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Overnight News Digest is a daily series posting around midnight Eastern time with a host of editors. We acknowledge being led now by our fine Editor In Chief Neon Vincent. We acknoweldge our founder Magnifico, and remember fondly our former leader ek hornbeck.
Diary recommendation: Daily Kos SheKos: Death by intimate partner (2nd Update) This was on the rec list, but not for long enough. See also Relatives, friends bury Des Moines shooting victim.
This evening: A spin around the world and around Utah, from your diarist based in Salt Lake City. All from newspapers, some of which the diarist has read or seen in person. It seems like I picked up a wide variety of stories tonight.
THE WAR ZONE
Hollow Threats: Why America Is Stuck With Karzai
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his ally, the United States, are hopelessly at odds, and yet they are condemned to the mutual pursuit of success in Afghanistan.
There was something arbitrary about the whole thing. Would the United States be sending 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan? Or 30,000? 40,000? Or perhaps just an unknown number?
US President Barack Obama was not in a good mood when he embarked on a nine-day trip to Asia on Friday. He had just come from the last meeting, for the time being, of the National Security Council to discuss his administration's new Afghanistan strategy, leaving his advisors with instructions to come up with a new proposal based on the best aspects of the four current options. But Obama was mainly interested in a date: The date when the United States could withdraw its troops and turn the war in Afghanistan over to the Afghans. The president's tone, say members of his staff, was "demanding."
Nothing to be done at the prodding of others: Qureshi
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday that US President Barrack Obama in his letter to President Asif Ali Zardari had not asked Pakistan to ‘do more’.
Talking to newsmen here, the minister said it was Pakistan which had to decide the course of the military operation against militants. He said the operation was being carried successfully and the desired objectives would be achieved ahead of schedule.
(According to Reuters, Mr Qureshi said Pakistan and the United States shared the common objective of defeating militancy, but Pakistan would not be prodded into military operations by outsiders.
‘We will not do anything, more or less, at the prodding of others. We will see what are Pakistan’s requirements and priorities,’ he told reporters.
He was responding to a question about a New York Times report on Monday that said the United States had stepped up pressure on Pakistan to expand its fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.)
‘The US should realise the problems Pakistan is facing today and transfer drone technology to us. Drone attacks (by the US) are counter-productive and against country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,’ he added.
AROUND THE WORLD
DINKS, empty-nesters set to become most common household types in Australia
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's biennial welfare report released today notes that while couple families with dependent children had long been the most common family type "their proportion has gradually declined from 45 per cent of all families in 1986 to 37 per cent in 2006."
"Coinciding with this decline has been an increase in the proportion of couple-only families, increasing from 30 per cent to 37 per cent of all families,'' the AIHW report finds.
"This increase is partly due to population ageing, with more empty-nesters (older couples whose children have grown up and left home), but also reflects younger couples delaying having children or not having children at all (Double Income no Kids).
Italy pushes for one army in the 'new Europe'
ITALY is to push for the creation of a European army after the "new Europe" takes shape at this week's EU summit following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the Lisbon Treaty had established "that if some countries want to enter into reinforced co-operation between themselves they can do so".
This was already the case with the euro and the Schengen accords on frontier-free travel, and could now be applied to "common European defence".
Mr Frattini said yesterday: "We have finally concluded a never-ending story."
The Lisbon Treaty, which comes into force next month, will be sealed tomorrow in an EU summit that will also choose an EU president and foreign minister.
Mr Frattini warned that "if we do not find a common foreign policy, there is the risk that Europe will become irrelevant. We will be bypassed by the G2 of America and China".
Whole new ballgame for sports funding
The report finds that Olympic medals are a "dubious measure" of the nation's sporting success and says the funding "bias" towards Olympic sports makes little sense.
"For example more government funds are provided for archery than for cricket, which has more than 100 times the number of participants," it says.
Olympic sports had been concerned that such findings might be in the report and say that comparisons are unfair because many of the sports listed as more popular and deserving of greater funding - including the football codes and cricket - have far greater ability to fund themselves through gate receipts and media rights deals.
Oil company sued over poisoned waterways
Chevron v. people of Ecuador
TENS of thousands of Amazonians are suing US oil company Chevron for poisoning their waterways in what is billed as one of the biggest environmental cases in history.
