Someone else's photo of the sunset behind Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake, Utah
Welcome to Sunday OND, tonight's edition of the daily feature. The Overnight News Digest crew consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and ScottyUrb, guest editors maggiejean and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent. I only put myself first 'cause we're lined up in day-of-the-week order.
Climate Change SOS Blog-a-Thon
There's 92 diaries at this tag now, covering 5 days with dozens of local kos-members and several famous people writing for our audience.
If there is something else that should be a lead story tonight, please discuss in comments.
CONFLICT
Evidence mounts of new massacre in Syria
Row upon row of bloodied bodies wrapped in colorful blankets laid out on a mosque floor in a Damascus suburb. Long narrow graves tightly packed with dozens of victims. Nestled among them, two babies were wrapped in a single blood-soaked blanket, a yellow pacifier dangling beside them from a palm frond.
Evidence mounted on Sunday of a new massacre in Syria's deepening civil war, with activists reporting a killing spree by government forces after they seized the suburb of Daraya from rebel control three days ago. Reports of the death toll ranged from more than 300 to as many as 600.
Video footage posted by activists showed lineups of corpses, many of them men with gunshot wounds to their heads. During mass burials on Sunday, bodies were sprayed with water from hoses - a substitute for the ritual washing prescribed by Islam in the face of so many dead.
Study: Suburbs are major source of guns used in Chicago crimes
A study of guns seized by Chicago police shows that suburban gun shops are a main source of guns used in crimes in the city.
The research shows that some 29 percent of the guns recovered on Chicago's streets between 2008 and the end of March were bought in the Cook County suburbs. Lake County, Ind., was the second largest source, accounting for 6 percent of the weapons, and other counties surrounding Chicago — including Lake County, Ill., and Will, DuPage and Kane counties — were also among the top 10 sources.
Two gun stores in suburban Lyons and Riverdale accounted for more than 10 percent of the guns recovered.
AROUND THE WORLD
Afghanistan music festival organisers hope for repeat of last year's success
The usual waves of diplomats, soldiers, aid workers and journalists streaming through Kabul's international airport will be joined next month by an unlikely mix of BMX bikers, break dancers, musicians from UK electronica collective Asian Dub Foundation and rock bands from across Central Asia, arriving to perform at one of the world's most surprising music festivals.
The organisers of Sound Central defied the odds last year to stage the country's first music festival in decades, at the edge of a park laid out by the Mughal emperor Babur around 500 years ago.
Now they are planning an even bigger week of workshops, screenings and concerts in September, as a step towards making the festival an annual event.
Isaac leaves death, destruction in Haiti
Before setting its sights on Cuba and South Florida, Tropical Storm Isaac left at least eight Haitians dead and cut a path of destruction through Jacmel and other southeastern Haitian cities, toppling billboards, partially collapsing roads and burying blown over fruit trees in muddy flood waters.
Residents in this lush, seaside village remained without power and cut off from neighboring mountain hamlets Sunday as the rains from Isaac finally subsided.
“Look at it,” farmer Estlange Cherry, 21, said pointing to his family farm where his father in-law was clearing away fallen plantain and breadfruit trees. “Everything is gone. We weren’t able to save not one tree. The flood waters from the river even took our pregnant goat.”
In rural Haiti, livestock is cash in the bank and farmers’ harvests are often the only income, used to send children to school, buy medication and for food.
Germany to consider aid cuts after Zim seizes Save game reserve
The seizure by the government of a massive, prized wildlife reserve in Zimbabwe could spark a targeted withdrawal of Western aid, diplomats say. The privately owned Save Valley Conservancy group says only people who are part of President Robert Mugabe's inner circle stand to benefit from the land grab, while the reserve and the animals, including endangered species, would suffer.
Lions, leopards, elephants, cheetahs and the often-poached rhino all live on the land. As part of the seizure, hunting licences are being granted to politicians, in a move that has conservationists worried.
The plan is regarded as one of the largest seizures since 2000, when the Zimbabwe government began to kick white farmers off their land and transfer ownership to blacks.
The land reform programme was meant to rectify colonial-era imbalances which heavily favoured the white minority. However, critics say it has largely benefited politically connected elites from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
The Utah Legislature wants National Parks and all other Federal Land seized, too.
