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 crisis: Leaders upbeat after Moscow talks
Ukraine crisis: Leaders upbeat after Moscow talks
The leaders of Russia, France and Germany have held "constructive and substantive" talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine, diplomats say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, France's Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met for more than four hours in Moscow.
Mr Hollande and Mrs Merkel had brought with them a peace proposal details on which have not been released.
Russia is accused of arming pro-Russian separatists - a claim it denies.
BBC:Ed Miliband issues warning to UK-controlled 'tax havens'
Ed Miliband issues warning to UK-controlled 'tax havens'
A Labour government would argue for UK's territories and crown dependencies to be put on an international blacklist unless they agreed to greater scrutiny of companies registered there.
In a letter to heads of government, Labour leader Ed Miliband says they would have six months to comply.
If not they could face being put on an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development "tax havens" list.
A Conservative source said the UK was already leading the way on the issue.
BBC:Julian Assange: Costs of policing Wikileaks founder reach £10m
Julian Assange: Costs of policing Wikileaks founder reach £10m
Scotland Yard has spent about £10m providing a 24-hour guard at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claimed asylum there, figures show.
Mr Assange, who denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden, faces arrest if he leaves the embassy.
A Wikileaks spokesman said the policing costs were "embarrassing".
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Mr Assange should go to Sweden and "face justice".
Between June 2012 and October 2014, direct policing costs were £7.3m, with £1.8m spent on overtime, police said.
BBC:Yemen crisis: Gulf Arab states want stronger global response
Yemen crisis: Gulf Arab states want stronger global response
Gulf Arab states have called for a stronger international response to Yemen, after Shia Houthi rebels announced a political takeover.
The rebels said they were dissolving parliament and appointing a council to act as president.
Rival Yemeni political groups have denounced the move as a coup.
The Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa in September, forcing the resignation of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in January.
BBC:Banker Aldemir Bendine named as new Petrobras chief
Banker Aldemir Bendine named as new Petrobras chief
Aldemir Bendine, a leading banker, is the new chief executive of Brazil's scandal-hit oil giant Petrobras.
He was not among the names touted for the job and will be seen as a safe choice for President Dilma Rousseff.
She is worried about the impact the corruption case is having on both the country's economy and on her government.
Speculation ahead of the announcement sent Petrobras shares down 8% in Sao Paulo on Friday.
BBC:TransAsia GE235: Taiwan crash plane 'lost engine power'
TransAsia GE235: Taiwan crash plane 'lost engine power'
Officials in Taiwan say they are investigating why both engines on a TransAsia Airlines plane were off when it crashed on Wednesday.
Data from the "black box" flight recorders retrieved from the wreckage suggests the pilots shut down one engine after the other lost power.
Earlier, TransAsia said all of its pilots would be retaking proficiency examinations following the disaster.
Fifteen of the 58 people on board were rescued but at least 35 others died.
Reuters:U.S. invites Japan, China leaders for state visits
U.S. invites Japan, China leaders for state visits
(Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it had invited Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to pay state visits this year, in a further sign of President Barack Obama's policy emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.
Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, said Washington had also asked South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to visit this year as part of Washington's moves to increase economic, security and diplomatic engagement with the region.
Presenting Obama's updated national security strategy in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank, Rice said it aimed to "enhance our focus on regions that will shape the century ahead, starting with the Asia-Pacific."
The strategy document stressed the risks posed by rival maritime claims in Asia and by nuclear-armed North Korea.
Reuters:Japan aims to restart nuclear reactor in June: sources
Japan aims to restart nuclear reactor in June: sources
(Reuters) - Japan's government is aiming to restart a nuclear reactor by around June following a lengthy and politically-sensitive approval process in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, sources familiar with the plans said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has been pushing to bring some of the country's reactors back online after all 48 closed following meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011, arguing they are key to economic growth.
A reboot in what was once the third-biggest user of nuclear power would boost its utilities, which have been hit by huge losses as they switch to fossil fuels and upgrade nuclear plants, with two turning to the government for bailouts.
