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:Cuba releases dozens of opposition activists
Cuba releases dozens of opposition activists
The Cuban authorities have released at least 36 opposition activists since Wednesday, according to dissident organisations.
They are believed to be from a list of 53 activists the United States requested to be freed as part of efforts to mend links.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the US was pleased with the move.
Cuba and the US announced last month they had agreed to restore diplomatic relations, severed since 1961.
BBC:LRA's Dominic Ongwen 'capture': Seleka rebels want $5m reward
LRA's Dominic Ongwen 'capture': Seleka rebels want $5m reward
Seleka rebels in the Central Africa Republic (CAR) say they should get a reward for capturing a Ugandan militia leader wanted for war crimes.
Dominic Ongwen, a senior commander in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), was taken into US custody this week.
The US had offered up to $5m (£3.3m) as a reward for information leading to his arrest, transfer or conviction.
A Seleka commander said he was captured after a 25-minute battle, after which they informed US forces in the area.
BBC:Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa suffers shock election defeat
Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa suffers shock election defeat
Sri Lanka's long-time leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has been defeated in the presidential election.
Official results showed Maithripala Sirisena, a former ally of the incumbent, had won 51.3% of the vote.
Mr Rajapaksa, in office since 2005, said on Twitter he looked forward to a peaceful transition of power.
His supporters credit him with ending the civil war and boosting the economy, but critics say he had become increasingly authoritarian and corrupt.
BBC:Taliban 'reject offer of Afghan government posts'
Taliban 'reject offer of Afghan government posts'
The Taliban have been offered posts in the new Afghan government but have turned them down, the BBC understands.
The offer came from new President Ashraf Ghani in a bid to end the insurgency that threatens the recovery of the country.
More than three months after coming into office, President Ghani is due to announce the shape of his cabinet.
The process has been delayed because of disagreements with President Ghani's partner, Abdullah Abdullah.
BBC:Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'
Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'
A Saudi Arabian blogger has been publicly flogged after being convicted of cybercrime and insulting Islam, reports say.
Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail, was flogged 50 times. The flogging will be carried out weekly, campaigners say.
Mr Badawi, the co-founder of a now banned website called the Liberal Saudi Network, was arrested in 2012.
Rights groups condemned his conviction and the US appealed for clemency.
BBC:Radical cleric Abu Hamza jailed for life by US court
Radical cleric Abu Hamza jailed for life by US court
Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been sentenced to life in prison by a court in New York for supporting terrorism.
He was convicted in May of multiple charges, including hostage-taking and plotting to set up a terrorism training camp in the US.
His trial followed a lengthy extradition process from the UK.
During the sentencing, his lawyers asked the judge to take into account his missing hands and eye.
Reuters:Japan reorients space effort to bolster security, drive exports
Japan reorients space effort to bolster security, drive exports
(Reuters) - Japan is shifting its space program toward potential military uses in a new policy hailed on Friday as a "historic turning point" by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants to strengthen defence and boost exports.
The move comes as emerging powers such as China and India join the United States to expand space activities for commercial and security purposes.
Last year, Abe eased a postwar curb on arms exports and on allowing troops to fight overseas, as part of a more robust military and diplomatic posture for Japan.
"We've managed to compile a long-term and specific plan that fully takes into account our new security policy," Abe told a meeting of his ministers. "As the key principle of our space policy, this is something that marks a historic turning point."
Reuters:Ten bodies and 11 heads found in violent Mexican state
Ten bodies and 11 heads found in violent Mexican state
(Reuters) - Mexican police found 10 decapitated corpses and 11 heads in a southwestern state that has become a major problem for President Enrique Pena Nieto since the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers there in September.
Several of the headless corpses found in graves about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of the Guerrero state capital Chilpancingo showed signs of torture and had their hands tied, local security officials said on Wednesday.
The 11 severed heads were discovered in one grave, inside four black plastic bags, the Guerrero state prosecutor's office said in a statement. The identity of the victims was unclear.
Mexico's government is still investigating what happened to the missing students, who it says were abducted on the night of Sept. 26 by corrupt police in league with a drug gang in Iguala, the third biggest city in Guerrero.
