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
Islamic State 'kills 322' from single Sunni tribe
Mass killings by Islamic State militants have seen 322 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe killed in western Anbar province, Iraq's government says.
The country's ministry of human rights said more than 50 bodies were found in a water well, whilst 65 members of the Al-Bu Nimr tribe have been kidnapped.
The group's latest attack came on Sunday morning when militants shot and killed at least 50 of the tribe.
IS militants - also Sunnis - control large areas of Iraq and Syria.
The ministry said IS is holding the 65 hostages as prisoners of war. The jihadist group also stole livestock from the tribe, it said.
A senior leader of the tribe, Sheikh Naeem Al Gaoud told the BBC: "The government abandoned us and gave us to Isis on a platter.
"We asked them many times for weapons but they gave us only promises."
The BBC's Orla Guerin, in Baghdad, says mass killings of the tribe have become an almost daily occurrence.
Tribal leaders said Sunday's victims, who reportedly included 10 women and children, were lined up and publically shot as punishment for what IS sees at the tribe's resistance.
BBC
Ebola in Sierra Leone 'spreading quickly' - campaign group
Ebola cases are continuing to rise "frighteningly quickly" in areas of Sierra Leone, an international campaign group has said.
The Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) found that in rural parts of the country the virus is spreading nine times faster than two months ago.
In Liberia, however, the rate of new cases appears to have slowed.
AGI's findings come after World Health Organization officials told the BBC the number of new cases is levelling off.
Though Sierra Leone's rural areas have been worst hit, the group says the spread of Ebola is also increasing in the capital Freetown - which is recording six times more cases per day compared to two months ago.
The virus has only started to slow in one region of Sierra Leone, Bombali in the country's north.
BBC
Ebola crisis: Canada visa ban hits West Africa states
Canada is to suspend visa applications from residents and passport-holders from West African countries in the grip of the Ebola outbreak.
The decision follows a similar decision by Australia, which drew criticism from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The ban would apply to countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission", Canada said.
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are battling to contain Ebola, which has killed almost 5,000 people.
The WHO said on Friday that 4,951 people had died during the current outbreak, with 13,567 reported cases up to 29 October.
Although Canada currently has no cases of Ebola, the country's federal citizenship ministry said "the introduction or spread of the disease would pose an imminent and severe risk to public health".
A government spokesman said the move was less restrictive than Australia's plan, with the ability to grant visas on a case-by-case basis retained.
The ban would also not apply to Canadians travelling from the Ebola zone - allowing health workers and volunteers to return home.
N Y Times
Rebel-Backed Elections to Cement Status Quo in Ukraine
DONETSK, Ukraine — The campaign billboards in this city suggested a tight race between Aleksandr Zakharchenko and Aleksandr Zakharchenko.
As voters in rebel-held areas of Ukraine went to the polls on Sunday, in defiance of the central government, the European Union and the United States, the only visible campaign advertising in Donetsk was in support of the current separatist leader, Mr. Zakharchenko, who is, not surprisingly, expected to win.
Rather than offering a range of plausible opposition candidates, the voting for members of Parliament and heads of state in Donetsk and the other breakaway region of eastern Ukraine, Luhansk, was significant for highlighting Ukraine’s loss of control over these territories, and Russia’s strengthening influence.
The elections will likely cement the status quo for Luhansk and Donetsk, which have been controlled in large part by pro-Russian separatists since the spring. Russia has said it will recognize the results, while Ukraine, along with European governments and the United States, has said it will not, maintaining that the elections violated a cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk in September.
Al Jazeera America
Dozens killed in Pakistan-India border blast
A suicide blast close to the Pakistan-India border has killed at least 55 people and left more than 150 wounded, police have told Al Jazeera.
The explosion took place at the Wagah border crossing near Lahore. It happened at the end of a daily flag-lowering ceremony as people were moving back to their cars.
The bomber set off his explosives at a security checkpoint outside the parade area, and about 500 meters from the actual border, the director general of the Punjab Rangers, Tahir Khan, said.
Khan added that it was a "success" that the Rangers had been able to stop the attacker at the checkpoint, as he had been seeking entry into the actual parade area, where scores of people were seated.
"The blast has taken place about 500-600 feet from the parade venue ... people were standing there and many people were leaving there at the time," Khan told reporters.
