Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke, JML9999 and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular 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.
BBC
Syria conflict: Russia wants 'co-ordination' against IS
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a regional "co-ordinating structure" against Islamic State (IS).
Mr Putin reiterated his support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who Western countries and the Syrian opposition have said must go.
The crisis is expected to be high on the agenda as world leaders gather at the UN in New York.
Mr Putin will hold rare talks with US President Barack Obama to discuss the issue later on Monday.
Relations between Russia and the West have been strained over Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula last year and support for separatist rebels.
In a separate development, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to soften his stance against Mr Assad in a speech this week.
BBC
Militants allied to Islamic State attack Afghanistan forces
At least 300 Islamic State fighters have attacked checkpoints in eastern Afghanistan, in a rare co-ordinated assault on the security forces.
Two policemen were killed in the ongoing attacks in Nangarhar province, a local official told the BBC.
Government forces are resisting the attacks, in Achin district, and have killed 60 militants, he said.
Militants affiliated to Islamic State have have been gaining support in Afghanistan.
A statement purportedly issued by an IS affiliate claimed a "big attack" had been carried out in Nangarhar.
Locals in the province say the group has been torturing and beheading people and taking prisoners.
The attacks come a day after a special operation by government forces killed 51 IS militants, according to a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry.
BBC
Viewpoint: West 'walking into the abyss' on Syria
Once again, Syria is making the headlines. As tens of thousands of desperate Syrians embark on their perilous journeys towards Europe, policymakers in the West are faced with yet another unintended consequence of their failure to resolutely end a conflict that has now killed more than 250,000 people and displaced 11 million others.
Amid this chaos, Russia is embarking on its second offensive foreign military operation in 18 months. In the space of three weeks, Moscow has deployed at least 28 fighter jets, 14 helicopters, dozens of tanks, anti-aircraft missile systems and 2,000 troops into north-western Syria.
Russia's claim that its forces are there only to target Islamic State should be taken with a large grain of salt. While it is clearly hostile to jihadists, Moscow is well-known for viewing Syria's entire armed opposition as uniformly Islamist and a danger to international security.
Al Jazeera
France launches first airstrikes on ISIL in Syria
France has carried out its first airstrikes in Syria, expanding its military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, President Francois Hollande's office announced Sunday. The strikes make good on a promise to go after the group, which Hollande has said is planning attacks against several countries, including France.
The president's office said in a statement that "France has hit Syria," citing information from French reconnaissance flights sent earlier this month. It did not provide further details.
"Our nation will strike each time our national security is at stake," the statement said.
France has carried out 215 airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition since last year, the Defense Ministry said earlier this month. But it previously held back on engaging in Syria, citing concern of playing into Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's hand and the need for such action to be covered by international law.
Drug News
Al Jazeera
Amazon leaders and academics denounce ayahuasca rituals led by outsiders
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Among indigenous peoples from the upper Amazon in South America, views on outsiders participating in rituals involving ayahuasca — the medicinal plant and the hallucinogenic drink made from it — vary. But even those who are more welcoming believe some ayahuasca tourists diverge too far from tradition, putting themselves and others at risk.
In the region, in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, shamans administer the drink for physical and spiritual healing purposes. It can cause visions and purge the body, and indigenous communities believe the concoction has divinatory and healing powers. Users often report coming away from the experience with a sense of purpose. It is not uncommon for nonindigenous people from these countries and from abroad to visit the Amazon in search of the spiritual experience that ayahuasca promises.
Such is the case with Alberto José Varela, an Argentine who has become embroiled in a public feud with the Cofán (or A’i) indigenous people of southern Colombia. He has been commercializing ayahuasca (or yagé, as it’s more commonly known in the country) for about a decade and organizing tours for Europeans to partake in rituals involving the plant.
Al Jazeera
Depths of heroin addiction: US sets record high for opioid abuse
The three young white female friends sat nonchalantly on a table at the Kenton County Detention Center, wearing prison garb and with a prevailing air of hopelessness.
Similar to many jails where 75 percent of the people have been locked up for crimes related to drug addiction, each rattled off the consequences of her heroin habit, naming the worst aspects of a struggle to beat a soul-crushing addiction.
“I prostituted my body and slept with anybody, anything to get what I needed to get high,” said Mary Woodward, candidly acknowledging the extent of her problem, as Kristian Cristello looked on.