The Ecuadorean claimants said the company illegally dumped toxic waste from its oil production and that the waste filtered into lakes that thousands of people used for washing, drinking and cooking.
The result, they claim, is one of the worst environmental disasters in history, which led to a public health crisis with rising levels of cancer, birth defects and miscarriages. About 30,000 Amazonians are behind the case, which an Ecuadorean judge will hear.
Experts said the company might have to pay up to $US27 billion ($A28.9 billion) damages.
The company insists there is no proof that its operations caused any illnesses. It says responsibility for cleaning the area lies with the Ecuadorean Government and state oil company Petroecuador.
'Dowry law applies to live-in partner'
Demanding money from a woman in a live-in relationship amounts to dowry harassment, a trial court has held, sentencing a man to life imprisonment. The court went by the woman's dying declaration that the man she lived with set her on fire when she refused to give him the money.
Initially booked under Section 304B (dowry death) and Section 498A (dowry harassment), convict Naresh was accused of setting his second wife on fire after she refused to pay him Rs 20,000 received by her from her former husband in a divorce proceeding.
While the convict claimed that he was already married and was not legally wedded to the victim and even the prosecution failed to prove his marital connection with the deceased, the court trashed his argument on the ground that "no one at the point of death is presumed to lie".
China's eight measures mean long-term benefits for Africa: FM spokesman
China's eight measures announced in Egypt to assist African countries would have long-term benefits, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday.
"The measures focus on helping them overcome the financial crisis, and also on long-term strategic areas such as improving living standards and sustainable development," Qin told a regular press conference.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday announced eight new measures to enhance cooperation with Africa when addressing the opening of the ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Egypt.
According to the measures, China will provide 10 billion U.S. dollars in concessional loans to African countries and support Chinese financial institutions in setting up a special loan of 1 billion dollars for small and medium-sized African businesses.
And the benefits to China? Please note, this is sourced from xinhua.com ;-)
China proposes four-point action plan to eradicate world hunger
Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Monday proposed a four-point action plan aimed at eradicating world hunger in his address to a world summit on food security.
Stressing the fact that the financial crisis has worsened the plight of the poor and the hungry, the Chinese vice premier said the summit, hosted at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters here, was "of special significance to world food security, global economic recovery and sustainable development."
In order to overcome the "dual pressure of an international financial crisis and a global food crisis," the first suggestion of the Chinese government was to increase input and raise food production by investing more in agriculture, build up the capability to resist natural disasters and strive for greater self-sufficiency.
Both industrialized and developing countries should in the long run forge their own "blood-generating" capacity, Hui said.
A plan for everything, and everything in a plan.
A Bonapartist in the Indian Ocean
When a tea sapling was brought into Ceylon - present-day Sri Lanka - in 1824 from China and planted in the Royal Botanical Gardens, the British had no commercial interests in mind. It took another 40 years before a plucky Scotsman planted the first seedling, which blossomed into the famous Ceylon Tea and became today's unshakeable pillar of Sri Lanka's economy.
The "Emerald Island" has obscure tales to tell. That is why when a swashbuckling army chief by the improbable name of Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka abruptly discards his uniform and plunges into the country's steamy politics, it becomes no simple matter. Sri Lankan democracy may never be the same again.
Bonapartism isn't altogether new to the region. Pakistan's Ayub Khan showed the way, back in the 1950s. Bangladesh followed 20 years later. Now Sri Lanka, an entrenched democracy, seems fatally attracted to it. The presidential election is not due until November 2011, but there are signs it may be held as early as January.
There is nothing necessarily fatal if a soldier develops a passion for politics. An Indian commentator pointed out that, after all, there is the precedent of US president Dwight D Eisenhower, a five-star general. But then, the nagging worry remains whether in the South Asian clime, like the sapling brought in from distant China, Fonseka, a US Green Card holder, may blossom and outgrow the botanical garden that Sri Lankan democracy used to be.
Indian nuclear plants on terror alert
India has put its nuclear installations on terror alert, the Press Trust of India said on Monday, citing home ministry sources.
It said the new measures were ordered after it was found that David Headley, a US citizen arrested by FBI on terror charges, had visited some states having atomic installations.
