guardian
New York’s state attorney general on Monday settled allegations of racial profiling at Barneys, one of the city’s most famous department stores, in a controversy that had dragged in rap mogul Jay Z.
Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation into the designer store nine months ago amid a wider probe into allegations of racism at other famous New York shopping sites including Macy’s.
Barneys has now agreed to pay $525,000 in fees and penalties and to implement a series of changes to ensure it does not discriminate against black and Hispanic customers.
“Profiling and racial discrimination remain a problem in our state, but not one we are willing to accept. This agreement will continue our work to ensure there’s one set of rules for everyone in public accommodations, including customers in New York’s retail establishments,” Schneiderman said. “This agreement will correct a number of wrongs, both by fixing past policies and by monitoring the actions of Barneys and its employees to make sure that past mistakes are not repeated.”
The Guardian
Hundreds of protesters gathered at a suburban St Louis police station on Monday demanding murder charges against an officer who shot to death an unarmed black teenager over the weekend.
The largely peaceful protests, monitored by about 50 police officers in riot gear, took place after a night of rioting when demonstrations over the death of Michael Brown, 18, turned violent.
About two dozen businesses were damaged in the rioting overnight, 32 people were arrested, and two officers were injured, police said.
“It breaks my heart,” Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson told reporters on Monday.
“Last night was the worst night of my life.”
The FBI is looking into any civil rights violations in the case, a spokeswoman for the agency said. St. Louis County police is leading the investigation into the shooting itself.
NPR
The use of different photos to portray shooting victim Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Saturday, prompted an interesting phenomenon on Twitter Monday: Users are posting "dueling" photos of themselves – one where the subject looks wholesome, and another where the same person might look like a troublemaker – with the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown.
Behind the trend is the question of which photo the media would seize upon, if the posters had a run-in with police. For some, it's another way this episode calls to mind the shooting death of Trayvon Martin – and the various photos used to portray both the teenager and his killer, George Zimmerman.
DW
In his victory speech in Ankara, the newly elected president claimed he would be a president for all Turks, including those who did not vote for him. Erdogan called for "new social reconciliation" and pleaded for a presidential system to be implemented by making changes to the constitution.
The head of state, who currently in Turkey fulfils representative tasks, is expected to receive new powers in the future. Beginning immediately, the president and government will work hand-in-hand, Erdogan said in front of thousands of enthusiastic supporters.
His statements have unsettled his opponents. Under the "Erdogan system," they say, there would be nothing left to slow the powerful man at the top. Serious injustices should be feared, warned opposition columnist Hasan Cemal on the internet site T24.
DW
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on Monday said the "liberation" was "imminent" in both cities, including the largest, Donetsk, where rockets hit a jail, enabling some 100 inmates to flee.
Kyiv's security council spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said "for civilians it is wise to leave" both cities through what he termed "humanitarian corridors."
According to Interfax Ukraine, Lysenko also said government forces would keep up momentum so insurgents could not receive new weapons.
The two cities are the last separatist strongholds, originally seized by rebels after the ouster of former president Viktor Yanukovych in February.
Officials in Luhansk, the second largest city held by pro-Russian rebels, said residents were "on the edge of survival," with no power or water, and fuel, food and medicines running short.
Al Jazeera
Israel and the Palestinians have begun indirect talks in Cairo to try and end the conflict in Gaza and lift the blockade on the coastal enclave, Egypt's state news agency MENA has said.
Egypt is acting as a go-between for the talks, which began on Monday a day after the two sides agreed to begin a new 72-hour truce.
The Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo earlier in the day for the indirect negotiations with Palestinian factions.
The Palestinian delegation was already in the Egyptian capital and locked in talks with Egyptian intelligence mediators, who will relay their demands to the Israeli negotiators, a Palestinian official told AFP news agency.
The Israeli delegation landed in Cairo in the morning, just hours after a 72-hour ceasefire came into effect.
