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, JML9999 and Man Oh Man with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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.
Special thanks to JekylinHyde for the OND banner.
DW News
The US Geological Survey said the quake, which struck at around 1:40 p.m. local time (0910 UTC) on Monday, was 196 kilometers (121 miles) deep and its epicenter was 82 kilometers southeast of Feyzabad, in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range.
At least 147 people died in Pakistan alone, officials said, with the figure expected to rise. Many areas remain inaccessible and it is expected that it will take days to asses the full extent of the devastation.
Within hours of the quake, the country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged authorities to utilize all resources to help any victims and ordered military to initiate rescue operations in the country's northern and northwestern regions.
Al Jazeera America
A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan on Monday, with massive tremors felt across Pakistan and India, leaving scores dead and hundreds more injured across the region.
The total death toll stood at 249 with at least 185 people killed in Pakistan and at least 64 more in Afghanistan, according to official reports from the two countries.
The death toll could climb in coming days because communications were down in much of the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range area where the quake was centered.
The U.S. Geological Survey put the epicenter near Jarm in Afghanistan's northeast province of Badakhshan, 150 miles from the capital Kabul, but the effects were immediately being felt in India and Pakistan.
The Guardian
A major earthquake has hit Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and parts of India, with more than 150 killed and early reports suggesting it has caused extensive damage in mountainous areas.
The magnitude 7.5 quake was centred in the province of Badakhshan in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan’s far north, and occurred at a depth of 130 miles (210km). Officials said at least 147 people were known to have been killed in Pakistan and 33 in Afghanistan.
Twelve students were killed while trying to escape from a girls’ school in Taloqan, north-east Afghanistan, and six people died in the eastern province of Nangarhar. A police official in Badakhshan said dozens of houses were destroyed in two remote and sparsely populated rural districts, with some damage reported in Fayzabad.
Reuters
A major earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast on Monday, killing more than 200 people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan, injuring hundreds and sending shock waves as far as New Delhi, officials said.
The death toll could climb in coming days because communications were down in much of the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range where the quake was centered.
In one of the worst incidents, at least 12 girls were killed in a stampede to flee their school building in Taloqan, just west of Badakhshan province where the tremor's epicenter was located.
BBC
More than 260 people have died, mostly in Pakistan, after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Afghanistan.
Tremors from the quake were also felt in northern India and Tajikistan.
At least 12 of the victims were Afghan schoolgirls killed in a crush as they tried to get out of their building.
The earthquake was centred in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, 76km (45 miles) south of Faizabad, the US Geological Survey reported.
The death toll is set to rise as the most severely affected areas are very remote and communications have been cut off.
The Guardian
A Goldman Sachs banker is expected to be jailed over the leaking of confidential information from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the investment banker’s former employer.
Federal prosecutors are preparing to this week announce criminal charges against the banker, Rohit Bansal, and an employee of the regulator, according to the New York Times.
Lawyers for the men, who were both fired in the wake of the leak, are said to be hammering out a deal with prosecutors. Even if they agree on the plea deal, they are likely to face up to a year in jail.
It is rare for criminal charges to be brought directly against bankers in the US, but the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, has set out new guidelines designed to ensure that more executives, bankers and other businesspeople are held personally accountable for their actions.
Reuters
A woman suspected of plowing her car into a crowd at a homecoming rally for Oklahoma State University, killing four and injuring dozens, is set to make her first court appearance on Monday to answer to four counts of second-degree murder.
Adacia Chambers, 25, is suspected of driving while intoxicated when she rammed her gray Hyundai Elantra into a crowd watching Saturday's parade in Stillwater, killing three adults and a toddler, police said.
Chambers was expected to make an initial appearance in Payne County District Court on Monday afternoon, police said.
Four dozen people were also injured, five of them critically, in the accident that sent shockwaves through the college town about 70 miles west of Tulsa. The crash was captured on mobile-phone video and seen globally.
Reuters
The U.S. Navy plans to send the destroyer USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea within 24 hours, in the first of a series of challenges to China's territorial claims, a U.S. defense official said on Monday.
The patrol would occur near Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago, features that were formerly submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn them into islands in 2014.
