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:Ukraine conflict: Putin ally to build bridge to Crimea
Ukraine conflict: Putin ally to build bridge to Crimea
A Russian contract for building a bridge to Crimea has gone to a company majority-owned by a friend of Vladimir Putin who is under Western sanctions.
The $3bn (£2bn) contract was awarded to the SGM Group, owned by Arkady Rotenberg, a childhood friend and judo partner of the Russian president.
The bridge will join Russia directly to the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in March after a disputed referendum.
It will be pipeline specialist SGM's first bridge, Reuters news agency says.
BBC:IS chemical weapons expert killed, says US military
IS chemical weapons expert killed, says US military
A chemical weapons expert with the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Iraq has been killed in a coalition airstrike, the US military has said.
Abu Malik's training provided IS with "expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability", a statement said.
He served as a chemical weapons engineer under former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, before joining al-Qaeda in Iraq and then IS, the US said.
The US-led coalition has carried almost 2,000 strikes against IS targets.
BBC:Canada PM Harper calls for expanded terror laws
Canada PM Harper calls for expanded terror laws
Encouraging terror attacks against Canada will become a crime under legislation proposed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The measure will also expand the powers of the country's spy agency, allowing it to take direct action to stop attacks.
Work began on the bill after two attacks days apart last year.
It is expected to be passed by Mr Harper's Conservative majority in Parliament.
BBC:Greece's Varoufakis: 'No debt talks with EU-IMF troika'
Greece's Varoufakis: 'No debt talks with EU-IMF troika'
Greece's new left-wing finance minister says his government will not negotiate over the Greek bailout conditions with the "troika" team from the EU and IMF.
Yanis Varoufakis said he was rather seeking direct talks with eurozone leaders, to try to cancel more than half the money Greece owes.
He was speaking after meeting Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the eurozone group of finance ministers, in Athens.
Mr Dijsselbloem said Greece should stick to its reform commitments.
BBC:China universities 'must shun Western values'
China universities 'must shun Western values'
China's education minister has told universities to shun textbooks that promote Western values, state media say.
Yuan Guiren said universities should maintain political integrity and keep criticism of China's leaders or political system out of the classroom.
His comments, reported by Xinhua news agency, came at an educational forum.
In recent months restrictions on academics appear to have been tightening.
BBC:Egypt's Sisi cuts short visit over Sinai attacks
Egypt's Sisi cuts short visit over Sinai attacks
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has cut short a visit to an African Union summit to deal with an upsurge of attacks in the Sinai peninsula.
Militants targeted military and police in North Sinai late on Thursday, which officials say killed at least 32 and wounded many more.
The group Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS), said it carried out the attacks.
Egypt has conducted a major security crackdown in Sinai in recent months.
Reuters:U.S. ground troops could be needed in Iraq: Chuck Hagel
U.S. ground troops could be needed in Iraq: Chuck Hagel
(Reuters) - Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview on Friday the United States might eventually need to send non-combat ground troops to Iraq to help turn back Islamic State forces.
Hagel, who announced his resignation under pressure in November, told CNN all options must be considered in Iraq, including sending troops for non-combat roles such as gathering intelligence and locating Islamic State targets.
"I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops ...," he said. "I would say we're not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don't know."
Hagel's comments echoed testimony by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Congress last fall when he said U.S. troops might have to take a larger role on the ground in Iraq.
Reuters:U.S. would welcome Japan air patrols in South China Sea
U.S. would welcome Japan air patrols in South China Sea
(Reuters) - The United States would welcome a Japanese extension of air patrols into the South China Sea as a counterweight to a growing fleet of Chinese vessels pushing China's territorial claims in the region, a senior U.S. Navy officer told Reuters.
Regular patrols by Japanese aircraft only reach into the East China Sea, where Japan is at loggerheads with China over disputed islands. Extending surveillance flights into the South China Sea would almost certainly increase tension between the world's second- and third-largest economies.
"I think allies, partners and friends in the region will look to the Japanese more and more as a stabilizing function," Admiral Robert Thomas, commander of the Seventh Fleet and the top U.S. navy officer in Asia, said in an interview.
"In the South China Sea, frankly, the Chinese fishing fleet, the Chinese coastguard and the (navy) overmatch their neighbors," Thomas said.
