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:US-Cuba talks: Top US official meets Cuban dissidents
US-Cuba talks: Top US official meets Cuban dissidents
The highest US official to visit Cuba in more than 30 years has met leading Cuban dissidents in Havana.
Roberta Jacobson, the state department's top Latin American official, held the meeting after two days of historic US-Cuba talks.
One dissident called the meeting "a very human coming-together", but not all who were invited attended.
Many Cuban opposition leaders are sceptical about the rapprochement.
BBC:Jamaica considers marijuana legalisation and production
Jamaica considers marijuana legalisation and production
The Jamaican cabinet has approved a bill that legalises the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
It means that for the first time the country's Rastafarian community, which uses the herb for religious purposes, could be able to smoke it legally.
The bill also envisages a licensing authority for the cultivation, sale and distribution of marijuana for medical and therapeutic purposes.
It goes to the senate this week for approval.
BBC:Ukraine rebel Zakharchenko 'rejects truce talks'
Ukraine rebel Zakharchenko 'rejects truce talks'
The main pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine says his troops are on the offensive and he does not want truce talks with Kiev.
Alexander Zakharchenko said his forces would push the front line back to the borders of Donetsk region. They are in control of the city of Donetsk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukrainian government forces of "criminal" shelling of civilian areas.
Kiev "ordered the start of major combat operations" along the front, he said.
BBC:Yemen crisis: Thousands rally in Sanaa amid power vacuum
Yemen crisis: Thousands rally in Sanaa amid power vacuum
Thousands have been marching for and against Shia Houthi rebels amid a dangerous power vacuum following the resignation of Yemen's leaders.
President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi said he could no longer stay in office as the country was in "total deadlock" after a stand off with the rebels.
Yemen's parliament is to hold a crisis meeting to discuss whether it will accept Mr Hadi's offer
Meanwhile, aid agency Oxfam says Yemen is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe.
BBC:Mexico students: Austria DNA tests fail to match remains
Mexico students: Austria DNA tests fail to match remains
Forensic scientists in Austria have failed to match burnt human remains with DNA samples in a Mexican inquiry into missing students, officials say.
Mexican prosecutors said scientists at Innsbruck University were unable to find sufficient DNA in the remains believed to belong to the 43 students.
The laboratory is now offering to carry out a more advanced test on samples not rendered unusable by excessive heat.
The students disappeared in the south-western city of Iguala on 26 September.
BBC:Greek elections: Party leaders make final calls for votes
Greek elections: Party leaders make final calls for votes
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has made a final appeal to voters ahead of Sunday's general election, with his party battling the left-wing Syriza.
Mr Samaras said that despite years of austerity, the country was showing signs of recovery.
Meanwhile, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said his party would restore "dignity" to Greece.
He wants to renegotiate Greece's debt and end the austerity measures imposed by an international bailout.
Reuters:Some counter-terrorism efforts in Yemen frozen for now - U.S. officials
Some counter-terrorism efforts in Yemen frozen for now - U.S. officials
(Reuters) - The United States has halted some counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda militants in Yemen following a takeover of the country by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, U.S. officials said on Friday.
The collapse of the U.S.-backed government of Yemen on Thursday has left America's counter-terrorism campaign "paralyzed", two U.S. security officials said, dealing a major setback to Washington's fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a potent wing of the militant network.
Three U.S. officials said the halt in operations included drone strikes, at least temporarily, following the abrupt resignation of the president, prime minister and cabinet amid mounting fears the Arab world's poorest country was veering toward civil war.
Many U.S. personnel work with Yemeni forces at the southern al-Annad airbase, an intelligence post for monitoring the Yemeni affiliate of al Qaeda, or AQAP, which claimed responsibility for attacks this month in Paris that killed 17 people.
Reuters:USDA Secretary orders update of animal welfare research strategy
USDA Secretary orders update of animal welfare research strategy
(Reuters) - U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has directed agency staff to create and deliver an updated Animal Welfare Strategy plan within 60 days, according to an internal email reviewed by Reuters.
The emailed memo from Chavonda Jacobs-Young, head of the agency's Agricultural Research Service, was sent to all Animal Research Service employees on Friday afternoon in response to recent media reports over controversial animal welfare conditions at its U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska.
The new strategy will include updated training for government employees and others who work with animals in the service's research labs, according to the email. In addition, an independent panel will be convened to review the group's animal handling protocols, policies and research practices.