The ship would likely be accompanied by a U.S. Navy P-8A surveillance plane and possibly P-3 surveillance plane, which have been conducting regular surveillance missions in the region, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Additional patrols would follow in coming weeks and could also be conducted around features that Vietnam and the Philippines have built up in the Spratlys, the official added
Reuters
Wal-Mart Stores Inc applied Monday to U.S. regulators for permission to test drones for home delivery, curbside pickup and checking warehouse inventories, a sign it plans to go head-to-head with Amazon in using drones to fill and deliver online orders.
The world's largest retailer by revenue has for several months been conducting indoor tests of small unmanned aircraft systems – the term regulators use for drones - and is now seeking for the first time to test the machines outdoors. It plans to use drones manufactured by China's SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd.
In addition to having drones take inventory of trailers outside its warehouses and perform other tasks aimed at making its distribution system more efficient, Wal-Mart is asking the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to research drone use in "deliveries to customers at Walmart facilities, as well as to consumer homes," according to a copy of the application reviewed by Reuters.
NPR
The University of Mississippi took down the state flag at the Oxford campus on Monday, days after students and faculty called for removal of the banner — which displays the Confederate battle emblem.
Several cities and counties and three historically black colleges in the state also do not fly it.
NPR's Debbie Elliott reports that Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks ordered the Mississippi flag removed to the university's archives. In a statement, Stocks explained the reason for the decision:
"As Mississippi's flagship university, we have a deep love and respect for our state. Because the flag remains Mississippi's official banner, this was a hard decision. I understand the flag represents tradition and honor to some. But to others, the flag means that some members of the Ole Miss family are not welcomed or valued."
NPR
Federal law does not prohibit undocumented students from enrolling in college, but it does something nearly as effective, banning them from receiving government aid. In recent years, though, some undocumented students have stumbled upon a little-known, nonprofit online university that doesn't charge tuition and doesn't care about students' legal status.
University of the People certainly got the attention of Miguel Angel Cruz. The 27-year-old entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico a decade ago. He settled near Tampa, Fla., where he now shares a small trailer with his father. Cruz learned English and earned his GED. But his dream of going to college was just that — a dream — because of the high cost. Then, he started searching online.
"I was Googling, not for free but for cheaper universities, and I found the University of the People," Cruz says.
Reuters
Police chiefs from across the United States called on Monday for universal background checks for firearms purchases, saying opinion polls consistently show that most Americans support such restrictions.
The proliferation of firearms is one of the factors behind a rise in homicide rates in many U.S. cities this year, according to senior law enforcement officials at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago.
Acknowledging the power of the gun lobby and the reluctance of Congress to enact stricter gun laws, the police chiefs told a news conference they were not anti-gun but wanted to keep weapons out of the hands of people with criminal backgrounds.
Reuters
Fields can then be seen yanking the girl's arm and wrapping his arm under her chin before flipping the desk with her still seated in it. Fields then drags her from the chair and tosses her on the floor, as the classroom full of students looks on in silence, before handcuffing her.
The girl does not appear to resist or argue with the officer during the short video, which was published by local media outlets and on social media.
In a second, longer video recorded in the classroom, Fields can be heard telling another student who was expressing dismay over the situation, "Hey, I'll put you in jail next."
NHK News
An official of the South Korean presidential office says South Korea has proposed a summit between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on November 2nd in Seoul.
The official says the South Korean side is waiting for a reply from Japan.
The proposed talks will coincide with an upcoming 3-way summit of leaders from Japan, South Korea and China.
If materialized, the bilateral Japan-South Korea summit would be the first since May 2012 and the first one-on-one talks between Abe and Park.
DW News
Poland's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party victory in elections has prompted concerns of bumpy relations between Warsaw and Brussels. Exit polls show PiS with enough seats to form a majority government.
The conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) has won Sunday's parliamentary elections in Poland with 37.7 percent of the vote, giving the party enough to form a government without a coalition, according to exit polls.
Led by eurosceptic Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party will pick up 232 out of 460 seats in the lower house, compared to incumbent Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz's Civic Platform's showing of 23.6 percent, or 137 seats, the polls indicated.
The exit polls showed only three other parties making it into parliament: the conservative Kuwiz movement led by led by rock star Pawel Kukiz with 8.7 percent; a new pro-business party Modern Poland with 7.7 percent and the Polish Peasants Party with 5.2 percent.
Al Jazeera America
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has uncovered what amounts to "strong evidence" of a genocide coordinated by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya people, according to an assessment by Yale University Law School.
