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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC (TMI News Dept)
How peeing in public divided China and Hong Kong
It's a scene familiar to all parents of young children: you're in a busy shopping street and your child decides they just can't hold it in any longer. But one couple's decision to let their child relieve himself has caused a huge schism on Chinese social media.
By now, it seems, the entire Chinese internet is familiar with what happened on a crowded Hong Kong shopping street. A mother holds a nappy while her two-year-old squats and pees. A passerby snaps pictures which then get shared online. Someone else shares a video from the scene, which shows a crowd confronting the boy's parents in a physical scuffle, while the boy's mum argues that she couldn't get her son to the toilet in time. The images have drawn more than one million re-posts on Sina Weibo, China's biggest social network, making it the top trending topic.
BBC
Vatican declares Popes John Paul II and John XXIII saints
Pope Francis has declared Popes John Paul II and John XXIII saints, in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands.
He praised his two predecessors as "men of courage" at the Vatican service, the first time in history that two popes have been canonised at the same time.
The Mass was attended by Pope Emeritus Benedict, who quit as pope last year, and roughly 100 foreign delegations.
Analysts say Francis is trying to balance the conservative legacy of John Paul with the reforming zeal of John.
At the climax of the service, Pope Francis said in Latin: "We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints and we enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church."
Relics of each man - a container of blood from John Paul and a piece of skin from John - were placed near the altar.
Al Jazeera America I previously reported on the 529; now 683 more.
Egypt court to pass final judgement on 529 protesters.
An Egyptian court on Monday will pass final judgment on 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters sentenced to death last month in a case that has provoked outrage among rights groups. The same judge will issue verdicts against another 683 accused of violence, including Mohamed Badie — the Muslim Brotherhood’s top leader.
The preliminary death sentences were issued by Judge Said Yousef on March 24 — just two days after the mass trial began. The charges relate to violence in which one policeman was killed in August in Minya, 75 miles south of Cairo.
The mass trial lasted two days and was over in less than 100 minutes. Lawyers for the defense were prevented from presenting arguments and the prosecution offered no evidence, rights groups say.
Judge Yousef is known for handing down tough sentences, according to local lawyers. He is also, however, the same judge who acquitted all officials and police officers accused of killing dozens of protesters in the Bani Swaif area during the Jan. 25, 2011 mass protests.
Al Jazeera America
Iraqi law would legalize marital rape & child marriage
At a Baghdad radio station this month, questions flooded the airwaves: Is this true? How can I protect my little girl from being married off? Who would take a 2-year-old baby away from his mother? Al Musawat Radio [Equality Radio] had been fielding fearful inquiries from women since the proposal of a new law in February that would drastically alter the way many Iraqi women are treated.
The legislation, which would apply only to Iraq’s majority Shia population, would roll back rights for those women and girls in a country whose legal code has long been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East. Under current Iraqi law, the minimum age for marriage is 18 — though girls as young as 15 may marry with their parents’ consent — and polygamy is banned except under special circumstances. The new law, introduced by Iraqi Justice Minister Hassan al-Shimari, does not explicitly lower the minimum age for marriage, but it sets rules for divorce of girls as young as 9, the age at which, the law argues, girls reach puberty. The law would also legalize marital rape, grant men who divorced their wives automatic custody of children over the age of 2 and make it easier for men to marry multiple wives.
Raw Story
Woman who killed teen on bike sues teen’s family for $1.3 million for ‘emotional distress’
A Canadian woman who struck three teens with her SUV, killing one and injuring the others while they were riding bikes on a dark road, has filed a $1.3 million suit against the deceased teen, his family, and the two other boys claiming ‘emotional distress’ according to Toronto CVT News.
Brandon Majewski died after being struck from behind by an SUV driven by Sharlene Simon while cycling with two friends at 1:30AM on Oct. 28, 2012. He was 17 at the time.
Simon, a mother of three, has filed suit against the dead teen and his family, and the two other boys, Richard McLean and Jake Roberts, both 16, asking for $1.3 million for ‘emotional distress,’ citing psychological suffering, depression, anxiety, irritability and post-traumatic stress.
In her suit Simon blames the boys for the accident claiming, “They did not apply their brakes properly… They were incompetent bicyclists.”
Raw Story
North Korea calls South’s president a ‘crafty prostitute’ after ‘pimp’ Obama’s visit
North Korea has launched a vitriolic attack on the South Korean president, comparing her to “crafty prostitute” in thrall to her “pimp” Barack Obama.
It also described Park Geun-hye as America’s “comfort woman”, a reference likely to enrage many in South Korea, where anger still runs high over the plight of thousands of women who were enslaved in Japanese military brothels during the second world war.
The comments were issued on Sunday by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), which handles cross-border affairs, following the US president’s two-day visit to Seoul. He arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for the penultimate stop on his four-nation tour of Asia.
N Y Times
Forced to Flee Radiation, Fearful Japanese Villagers Are Reluctant to Return
MIYAKOJI, Japan — Ever since they were forced to evacuate during the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant three years ago, Kim Eunja and her husband have refused to return to their hilltop home amid the majestic mountains of this rural village for fear of radiation.