The PTI said the Indian home ministry had asked all state governments protecting their nuclear plants to step up patrolling and vigil around the facilities as a precautionary measure.
They said that Mr Headley, accused of plotting terror attacks in India on behalf of Pakistan-based LeT, had visited Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh — all with nuclear installations — raising suspicion that nuclear facilities could be on the radar of the terrorists.
Libyan Leader Hands out Korans to Hundreds of Italian Beauties
Known for his quirkiness, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi may have outdone himself this week. In Italy for a global hunger summit, the colonel requested hundreds of "beautiful girls from all of Italy," saying he wanted to "exchange views." They got a Koran for their trouble.
When it comes to quirkiness, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has set the bar high. Should he wish to grace the headlines, it is no longer enough for him to arrive on foreign visits with his gaggle of female bodyguards and his Bedouin tent.
But in his narcissism, Gadhafi is nothing if not inventive. In Rome for a United Nations summit on global hunger, Gadhafi has come up with an ingenious plan to liven up his evenings.
UN: Aid agencies suspend work in eastern Chad
Six non-governmental aid agencies have suspended operations in eastern Chad after the kidnapping of a Red Cross worker and a surge in attacks on relief agencies there, the United Nations said on Friday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said 37 000 people would be deprived of relief aid as a result of the temporary withdrawal.
"In two weeks one humanitarian worker has been killed and one kidnapped," said Ocha spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs.
"Six humanitarian organisation have had to temporarily suspend their operations in eastern Chad," she told journalists.
Darwinism, through a Chinese lens
Steeped in history and knowledge, visitors gulp down colour, like donkeys gorging on oats. But it has come to feel like Birmingham. It's not just the endless El Geish Road, the lively and frustrating dual carriageway with its complex system of u-turns and an insurmountable central reservation that makes me feel like I'm covering familiar ground, but the topics for discussion at the conference on Darwin's legacy. I wanted to write about Hindu creationism after Michael Roberts gave it a fleeing mention in his presentation but nobody here was able to give me any details. Happily I bumped into Darryl E Brock while choosing desserts at the thrillingly downmarket Four Seasons.
He didn't know anything about Hindu creationism either, but he knew about Darwin's influence in China and invited me to come along to his talk. On the Origin of Species may have stormed the west in 1859 but Darwinian scientific and social thought did not reach China in any significant way until four decades later, when the nation was in turmoil, says Brock.
Plan to recover two crates of Shackleton’s whisky buried in Antarctica
But Whyte & Mackay, the whisky giant that owns McKinlay and Co, has asked a team of New Zealand explorers heading out on a January expedition to return a sample of the drink for a series of experiments.
The team intends to utilize special drills to free the trapped crates and rescue a bottle from the wreckage, which is believed to have been discarded 97 miles from the pole. If they cannot retrieve a full bottle, they are hoping to use a syringe to extract some of the contents.
The sample will then be brought home to Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay's master blender, who intends to replicate the famous old whisky. If the experiment is successful, original McKinlay whisky could be put back on sale.
Latinamerica at the heart of a climate change deal, says Miliband
At a roundtable event with London-based journalists from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico the Foreign Secretary said that Latin America was "at the heart" of delivering an agreement at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
"You are countries that are growing, countries that embody some of the big issues of low carbon economic development of technology transfer and the big issue that is sometimes forgotten but should never be forgotten - deforestation that contributes 18% of total global emissions".
Further on Miliband said there won’t be a deal "unless countries like Argentina, Mexico and Brazil are clear that responsibility is being taken by advanced industrialised societies".
OUT IN SPACE
Worms in space – British creatures board Atlantis space shuttle
Britain's aspirations to become a spacefaring nation inched a little closer tonight as thousands of microscopic worms boarded the Atlantis space shuttle at Cape Canaveral for a mission to the international space station.
The diminutive space travellers are being flown into orbit as part of research that scientists hope will help explain how astronauts build and lose muscle as they circle the Earth.
The test subjects, from a rubbish tip in Bristol, will be studied in the weightless confines of the Japanese Kibo laboratory, one of the most recent additions to the $100bn space station. Predecessors of the latest batch of worms made news in 2003 when they survived the Columbia space shuttle disaster. They were discovered in a protective container several weeks after the craft was destroyed during re-entry.