The Lowenstein Clinic, part of Yale University Law School, spent eight months assessing evidence from Myanmar, including documents and testimony provided by Al Jazeera and the advocacy group Fortify Rights.
"Given the scale of the atrocities and the way that politicians talk about the Rohingya, we think it's hard to avoid a conclusion that intent [to commit genocide] is present," concluded the clinic.
Exclusive evidence obtained by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit and the advocacy group Fortify Rights reveals the government has been triggering communal violence for political gain by inciting anti-Muslim riots, using hate speech to stoke fear among the Myanmarese about Muslims and offering money to hard-line Buddhist groups that threw their support behind the leadership.
Spiegel Online
Even as an image of a Germany taking great pains to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees has bolstered the country's image abroad, it has also been accompanied by a wave of hatred that cannot be played down. At the center of this second, disturbing narrative is Patriots against the Islamization of the West, or Pegida, a xenophobic grassroots movement that has manifested itself with demonstrations each Monday mostly in Dresden in the east, but also in other parts of Germany. But Pegida is only one part of a much larger problem, as the following feature from the new issue of SPIEGEL illustrates.
Germany has a hate problem -- one that is growing.
"You're as big of an asshole as that idiot Ralf Stegner," a certain Birgit M. recently wrote in a letter to Thomas Kutschaty, justice minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was a referrence to the deputy party leader of state chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who recently said the organizers of the weekly Pegida marches in Dresden and elsewhere should be investigated by intelligence services. "You should all be put in a sack and have a hammer taken to you," Birgit M. wrote in her tirade.
The Guardian
The Belgian branch of the Church of Scientology has gone on trial and faces a possible ban for fraud and extortion, charges it claims are meant to ruin its reputation.
The case opened in a packed Brussels courtroom on Tuesday where the prosecution demanded that the church, known internationally for celebrity members including Tom Cruise and John Travolta, explain where it got its financing.
“The church’s revenues were roughly €5,000a week; €2,000 came from the sale of books and videos and €3,000 from courses and training,” the Belga news agency quoted the group’s treasurer as saying.
Reuters
An alliance of Free Syrian Army-related insurgent groups said on Monday it was skeptical about a Russian proposal to help rebels, and that Moscow must stop bombing rebels and civilians and withdraw its support for President Bashar al-Assad.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday the Russian air force, which has been bombing insurgents in Syria since Sept. 30, would be ready to help the "patriotic" Syrian opposition.
"Their words are not like their actions. How can we talk to them while they are hitting us?" Issam al-Rayyes, spokesman for the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters.
BBC
Five Britons were killed when a whale-watching boat sank off the coast of western Canada, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said.
The boat carrying 27 people sank near Tofino, a popular tourist area on Vancouver Island, on Sunday afternoon, killing a woman and four men.
Officials said 21 people had been rescued and one was still missing.
The cause of the accident remains unknown but sea conditions at the time of the incident were said to be calm.
Barbara McLintock from the British Columbia coroner's office, said the victims ranged in age from 18 to 76. Three were tourists on holiday from the UK, while two were British nationals living in Canada - one woman from British Columbia and a man from Ontario.
New York Times via Associated Press
GUATEMALA CITY — Now that former comedian Jimmy Morales has ridden a tide of voter frustration to win Guatemala's presidency, it remained unclear Monday what the political neophyte will do once in office.
So far he's given few clues, beyond hinting at reviving a dormant border dispute with neighboring Belize, or attaching GPS locating devices to teachers to ensure they're in class.
Morales' campaign was heavy on style and light on concrete policy proposals and as landslide vote numbers rolled in on Sunday night, his campaign headquarters looked a lot like a TV variety show, with a band and dancers.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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Al Jazeera America
KILAUEA, Hawaii — On Feb. 12, 1841, a pod of melon-headed whales swam into the shallow blue waters of Hilo Bay off the rock-ribbed shore of Hawaii’s Big Island. Native Hawaiian fishermen paddled seaward toward the tightly packed pod, trapping dozens of animals between the lava rock and their wooden canoes. Then, banging against the hulls, the Hawaiians began to make a great noise.
“The fish seemed completely bewildered and exhausted from fright,” wrote Charles Wilkes, a U.S. naval officer and explorer who witnessed the hunting ritual and recorded it in his journal.