But now they say they may have no choice. After a nearly $250 million radiation cleanup here, the central government this month declared Miyakoji the first community within a 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant to be reopened to residents. The decision will bring an end to the monthly stipends from the plant’s operator that have allowed Ms. Kim to relocate to an apartment in a city an hour away.
“The government and the media say the radiation has been cleaned up, but it’s all lies,” said Ms. Kim, 55, who is from South Korea, and who with her Japanese husband runs a small Korean restaurant outside Miyakoji. “I want to run away, but I cannot. We have no more money.”
C/Net
The science of drinking all you like and not getting drunk
Don't try it at work, either. And please, please don't try it in your local restaurant, bar, or bar mitzvah.
On the other hand, I have no control over your life, so I will just offer you this allegedly scientific information.
Jim Koch, co-founder of the Boston Beer Company, says there's a way to drink as much as you want and not get proportionately drunk.
Some might pause already to consider that there is no point drinking unless you at least have the hope of feeling a touch happy, giddy, or loose-limbed.
Still, Koch says his method is very simple. All he does is swallow some Fleischmann's Dry Yeast before embarking on a severe session of beer-drinking.
This isn't the finest-tasting thing with which to adorn one's mouth. So Koch told Esquire that he mixes it in with some yogurt to make it more palatable.
"One teaspoon per beer, right before you start drinking," he said.
Here's the science part, if you can bear it. Active dry yeast is blessed with alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH). This is an enzyme. ADH operates a little like your liver. It breaks down alcohol into carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
So, if you have it inside you before you take your first sip of alcohol, it attacks your beer, wine, or spirits before they enter your bloodstream and begin to make you believe that you are far more attractive, witty, and interesting than you really are.
L A Times
Philippines agrees to large-scale return of U.S. military forces. Score one for the MIC.
Reporting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia—
The U.S. and Philippine governments have worked out a new defense cooperation agreement that opens the way for the first large-scale return of American military forces to the island nation since their eviction at the end of the Cold War, according to the White House.
A day before Obama is scheduled to arrive in Manila, advisors to the president said Sunday that the two sides had worked out a 10-year deal that will allow U.S. troops, warships and aircraft joint use of Philippine military and training bases on a rotational basis.
Officials say the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement can take effect without specific approval by the Philippine Senate, which in 1991 rejected an extension of the nations' longstanding base agreement and forced Washington to close Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, two of the Pentagon's largest overseas facilities.
Very good news:
But he will return to Washington on Tuesday without a clear breakthrough on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal that he had hoped to show for his week abroad.
USA Today
Pentagon wasting millions on ammunition, report says
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to destroy more than $1 billion worth of ammunition although some of those bullets and missiles could still be used by troops, according to the Pentagon and congressional sources.
It's impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department's inventory systems can't share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY.
The result: potential waste of unknown value.
"There is a huge opportunity to save millions, if not billions of dollars if the (Pentagon) can make some common-sense improvements to how it manages ammunition," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "Despite years of effort, the Army, Navy and Air Force still don't have an efficient process for doing something as basic as sharing excess bullets. This Government Accountability Office (GAO) report clearly shows that our military's antiquated systems lead to millions of dollars in wasteful ammunition purchases."
S F Gate
Big money leading us to another Internet bubble
When David Einhorn speaks, the world usually listens. That doesn't mean what he says is particularly new or even insightful.
"Now there is a clear consensus that we are witnessing our second tech bubble in 15 years," the founder of hedge fund Greenlight Capital wrote last week to his investors. "What is uncertain is how much further the bubble can expand and what might pop it."
As Einhorn so eloquently put it, predicting what will pop a bubble and when it will happen is beyond the reach of even superstar investors. There are plenty of people today who deny a bubble even exists. It's as if the dot-com bust in the early 2000s never happened. This time, the bulls cry, it's different.
They're right. It's worse.
Back in the dot-com era, investors bid up technology stocks because the Internet was something new and exciting. Valuations were not based on profit or sales (if they actually existed) but rather on novelty.
Today, investors are much more educated about the Internet, and they are still dumping huge stacks of cash on startups. Not because Internet-related companies are the best bet in town, but because they seem like the only bet in town.
Salon
The world’s newest mineral is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before
It’s purple and pretty and composed of cube-like crystals just 0.5 mm in size.
But what really makes putnisite, the world’s newest mineral, truly unique is that nothing like it has ever been discovered before.
“Most minerals belong to a family or small group of related minerals, or if they aren’t related to other minerals they often are to a synthetic compound, but putnisite is completely unique and unrelated to anything,” said Dr. Peter Elliott, lead author of a new study detailing the discovery in Mineralogical Magazine.
The transluscent purple crystals with a pink streak through the middle were discovered by a mining company in the Polar Bear peninsula of Western Australia.
It was found on volcanic rock and appears to have dark pink spots on a dark green and white rock when viewed under a microscope.
Its commercial use has yet to be determined.
“Nature seems to be far cleverer at dreaming up new chemicals than any researcher in a laboratory,” Elliott said.