“I would literally beg, borrow, and steal just get the money, manipulating people that I cared about … just to get the money to feed my addiction,” said the third inmate, Krystle Lightner. “I regret choosing heroin over my children. The hardest thing to deal with, to go to sleep at night knowing that. That’s not natural, it’s not right.”
From 2002 to 2013, heroin dependence and abuse in the United States increased 90 percent, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in July. The rate of fatal overdoses quadrupled since 2000. Moreover, the number of Americans who said they’d used the drug in the last year went up by 65 percent; that means more than half a million people in the U.S. take heroin.
N Y Times
India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies
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Blocked from China itself or frustrated by the onerous demands of its government, companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as start-ups and investors, see India as the next best thing.
“They are looking at India, and they are thinking, ‘Five years ago, it was China, and I probably missed the boat there. Now I have a chance to actually do this,’” said Punit Soni, a former Google executive who was lured back to India recently to become the chief product officer of Flipkart, a Bangalore e-commerce start-up similar to Amazon.
The increasing appeal of India, now the world’s fastest growing major economy, was underscored in recent days.
During a meeting in Seattle on Wednesday with American technology executives, China’s president, Xi Jinping, was unwavering on his government’s tough Internet policies.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on the other hand, was on a charm offensive during his own American tour.
After a stop in New York City, he headed to Silicon Valley, where he visited Tesla and attended a dinner with tech chieftains like Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Sundar Pichai of Google.
CNN
Dalai Lama checks in to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for evaluation
(CNN)The Dalai Lama is at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic for medical evaluation, a spokeswoman told CNN on Sunday.
Ginger Plumbo declined to talk about why he was there or for how long.
His office announced last week that the Dalai Lama had canceled a series of October appearances in the United States on the advice of his U.S. doctors.
The Dalai Lama, 80, was told to rest for several weeks after a routine checkup, his office said.
The spiritual leader of the people of Tibet had been scheduled to speak at events in Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Utah beginning on October 17.
Raw Story
Thousands in Ireland march for easing of restrictive abortion laws
Thousands of people marched in Dublin on Saturday calling for an overhaul of Ireland’s strict abortion laws, as a campaign for change gathers momentum ahead of the upcoming general election.
Ireland has some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws. Termination is allowed only when there is risk to the life of the mother, rather than just her health.
Campaigners and politicians are calling for a referendum to be held to repeal the eighth amendment of the constitution, which grants equal rights to the foetus and the mother.
“We want to sell a really strong, confident message to the government that it’s not enough to kick the issue down the road anymore,” said organiser Cathleen Doherty of the Abortion Rights Campaign.
“We want to see a pledge to repeal the eighth in their manifestos for the election,” she told AFP.
Irish police declined to give an estimate on the crowd but organisers were expecting 8,000 to 10,000 people.
The Guardian
Sinkhole peninsula Inskip Point could one day disappear, expert says
The Queensland peninsula where an enormous sinkhole has opened up could eventually disappear, a geotechnical engineer says.
About 300 campers were evacuated from Inskip Point near Rainbow Beach on Saturday night after the sinkhole swallowed a car, caravan, tents and a camping trailer.
A geotechnical engineer, Allison Golsby, says scientific reports indicate the entire peninsula could fall away.
“People have said that at some stage they think Inskip Point may not be there,” she told ABC radio. “Now that could be thousands of years, it could be hundreds of years.”
Golsby said the area had a history of sinkholes and should be closely monitored to warn of any further collapse. “The ideal answer is [it is] great to monitor because then we keep everybody in the right place and they won’t be put in a position like that,” she told ABC radio.
Raw Story
Viruses may have a branch on the tree of life
Since we first became aware of their existence in the late 19th century, viruses have been widely considered an almost alien-like counterpart to biological life — mobile, ever-evolving agents that carry genetic material but who are nonetheless unable to reproduce without hijacking the machinery of a cellular organism.
For many scientists, that inability to self-procreate has disqualified the virus from designation as a living being — a so-called fourth domain (superkingdom) of life — though that hasn’t stopped researchers from trying to understand and detail its origins. One possible and popular theory suggests modern-day viruses are the byproduct of an evolutionary fork right at the very beginning of life. These ancient viruses would have predated the very existence of cells, making them the most distant of relatives to any lifeform that erupted afterwards.
But now, a provocative new study published Friday in Science Advances has put forth the theory that viruses actually descended from ancient cells, and as such deserve inclusion in a broader “universal tree of life.”