Reuters:Japan looks at 2030 energy targets in shadow of Fukushima cleanup
Japan looks at 2030 energy targets in shadow of Fukushima cleanup
(Reuters) - Japan began deliberating its 2030 targets for power generation on Friday, a process likely to turn contentious when nuclear restarts are considered even as the much delayed cleanup at Fukushima continues four years after the meltdowns there.
A ratio of between 15 to 20 percent for nuclear power was floated as a starting point by some members of a panel set up under the country's industry ministry, compared to about 29 percent in the year before the Fukushima disaster, the worst release of nuclear radiation since Chernobyl in 1986.
The government has declared nuclear power to be an important baseload source for electricity but getting an agreement on how much it contributes will be hard. Public opinion remains consistently opposed to restarting the nation's reactors, even after massive increases in power tariffs.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supports the atomic industry and wants to restart units that have been certified as safe by a beefed up regulator, although he also says he wants to reduce reliance on the energy source as much as possible.
Reuters:Snowden files show Canada spy agency runs global Internet watch: CBC
Snowden files show Canada spy agency runs global Internet watch: CBC
(Reuters) - Canada's electronic spy agency has been intercepting and analyzing data on up to 15 million file downloads daily as part of a global surveillance program, according to a report published on Wednesday.
Critics said the revelations, made in 2012 documents obtained by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and leaked to journalists, showed much more oversight was needed over Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE).
The documents are the first indication from the Snowden files showing Canada had its own globe-spanning Internet surveillance in a bid to counter extremists.
The covert dragnet, nicknamed Levitation, has covered allied countries and trading partners such as the United States, Britain, Brazil, Germany, Spain and Portugal, the report by CBC News and news website The Intercept said. The Intercept, which includes journalist Glenn Greenwald, obtained the documents from Snowden.
Reuters:U.N. support for Congo campaign against Rwanda rebels in doubt over abuses
U.N. support for Congo campaign against Rwanda rebels in doubt over abuses
(Reuters) - United Nations support for a planned military operation against Rwandan rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo could be in doubt because Congo named a general accused of rights abuses to head the offensive, diplomats and officials said on Friday.
General Bruno Mandevu was appointed on Sunday to head a Congolese army (FARDC) operation against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which had been jointly planned with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUSCO).
Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mandevu had been placed by MONUSCO on a so-called red list over accusations of 121 rights violations, including summary executions and rapes.
"If, because of the past record of units or their commanders, there are substantial grounds to believe there is a real risk that they commit grave human rights violations, support to those units will be withheld unless adequate mitigating measures can be put in place," a senior MONUSCO official told Reuters.
Reuters:Russia wants U.N. Security Council help on conflict zone flight risk
Russia wants U.N. Security Council help on conflict zone flight risk
(Reuters) - Russia is calling on the United Nations Security Council to help protect civilian jets from anti-aircraft weapons after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in Ukraine last year.
The Russian position comes after it dismissed proposals by the U.N.'s aviation body, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as "superficial."
The Security Council is much more powerful than Montreal-based ICAO, a specialized agency that sets safety standards for global aviation. Its guidelines typically become regulatory requirements in its 191 member states.
ICAO needs "a mechanism of cooperation with the U.N. Security Council, state military authorities and military-political unions in order to timely detect potential threats to civil aviation flight safety and to respond to these threats," said Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees civil aviation in the former Soviet Union.
LA Times:Android Wear just got very, very smart
Android Wear just got very, very smart
Google's Android Wear software just got smart - very smart - simply because it integrates Google Now top to bottom. With an update to Google Now comes an update to Android Wear, and what we're seeing today is an explosive update that'll make the suggestions for directions and sports scores you've been getting so far seem like drops in a barrel of friendly, and I daresay helpful, updates from apps of all kinds. Everything from eBay auction updates to the ability to "Download Venice" - all on your wrist, very soon.
Below you'll see a gallery of "cards" that'll be appearing in Google Now immediately if not soon. They come from Google's gallery of card updates as of Friday, the 30th of January, 2015. While some cards will pop up courtesy of Google's services, most will be coming from 3rd-party brands.
An app like Duolingo will help you learn a new language. Mint will send you reminders on how much of your budget you've spent during the month. Walgreens will send you your Balance Rewards card in the form of a QR-code the cashier can scan from your wrist.
Hailo and mytaxi will add to the number of ways you can call a car to pick you up from your Android Wear device. ICICI will remind you to pay a bill, BookMyShow will allow you to buy tickets to a movie you've been waiting for, and Ford will let you remote-start your C-Max Hybrid vehicle.