What specific training steps would be implemented, and who would be on the independent review panel, is not known. Animal Research Service officials could not be reached for comment on Friday evening.
Reuters:Abe briefing paper rules out Japan strike on Islamic State
Abe briefing paper rules out Japan strike on Islamic State
(Reuters) - Japan's government considered whether planned legal changes would allow a military strike on Islamic State militants and concluded it did not, as officials scrambled to seek the release of two Japanese captured in Syria, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.
The briefing document was compiled on Friday by Japanese officials at the request of the prime minister's office, shortly before a deadline to pay ransom for the release of the two men. There was no immediate word on their fate after the 0550 GMT deadline passed.
The capture of two Japanese citizens in Syria represented an "unacceptable act of terror," the document said. But it concluded the situation did not meet the legal conditions for the dispatch of Japanese forces.
Japan's pacifist constitution bans its troops fighting overseas, among other restrictions on the military. However, Abe is trying to ease curbs on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or militarily aiding an ally under attack, in a reinterpretation of the constitution that must now be passed into law.
Reuters:Mexico says Pacific free trade deal 'feasible' in mid-March
Mexico says Pacific free trade deal 'feasible' in mid-March
(Reuters) - A deal on a 12-nation Asia-Pacific trade pact could be concluded in mid-March, Mexico's economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, said on Thursday.
"It's feasible," Guajardo told Reuters after holding talks in Mexico earlier this week with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
The pact, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has faced stumbling blocks, in significant part because of wrangling between its two biggest economies, the United States and Japan, over agricultural tariffs.
Progress on the talks has been held up largely on Japan's insistence on protecting politically powerful farm sectors such as beef.
Some U.S. lawmakers have been pushing to include rules against currency manipulation in trade agreements. However, speaking on condition of anonymity, another Mexican official familiar with the TPP negotiations said it looked too late to include such a measure.
Reuters:Brazil risks recession as central bank bucks global trend, raises rate
Brazil risks recession as central bank bucks global trend, raises rate
(Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's crusade to win back investor confidence has entrusted policymakers with the tough mission of hiking interest rates while major central banks cut them, raising the prospect of another recession in Latin America's biggest economy.
As it boosted the benchmark Selic rate to 12.25 percent on Wednesday, the third consecutive rate hike since Rousseff won re-election in October, Brazil's central bank sought to deliver on its pledge to do "whatever it takes" to bring down inflation currently running at about 6.5 percent annually.
The move left the Brazilian central bank at odds with the European Central Bank, which unveiled a massive bond-buying program on Thursday, as well as policymakers in Canada, Denmark, India and Turkey, who recently cut interest rates after the sharp drop in oil prices and forecasts of slower global growth.
Brazil's strategy seems to be paying off, for now.
Reuters:Russia details bank recapitalization scheme
Russia details bank recapitalization scheme
(Reuters) - Russian banks with at least 25 billion roubles in capital and willing to increase lending to key sectors of the economy will be able to participate in a 1 trillion rouble ($15.65 billion) recapitalization plan, Russia announced on Friday.
The banks would also need to raise capital from other sources equivalent to 50 percent of the amount they receive, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov Siluanov said in an emailed statement giving details of the scheme announced in December.
Banks are facing growing financial strain as sinking oil prices and Western sanctions linked to the Ukraine crisis push Russia into recession, with analysts warning even larger funds may be needed to stave off a banking crisis.
Russia said in December it would provide systemically important banks with additional capital, in the form of government bonds that would be allocated by the state's Deposit Insurance Agency.
LA Times:No, Eric Schmidt didn't predict the end of the Internet
No, Eric Schmidt didn't predict the end of the Internet
If you read the headlines on the Internet after Eric Schmidt spoke at the World Economic Forum, you'd be forgiven for thinking there won't be an Internet on which to read Eric Schmidt headlines much longer.
The executive chairman of Google used the words "the Internet will disappear" when asked for his predictions Thursday, and that statement — unusual and provocative when taken out of context — lead just about every story on the tech side of the WEF gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
In fact, what Schmidt was talking about was the same vague concept at which many a tech business leader has been hammering away in recent months: the Internet of Things.
“There will be so many IP addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it,” Schmidt said on a panel titled "The Future of the Digital Economy." He continued:
It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room. A highly personalized, highly interactive and very, very interesting world emerges.