Reuters:Brazil water supply, crops still at risk a year after epic drought
Brazil water supply, crops still at risk a year after epic drought
(Reuters) - Southeastern Brazil is getting some rainfall a year after a record drought started, but not enough to eliminate worries about electricity rationing, drinking-water shortages or another season of damaged export crops, meteorologists said.
Record-high temperatures and the most severe drought in at least 80 years punished southeastern Brazil last year, a region accounting for 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Lingering climate challenges could threaten a tepid economic recovery.
Private weather forecaster Somar warned of irregular rainfall in the center-west soy belt as well as the southeast throughout the month as an atmospheric blockage prevents a cold front from advancing over the key producing regions in the world's largest exporter of coffee, sugar, soy and beef.
That is especially worrisome in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, which produces half of Brazil's coffee. Drought there last year wiped out as much as a third of the crop in some areas, causing global arabica prices to rise 50 percent over the year even as most other commodity markets tumbled.
Reuters:Nigerian forces fight to reclaim town of Baga from Boko Haram
Nigerian forces fight to reclaim town of Baga from Boko Haram
(Reuters) - Nigerian ground forces backed by air strikes are fighting to reclaim Baga from Islamist militant group Boko Haram which seized the northeastern town and a nearby military base at the weekend, a government spokesman said on Friday.
"Since the first attack last weekend on Baga, security forces have been actively pursuing the militants," Mike Omeri said in a statement. "Security forces have responded rapidly, and have deployed significant military assets and conducted air strikes."
At least 100 people were killed when Boko Haram attacked Baga last weekend, according to the district head.
Witnesses who escaped to neighboring towns and Borno state capital Maiduguri said the insurgents had razed many buildings and homes and killed dozens of civilians in subsequent raids this week.
Reuters:South Sudan massacres last year may be war crimes: U.N.
South Sudan massacres last year may be war crimes: U.N.
(Reuters) - Hundreds of civilians were massacred in two separate incidents in South Sudan last year in which victims were targeted for their ethnicity, nationality or political views, possibly amounting to war crimes, the United Nations said in a report on Friday.
The 33-page report comes after the U.N. Security Council called for an investigation of April 2014 killings in South Sudan's oil hub, Bentiu. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which carried out the probe, also looked at an incident in the same month in the town of Bor.
"UNMISS Human Rights Division finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that at least 353 civilians were killed, and at least 250 wounded, in the attacks on Bentiu and Bor," the report said.
The Bentiu killings, it said, included at least 19 deaths at a Bentiu hospital and roughly 287 at a mosque in Kalibalek. In Bor, at least 47 civilians were killed at an UNMISS base where they were seeking protection.
Reuters:Syrian opposition figure declines Moscow parley later this month
Syrian opposition figure declines Moscow parley later this month
(Reuters) - Prominent Syrian opposition figure Mouaz Al Khatib said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a Moscow meeting with Syrian government officials, in a further blow to Russian efforts to find a solution to the Syrian conflict.
"We decided to decline ... this is because the conditions we think are necessary to ensure the success of the meeting are not available," the moderate Islamist said in an online post.
When he headed the Western-backed Syrian political opposition in 2012, Khatib called for negotiations with President Bashar al-Assad to pave the way for a handover of power.
Russia, one of Assad's top allies, had extended invitations to senior opposition figures within Syria and outside to meet Syrian government representatives in late January.
Computerworld:NASA's wild plan to bring Martian rocks to Earth
NASA's wild plan to bring Martian rocks to Earth
NASA has a wild idea for a mission that will require a robotic tag-team effort, a rocket lifting off from the surface of Mars and a spacecraft that will scoop up Martian rocks orbiting the Red Planet.
Ashwin Vasavada, the new project scientist for NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity project, said scientists are working on a plan to not just send a rover to study rocks on Mars. Vasavada and his team are working to bring some of those rocks back to Earth so geologists can study them here.
Getting those rocks from Mars to Earth won't be an easy task. Vasavada has a plan for that.
Vasavada, a planetary scientist, has been the deputy project scientist for NASA's Curiosity rover since 2004. On Monday, he took over as the project head, succeeding John Grotzinger, who had held the post for seven years. Grotzinger recently became chairman of Caltech's Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences but will remain a member of Curiosity's science team.