AROUND THE USA
Bogus bidder loses shot at global-warming defense
A federal judge Monday rejected Tim DeChristopher's bid to show the imminent threat posed by climate change justified his bogus bids during a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction.
"The court finds that DeChristopher's necessity defense fails because there were reasonable, legal alternatives open to DeChristopher other than his alleged criminal acts," U.S. District Judge Dee Benson wrote in his nine-page ruling.
DeChristopher does not dispute that his actions derailed the lease auction, but he argued they were justified because of the threat posed by global warming.
Barzee expected to plead guilty
For six years, experts were uncertain whether Wanda Eileen Barzee would ever be mentally competent to stand trial for the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart.
Today, the 64-year-old wife of street preacher Brian David Mitchell is expected to put that question to rest and plead guilty to federal charges.
The details of her deal with federal prosecutors will not be revealed until after she makes a plea before U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball.
Smart's father, Ed Smart, said Monday that he is aware of the plea bargain but could not reveal any specifics.
"We are very much behind the U.S. attorney in what they're doing," Smart said.
Barzee -- who claimed she is the "mother of Zion" and received messages from God through her television, according to testimony at earlier court hearings -- recently completed a forced regimen of psychotropic drugs. Doctors at Utah State Hospital asserted this fall that she was competent to stand trial.
Rich white girl gets found. Kidnappers thereof finally get their punishment.
Chinese honor Cedar City native with bronze statue
Most Utahns have likely never heard of Cedar City native Helen Foster Snow. But in China, she's a superstar.
Foster Snow, born in Cedar City in 1907, became a journalist who chronicled the strife of war and revolution in China in the 1930s and played a role in creating a movement of industrial cooperatives known as Gung-Ho (work together).
Last week, nearly two dozen Chinese officials traveled to this southern Utah city to pay tribute to a woman they revere.
"In China, she is considered one of the 10 greatest women of the 20th century," said An-Wei, a Snow biographer and president of the Edgar and Helen Snow Studies Center in Xian, China. She spoke at a symposium on Foster Snow last week at Southern Utah University.
During her years in Cedar City, Foster Snow learned about farming and camping, kept a journal of her experiences, and was immersed in the spirit of communal cooperation prevalent among Mormon communities in southern Utah at the time.
Those skills would later prove invaluable in China.
Texas accounts for half of executions in US but now has doubts over death row
Even in Texas they are having their doubts. The state that executes more people than any other by far – it will account for half the prisoners sent to the death chamber in the US this year – is seeing its once rock-solid faith in capital punishment shaken by overturned convictions, judicial scandals and growing evidence that at least one innocent man has been executed.
The growth of DNA forensic evidence has seen nearly 140 death row convictions overturned across the US, prompting abolition and moratoriums in other states that Texas has so far resisted.
But the public mood is swinging in the conservative state, which often seems to have an Old Testament view of justice. A former governor, Mark White – previously a strong supporter of the death penalty – has joined those calling for a reconsideration of capital punishment because of the risk of executing an innocent person.
Vitamin D deficiency putting Americans at risk, study says
Many Americans have become so effective at covering themselves from the sun that they don't get enough vitamin D, which may be putting them at increased risk not only for cardiovascular disease but for depression.
That's the finding of a new study of more than 27,000 patients tracked by researchers at Intermountain Medical Center, who found that healthy levels of vitamin D contribute to a strong and healthy heart.
They also found that inadequate vitamin D levels may significantly increase the risk of stroke, heart disease and death — even among those who have never had heart disease.
The study's findings were to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual scientific conference in Orlando, Fla.
Researchers also found a lack of vitamin D may contribute to depression in both men and women.
This is a local story - the Intermountain Medical Center is in Murray, Utah, here in the valley.
OTHER
Political Cartoons
Pat Bagley for the Salt Lake Tribune on Obama's bow. kind of.
Bagley again on the pitiful condition of the Utah legislature.
Sports Headlines
Outrage grows over 'horrendous' SA anthem
Iowans in the NFL: Orton sits out second half of loss with injury
Links
Vile Video Sourced to Sandy, Utah
New Word-of-the-Year unfriend
Walesa's Injuries from Berlin Collision Worse than First Thought Nobel prize winner v. Segway