Almost 12 hours into the truce, the skies over Gaza remained calm, with no reports of violations on any side and signs of life emerging from the war-torn coastal enclave which is home to 1.8 million Palestinians. Residents began returning to their damaged homes to see what belongings they could salvage and fishermen cast their nets out to sea.
Spiegel Online
The most recent cease-fire appears to be holding in the Gaza Strip, but vast damage has already been done. In addition to the appalling loss of life and destruction of property, the war has pushed even more Palestinians to the radical fringes.
A piece of a bed frame dangles from a lemon tree. Next to it hangs the remains of rattan shelves, destroyed and catapulted into the small yard by the explosion of a bomb. The detonation decimated the home of Hassan Khalil Ibrash, knocking over the mandarin-colored walls and transforming his bedroom into a terrace -- one with a grotesque view. His eyes revealing his exhaustion, Ibrash stands in flip-flops among the charred remains. Next to him, 12 stairs climb skyward like an incomplete sculpture.
He is surrounded by nothing but destruction, with dust rising from the gray ruins in the midday heat. Israeli bombs have almost completely razed Ibrash's neighborhood in Rafah, a town in the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip.
The Guardian
Garment workers in five Bangladeshi factories that supplied clothes for Walmart and other western retailers finally received their wages on Sunday, following an 11-day hunger strike.
The settlement came after the managing director of the Tuba Group, Delwar Hossain, was bailed on 5 August. Hossain has been in prison since February on charges of homicide and negligence leading to the death of 112 workers in a factory fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Dhaka in November 2012.
Workers stopped production on 10 June after the management failed to pay their wages in May, Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association told the Guardian.
About 1,600 workers in the five factories, nearly 1,300 of whom are female, had been on hunger strike since 28 July demanding their back pay.
Mushrefa Mishu, president of Garment Workers’ Unity Forum, who headed the workers’ movement in the Tuba Group, said: “Withholding workers’ wages was dirty politics from the owners to have Delwar bailed out.”
NPR
Afghans voted for a president in April 5. Then they cast ballots June 14 in a runoff between the top two candidates. Now all 8 million votes from that second round are being audited, a laborious process that includes daily arguments, occasional fistfights and and a yet another deadline that seems to be slipping away.
While this is moving at a snail's pace, at least the process hasn't broken down completely. Secretary of State John Kerry visited last week and persuaded the two candidates, Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister, and Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister, to stick to the agreement for a full audit that they reached in July.
Abdullah won the initial round in April, with 45 percent to 32 percent for Ghani. But Ghani was leading in the runoff when Abdullah's camp complained of widespread fraud.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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Al Jazeera America
DUCOR, Calif. – The only sign of life sprouting out of a vast expanse of land in this unincorporated corner of Tulare County is a large drilling rig and two trucks laden with 1,000-foot-long drill pipes.
Men in hard hats work round the clock in sweltering 100-plus degree temperatures and in the still of the night, under the glare of construction night lights. They’re boring down 40 feet an hour to reach their ultimate goal of 2,000 feet into the Tulare Basin aquifer. Once dug and built, the well could eventually pump up to 1,000 gallons of water a minute and turn the arid ground above into the fertile soil that California’s Central Valley is renowned for.
Large agricultural company J Poonan Limited Partnership owns the land and has invested more than $500,000 to drill the well. That doesn’t count the cost of building reservoirs to store the water, testing and environmental studies that could bring the final costs well above $1 million.
It’s an expensive quest. But when 80% of California is in an extreme drought, surface water runoff from the mountains stops flowing and reservoirs are depleted, farmers see the only way to go is down – way down.
“It’s the busiest we’ve ever been,” said Eddie Robledo, of Rottman Drilling Co., who helps oversee the drilling here.
NPR
NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton is in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, covering the Ebola outbreak that began earlier this year in Guinea and has spread to neighboring countries.
hen we reached her by phone on Sunday, she was in a car "trying to fight an infestation of ants." Back in her hotel, she shared her impressions.