But the move would be controversial in a nation where most oppose nuclear power, with memories still fresh of the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
Reuters:Nigeria's Boko Haram has up to 6,000 hardcore militants: U.S. officials
Nigeria's Boko Haram has up to 6,000 hardcore militants: U.S. officials
(Reuters) - The Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, which is fighting a violent insurgency in northeast Nigeria, has about 4,000-6,000 "hardcore" fighters, U.S. intelligence officials said on Friday.
In an assessment of the group, whose five-year uprising has included massacres and kidnappings and spread from Nigeria into neighboring states, the officials said they did not believe it posed a major threat to Nigeria's oilfields in the south.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the militants were believed to be still holding about 300 schoolgirls they kidnapped early last year and had dispersed them to multiple locations.
Around 10,000 people were killed in Boko Haram attacks last year. The Sunni Muslim group poses the biggest security threat in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and biggest economy.
Reuters:Kerry meets Iran minister in Munich on nuclear talks
Kerry meets Iran minister in Munich on nuclear talks
(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for more than an hour on Friday to discuss developments in nuclear negotiations between Tehran and major world powers, which have been at an impasse for months.
"Their meeting was focused on the ongoing nuclear negotiations and they discussed the recent meetings of the P5+1 (six world powers)," a senior U.S. State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
"Secretary Kerry also reiterated our desire to move toward a political framework by the end of March," the official added. "They agreed to stay in close touch and that they would try to meet again soon."
The meeting, which included senior European Union official Helga Schmid, took place on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference. Kerry and Zarif have met repeatedly in recent months in an attempt to break the deadlock in the nuclear negotiations.
Reuters:UK concerned over 'threatening' Russian nuclear strategy
UK concerned over 'threatening' Russian nuclear strategy
(Reuters) - Britain's defense minister voiced concern on Friday that Russia may have "lowered the threshold" for using nuclear weapons and said Britain must update its own deterrent in response to Russian modernization of its nuclear forces.
Russia's nuclear strategy in a hypothetical future war is coming under greater scrutiny among NATO members as tensions between the Western alliance and Moscow hit their highest level since the Cold War over the Ukraine conflict.
"There is three-fold concern, first that they (the Russians) may have lowered the threshold for use of nuclear. Secondly, they seem to be integrating nuclear with conventional forces in a rather threatening way and ... at a time of fiscal pressure they are keeping up their expenditure on modernizing their nuclear forces," Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told Reuters in an interview.
"All of that is very worrying," he said during the Munich Security Conference. "The main answer to that is to make sure that we modernize our own deterrent too."
Reuters:Isolated Greece wants no more bailout money with strings
Isolated Greece wants no more bailout money with strings
(Reuters) - Greece's new leftist-led government, isolated in the euro zone and under pressure from the European Central Bank, said on Friday it wanted no more bailout money with strings attached from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Instead, a government official said, it wanted authority from the euro zone to issue more short-term debt, and to receive profits that the European Central Bank and other central banks have gained from holding Greek bonds.
The official said Greece was in effect asking for a "bridge agreement" to keep state finances running until Athens can present a new debt and reform programme, "not a new bailout, with terms, inspection visits, etc.".
"It is ... necessary that Greece is given the possibility to issue T-bills, beyond the (current) 15 billion euro threshold, in order to cover any extra needs," said the official, asking not be named.
Forbes:This Is Not The End For RadioShack
This Is Not The End For RadioShack
RadioShack’s liquidation sales will start immediately, as the company tries to relieve itself of roughly 1,700 stores following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The 94-year-old retailer plans to close nearly half of its 4,000 U.S. stores and sell close to 2,400 locations to Sprint, as brokered through a third party, Standard Capital. It’s inside these new Sprint stores that RadioShack will live on.
The new locations will operate as co-branded stores, selling both Sprint wireless phones and RadioShack branded merchandise.
So this isn’t really the end for RadioShack and there’s still a chance that RadioShack can reinvent itself, again.