Welcome to the Overnight News Digest.
USA
John Edwards challenged Congressional Democrats to keep passing legislation to end the war in Iraq in a speech at the California Democratic Convention. "If the president of the United States vetoes that bill, it's George Bush who is not supporting the troops. If the president vetoes this bill, they should send him back another bill with a timetable for withdrawal. If he vetoes that, send him back another one. They should not back down from the president and let him continue on this terrible course of war," Edwards said.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced "rides on all Bay Area transit lines — including BART, AC Transit and the region's ferries — will be free Monday." The announcement follows the collapse of a key highway interchange in Oakland, California.
USA, continued
Former CIA director George Tenet is upset that people think George W. Bush bought his silence with a medal. Tenet claims it was for the CIA's work in Afghanistan, not for Iraq.
"Some people have wondered whether the Medal of Freedom is the reason you tend to give the president a pass," [60 Minutes correspondent Scott] Pelley remarks.
"Well, that’s the most outrageous thing I have ever heard in my life," Tenet replies. "The notion that I would trade in my integrity to pull punches with anybody is just ridiculous."
Osama bin Laden eluded capture by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Color me ridiculous.
Republican true believers still cling together on Iraq. Democratic and independent "Voters... tend to see unremitting gloom, but Republican base voters continue to see a conflict that is going reasonably well, with a decent chance of military success."
Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) was "attacked and injured shortly before midnight outside her Hyde Park home" on Chicago's South Side. Two students at the University of Chicago "were credited with thwarting a robbery attempt".
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was at Harvard Law School for his 25th class reunion. Deborah Popowski, a second-year law student, told Gonzales: "On behalf of many other Harvard Law students... I'd like to tell you that we are ashamed to have you as an alumnus of this school. And we're glad you're here to be able to tell you that."
New Hampshire state lawmakers support locating windmill turbines and tide power generators off the New Hampshire's coast to generate electricity.
A Star Tribune editorial advocates a $100 million passenger rail line between the Twin Cities and Duluth, Minnesota.
By examining the fossil record from Europe, Washington University in St. Louis, paleoanthropologist Erik Trinkaus published findings that modern humans and Neanderthals likely mated and had children. "I believe there was continuous breeding between the two for some period of time. Both groups would seem to us dirty and smelly but, cleaned up, we would understand both to be human. There's good reason to think that they did as well," Trinkaus said.
Middle East
Federal oversight inspectors found that in a sampling of eight projects declared successes in Iraq by the Bush Administration, "seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle."
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia refused to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki before a regional conference on Iraq's security. King Abdullah's decision is a "serious rebuff" the Bush Administration's diplomacy and follows Abdullah's statement at an Arab League summit a month ago that the U.S. presence in Iraq is an 'illegitimate occupation.'"
A delegation from Iran led by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will attend the Iraq security conference at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would not rule out talking with Iran directly when at the Iraq security conference. "We will be there, not to talk about U.S.-Iranian issues, but to talk about Iraq, and how Iraq’s neighbors can help to stabilize Iraq. And I won’t rule it out," Rice said.
Europe
Thousands of Turks rallied in support of secularism in Istanbul and to "protest against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and what they said was his agenda to move Turkey away from the country’s secular legacy." The crowd was also upset about the likely presidency of Abdullah Gul.
In a move to broader her appeal, French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal debated with François Bayrou, the centrist candidate who was eliminated in the first round of elections.
Britain's Prime Minster Tony Blair has "big regrets" of the past three wasted years. None of his regrets have anything to do with Iraq. Former Labour leader, Lord Kinnock said "It's a tragedy that in the short term at least all of [his] advances, some of them genuinely worthy of the name historic, will be clouded, even possibly obscured, by the association with Bush."
Thousands of people in London were protesting part of the Global Day for Darfur outside Prime Minister Tony Blair's residence.
Americas
President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela will meet all the oil needs of Bolivia, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. "Venezuela sends most of its oil exports to the United States, where it receives top dollar, and diverting them elsewhere would come at a cost. Furthermore, there are few refineries outside of the U.S. capable of processing Venezuela's heavy crude into usable products."
Justin Trudeau, son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, won the Liberal Party's nomination in the Montreal riding of Papineau.
"Conservationists working in a lowland forest reserve at La Selva in Costa Rica used biological records dating from 1970 to show that species of frogs, toads, lizards, snakes and salamanders have plummeted on average 75% in the past 35 years."
South Asia
According to the United Nations, a $1.5m project has benefited over 100,000 people in rural India. The project run by the UN Environment Program provides loans that help families buy home solar power systems.
Plans to build a $100 million Bollywood studio theme park were announced in Mumbai, India.
Asia-Pacific
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard "believes he can wedge Labor on global warming. Each time [Labor Party leader Kevin] Rudd raises it, Howard will default to the nuclear debate, arguing... that renewable energy cannot provide baseload power for Australia."
"Both Maori in New Zealand and Aboriginals in Australia are dying younger and enduring poorer health than their European counterparts, but New Zealand is at least trying to reconcile the differences" are the findings of a new report for the World Health Organization.
Africa
Two Ethiopian and seven Chinese oil workers kidnapped by Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels in Ethiopia were released to the Red Cross.
Internet use in Nigeria and South Africa is rapidly rising.
Morocco plans to build a second Mediterranean port with three container terminals in Tangier for $1.70 billion.
The World Bank approved $360 million in loans and guarantees for the construction of another 250 megawatt hydropower dam in Uganda, "less than 15 kilometres downstream from the source of River Nile at Jinja (80 kilometres east of the capital Kampala)."
By the numbers
As always, treat this as an open thread.