NPR
Shortly after finishing my second year of medical school I have come to Iquitos, Peru. With a population of nearly half a million, it is the world's largest city inaccessible by road. Iquitos is located along the Amazon River, so the only way to get here is by boat or airplane. And cars come at a premium.
The main mode of transport is the motokar, a motorized versions of the three-wheeled rickshaw, with loud two-stroke engines and no emissions controls. Rush hour sounds as if you're surrounded by an angry swarm of lawnmowers. The exhaust can be stifling in the hot, humid air.
NPR
When people lose their vision as they get older, they lose a lot of other things, too. They lose their ability to do the things they love.
"You can't read, you can't cook, and you can't socialize — and as a result, you may become demoralized, withdrawn and depressed," says Dr. Barry Rovner, a geriatric psychiatrist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Rovner is not talking about typical eyesight deterioration as we age. He's talking about a specific condition called age-related macular degeneration, which, in severe cases, afflicts about 2 million older Americans. The macula is the central part of the retina that contains the densest concentration of light-sensing receptors, and it's crucial for making out fine details. Perhaps the scariest part of the loss is that people often can't recognize faces or "read" someone's facial expression.
Reuters
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) faces new allegations that it bribed Syrian doctors and officials to boost sales of its medicines, following recent accusations of corruption in its non-prescription business in the country.
The latest charges are laid out in an anonymous email sent to the company's top managers last week and seen by Reuters.
GSK - one of the few big firms still supplying drugs in Syria - said on Monday it would investigate the new claims involving its own staff and local distributors.
C/NET
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Intel on Monday officially took the wraps off its new processor -- the Core M, also known as Broadwell -- that will let PC makers build much thinner and lighter devices.
Intel and other chip companies are racing to release ever more advanced processor technologies by shrinking the geometries of the chips. Intel is ahead of the pack with its processors built at 14 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Moving to 14 nanometers from Intel's prior 22-nanometer chip, dubbed Haswell, allows PC makers to build devices that are thinner, lighter, more power efficient, and don't need a fan.
Removing a fan is key for Intel as it pushes its chips in tablets and laptops that can convert into tablets. Chips based on ARM Holdings' rival technology already allow for fanless designs.
The Core M hits the market several months later than Intel had planned because of problems manufacturing the advanced technology. Intel in October revealed production on Broadwell would be delayed to early 2014 rather than the fourth quarter of 2013 because of a "defect density issue" that impacted the yields, or number of usable chips. The company has now worked out all the kinks and is manufacturing Broadwell at high volumes.
Argentinean Malbecs tended to have more ripe fruit characteristics, sweetness and higher alcohol than those from California
BBC
Malbecs from Argentina and California made by the same winemaker and using the same protocol had distinct molecular signatures and flavours.
But the delicate aroma of a rare vintage can quickly be eroded by poor storage after bottling, the team said.
Details were reported at the American Chemical Society meeting.
Despite the cynicism over wine critique - and the rather grandiose adjectives lavished upon certain appellations - it really does matter where your plonk comes from, according to the researchers from the University of California Davis.
They are attempting to fingerprint "terroir" - the unique characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestows upon a wine.
Subjective regional character is based on the appearance, aroma, taste and mouthfeel (texture) of the wine - all of which combine to create its flavour.
NY Times
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — Faced with the politically devastating collapse of HealthCare.gov last year, President Obama’s White House staff lured Mikey Dickerson away from Google to save the day.
Mr. Dickerson will lead a new government team that is intended to identify and fix the government’s other failing computer systems and websites, officials said Monday.
The decision to hire Mr. Dickerson full time is a blunt acknowledgment that even Mr. Obama’s government — with a leadership that embraced technology to win two national elections — has yet to fully adopt a Silicon Valley mind-set when it comes to cutting-edge computer systems and consumer-friendly Internet portals.