Embracing the Wind: Denmark's Recipe for a Model Democracy
The blades of the wind turbine are made of plain wood painted red, and they measure exactly 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) long. Their curved edges are only roughly sanded. Nothing seems to suggest that this unremarkable-looking device heralded the rise of a global corporation and the restructuring of an entire country.
"At the time, I found the thing in a dusty corner of the barn," says Henrik Stiesdal. "I still clearly recall how I held it in the wind for the first time."
His blue eyes gleam as if he were reliving the experience from 35 years ago, saying: "I suddenly felt this power and thought: That's just the ticket!"
Stiesdal jumps up from his chair, which he had been casually rocking on only a moment ago. He wants to leave his office on the first floor and show his visitors what has evolved from this red piece of wood. The 55-year-old technical director at Siemens Wind Power rushes toward a large production hall with its walls of black granite sparkling in the sun.
This is part of a series on good governance. Also, iirc, Denmark is one of those pinko commie countries with universal health care and paid parental leave and stuff. eeeeuuuuwwww. /snark
Double standards in Ecuador: Correa ready to extradite Belarus who faces death threat
But now, the former financial crimes investigator is in imminent danger of losing his political refugee status and being sent home, where he says he could be killed because he unearthed corruption at the highest levels of government.
Barankov's fate could be decided any moment, less than a week after Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, painting itself a proud haven for the politically persecuted.
Prosecutors in Belarus accuse the 30-year-old Barankov of fraud and extortion. He calls the charges bogus, retribution for his having exposed a petroleum-smuggling ring involving senior officials of President Alexander Lukashenko's government, including relatives of the leader.
The Mercosur does not seem entirely pleased with Ecuador.
Clinton's guards to hand over guns to Cook Islands police
Despite the high security risks that come with guarding the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton's Secret Service agents can expect to have their guns confiscated when they arrive with her in Rarotonga this week for the Pacific Islands Forum.
The State Department is yet to formally confirm Mrs Clinton's visit - her first to the Cook Islands - but it is an open secret and the local newspaper, the Cook Islands News, is describing it as the biggest for the country since the Queen's in 1974.
Mrs Clinton is expected to spend most of Saturday at the forum, meeting the 16 Pacific Islands Forum leaders and holding one-on-one meetings with some, including Prime Minister John Key and his Australian counterpart, Julia Gillard.
Mrs Clinton travels with a large security contingent, but Cook Islands Police Commissioner Ma'ara Tetava has imposed a strict no-guns policy for the Cook Islands and the United States would not be exempt from it, despite the high profile of Mrs Clinton and the security risks that come with her position.
HERE IN THE USA
NOW IN UTAH
Beer festival swamps Utah’s dry-state image
More than 4,000 people sampled some 88 different beers offered by 23 breweries in Utah and the region on Sunday at the Gallivan Plaza in Salt Lake City — a municipality that itself boosts six breweries.
"When I’m traveling out of state, people are surprised when I tell them that Utah has some great breweries," said Trevor Wilson of Salt Lake City as he sampled some suds. "But we do. We really do."
Laurie Hallas of Sandy said she was taken aback when she saw the number of people at the festival and the wide variety of beer selections.
"There’s also a great diversity here — in ages, ethnicity and different groups," she said. "It’s great."
The other story on the front page of the Trib right now also mentions
alcohol.
Old steel mill property yields tons of scrap metal in Utah County
A transformation expected to take up to 20 years to complete is under way at the former Geneva Steel site.
For 60 years, a steel mill operated on the 1,680 acre property, supported by more than 100 miles of railroad track and 100-plus buildings. Today, the land is being cleaned up and prepared for redevelopment.
The developer, Anderson Geneva, envisions a massive mixed-use project with residential, commercial and industrial uses.
"We've been taking out concrete, scrap metal and slag and doing all of the master planning that goes into something like this," said Stewart Park, Anderson Geneva project manager.
Having lived here over 20 years, I am rather amazed at the places now used for housing.
OTHER STUFF
Book Review: Dreamland
The "Other" Colorado 41 photos of the high desert.