About 20 melon-headed whales, an inky black species of dolphin rarely seen by humans because of its preference for deep waters, were beached that afternoon. Before the Hawaiians rendered the oil from the blubber and prepared the animals for a feast, Wilkes measured the length of one of the torpedo-shaped carcasses at over 8 feet.
The Guardian
Bacon, ham and sausages rank alongside cigarettes as a major cause of cancer, the World Health Organisation has said, placing cured and processed meats in the same category as asbestos, alcohol, arsenic and tobacco.
The report from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said there was enough evidence to rank processed meats as group 1 carcinogens because of a causal link with bowel cancer.
It places red meat in group 2A, as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. Eating red meat is also linked to pancreatic and prostate cancer, the IARC says.
The Guardian
Oil heartlands of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Iran’s coast will experience higher temperatures and humidity than ever before on Earth if the world fails to cut carbon emissions
The Gulf in the Middle East, the heartland of the global oil industry, will suffer heatwaves beyond the limit of human survival if climate change is unchecked, according to a new scientific study.
The extreme heatwaves will affect Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and coastal cities in Iran as well as posing a deadly threat to millions of Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, when the religious festival falls in the summer. The study shows the extreme heatwaves, more intense than anything ever experienced on Earth, would kick in after 2070 and that the hottest days of today would by then be a near-daily occurrence.
NPR
Polio is on its last legs.
The disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of kids a year around the globe is now down to just a few dozen cases this year. "We are aiming to halt all transmission of wild polio virus next year," says Peter Crowley, the head of UNICEF's global efforts against polio.
If polio is stopped, it will be only the second human disease to be eliminated. Smallpox was the first — the last case was in 1977.
There's reason to be optimistic that this gigantic feat of public health is within humanity's grasp. The World Health Organization says polio transmission has stopped for the first time ever in Africa. Last month, Africa's last bastion of polio — Nigeria — celebrated going an entire year without recording any new cases.
NPR
This is a story about two people sharing one body. Maybe even three people. Or four.
Back in the late 19th century, a German scientist named Georg Schmorl made a remarkable discovery: Cells from a baby can hide out in a mother's body, after birth.
More than a hundred years later, scientists are just beginning to figure out what these cells are doing. And their findings may have implications for how cancer and autoimmune diseases affect women.
But the discovery also means something else. Something that's a bit mind-boggling: You likely have cells from your older siblings in your body. And cells from your grandmother, maybe even your great-grandmother.
Here's how.
Climate Central
Growing demand for water in Perth has caused the city to sink at up to 6mm a year and could be responsible for an apparent acceleration in the rate of sea level rise, according to new research released by Curtin University.
The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research in October, found that the rate of subsidence in Perth increased between 2000 and 2005, at the same time as the Water Corporation of WA increased the amount of water it was drawing from the city’s two main aquifers to meet the demands of a growing population.
Will Featherstone, professor of geodesy at Curtin and the lead author of the study, described the effect as “like slowly letting the air out of a balloon”.
“If you take the water out of the ground, the overburden of all the rocks above pushes down,” he told Guardian Australia.
Climate Central
Indonesia is in the grips of a double-headed climate and public health crisis as fires rage across the country. On Monday, the fires reached such a fever pitch that Indonesian Prime Minister Joko Widodo cut a trip to the U.S. short to return home and deal with the inferno that’s turning air toxic and putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than the U.S. on a daily basis.
Nearly 116,000 fires have been documented and air quality in Indonesia and its neighboring countries has suffered. The fires are a yearly occurrence, but this year is already the second-most prolific burn year on record and dry conditions driven by this year’s strong El Niño mean it still has a shot at the top spot.
New York Times
Archaeologists digging at Pylos, an ancient city on the southwest coast of Greece, have discovered the rich grave of a warrior who was buried at the dawn of European civilization.
He lies with a yardlong bronze sword and a remarkable collection of gold rings, precious jewels and beautifully carved seals. Archaeologists expressed astonishment at the richness of the find and its potential for shedding light on the emergence of the Mycenaean civilization, the lost world of Agamemnon, Nestor, Odysseus and other heroes described in the epics of Homer.
“Probably not since the 1950s have we found such a rich tomb,” said James C. Wright, the director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Seeing the tomb “was a real highlight of my archaeological career,” said Thomas M. Brogan, the director of the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete, noting that “you can count on one hand the number of tombs as wealthy as this one.”