"When the bomber saw that there was very strict checking at the security checkpoint, he decided to detonate his explosives as he began to pass through it."
The Rangers are a paramilitary force that is responsible for border security at Wagah.
Al Jazeera America
China sends spacecraft around moon and back
China has successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface.
Saturday's event marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after travelling around the moon.
The eight-day mission was aimed at obtaining experimental data and testing technologies for re-entry to Earth's atmosphere involving guidance, navigation and control, heat shield designs, and trajectory fine-tuning for the future moonlander, christened Chang'e 5.
The spacecraft returned to Earth using a Soviet-designed method in which it first bounced off the atmosphere in order to slow its entry speed and avoid burning up. It then landed on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia just before dawn.
China plans to send a spacecraft to the moon in 2017 and have it return to Earth after collecting soil samples.
If successful, that future mission would make burgeoning space power China only the third country after the United States and Russia to meet such a challenge.
Raw Story
Maryland man arrested for email threat to behead Obama over his handling of ISIS, Ebola
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A 42-year-old Maryland man accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama and first lady Michele Obama in an explicit email strewn with racist remarks was in custody on Sunday, the United States Secret Service said.
Christopher Perkins O’Brien, of Annapolis, was arrested on Thursday and charged with making a violent threat against the president and threatening bodily harm against the presidential family in an email sent to the White House website on Oct. 16, according to court documents.
O’Brien was also charged with using interstate communications to make the threats, the documents said.
In the email, Obama is called “stupid” and a racial slur for his handling of ISIS, beheadings in the United States and of the Ebola outbreak before he is threatened with physical violence.
“I … hope to reach out to slash Michele’s throat… You?? I will make a point to behead you, then throw your head into the nearest body of water, as I drive off into Maryland,” O’Brien is accused of writing, according to charging documents first reported by The Baltimore Sun.
C/Net
Near-infrared device makes veins easier to find
It's not an uncommon occurrence when having blood taken or for hospital patients receiving medication intravenously: sometimes, that vein just does not want to be found, and the poor patient can be left feeling like a pin-cushion.
A new device being trialled by the Red Cross in Australia could see an end to hard-to-find veins. The portable, handheld vein visualisation scanners can find the veins under the patient's skin, and project a map onto the surface, allowing Red Cross's nurses to find veins quickly and easily.
The technology used is near-infrared, which reacts a specific way with the veins.
"Vein visualisation technology uses near-infrared technology to project an image of the vein onto the skin," explained Dr Dan Waller, senior researcher on the trial. "Veins have a lot of deoxygenated haemoglobin that absorbs near infrared light, and the device is able to use this information to project the image. The machines have settings to manage individual differences."
L A Time
Nik Wallenda sets twin high-wire records in Chicago -- one blindfoldeds
Despite a chilly breeze that tousled his hair 600 feet above downtown Chicago, professional daredevil Nik Wallenda stepped onto a tightrope and walked straight into the record books Sunday night.
Wallenda, 35, appeared as a red fleck in the night sky, dazzling thousands of onlookers below as he broke not one but two tightrope records in a pair of walks.
The drama of Wallenda's feats, such as his recent crossing of a crevasse near the Grand Canyon, are best watched to be appreciated, although their impressiveness can be conveyed in numbers.
For example: Wallenda strode from the roof of one of Chicago's Marina City Towers -- which are about 600 feet tall -- and traveled about 454 feet to reach the Leo Burnett building.
The most impressive part of that walk, which lasted almost eight minutes, was that Wallenda walked up a 19-degree incline -- the tightrope equivalent of a small but incredibly dangerous hill.
Reuters
Virgin Galactic spacecraft appears to have broken apart in flight: NTSB
The head of the federal agency examining last week's fatal crash of a Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship during a test flight in California's Mojave Desert said on Sunday the vehicle appears to have broken apart in flight.
"The debris field indicates an in-flight breakup,” Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Reuters during a interview.
"We’ll know that for certainty when we look at all the sources we have," he said.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into Friday's crash of SpaceShipTwo, which was undergoing its first powered test flight since January when it crashed, spreading debris over a 5-mile (8 km) swath of the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles.
One pilot was killed and another was badly injured.
Preliminary data gathered in the Virgin accident indicates that a structural failure, and not an engine explosion, led to the crash, according to a report published Sunday in the Wall Street Journal.