Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the regular crew informs and entertains you with tonights top stories from the nation and the world.
Tonight's top story, as well as most of the other news, comes from Reuters.
Volcker upbeat on "reasonable" reform bill
Jonathan Spicer
MONTREAL
There is a good chance that a sweeping U.S. financial reform bill will be passed in a "reasonable form," White House economic adviser Paul Volcker said on Wednesday, adding the bill could provide a basis for international coordination on coherent legislation.
The Senate version of the bill includes the substance of his proposed "Volcker rule" curbing risky practices by banks, though caution is needed to prevent changes that could limit its effectiveness, he said.
"This is a battle. Make no mistake about it," the former Federal Reserve chairman said at a conference here.
More news after the jump.
International News
Analysis: U.N. rebukes of Israel permitted in U.S. policy shift
Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS
Under President Barack Obama, the United States no longer provides Israel with automatic support at the United Nations where the Jewish state faces a constant barrage of criticism and condemnation.
The subtle but noticeable shift in the U.S. approach to its Middle East ally comes amid what some analysts describe as one of the most serious crises in U.S.-Israeli relations in years.
Under Obama, the United States seeks to reclaim its role as an impartial Middle East peace broker which critics say it lost during the previous administration of George W. Bush.
U.N. council hits defiant Iran with new sanctions
Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS
The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions in as many years on a defiant Iran on Wednesday over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at developing atomic weapons.
Iran insisted it would go ahead with the uranium enrichment at the center of the dispute. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the U.N. resolution was "valueless" and should be thrown "in the waste bin like a used handkerchief."
But Russia and China, which have strong economic ties with Tehran and have at times resisted sanctions, fully backed the new U.N. move to blacklist dozens of Iranian military, industrial and shipping firms.
U.S News
U.S debt to rise to $19.6 trillion by 2015
Donna Smith
WASHINGTON
The U.S. debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015, according to a Treasury Department report to Congress.
The report that was sent to lawmakers Friday night with no fanfare said the ratio of debt to the gross domestic product would rise to 102 percent by 2015 from 93 percent this year.
"The president's economic experts say a 1 percent increase in GDP can create almost 1 million jobs, and that 1 percent is what experts think we are losing because of the debt's massive drag on our economy," said Republican Representative Dave Camp, who publicized the report.
Congress looks at making cities more "livable"
Lisa Lambert
WASHINGTON
The Senate moved closer on Wednesday to making the concept of "livable communities" a part of national law that would provide federal grants to help local governments implement comprehensive city planning.
Almost a year after Sen. Chris Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman from Connecticut, introduced a bill, the committee held its first hearing. The bill proposes giving livability grants to metropolitan organizations and creating an interagency office on sustainable communities within the executive branch.
The grant amounts would depend on the size of the city and the use of the money. The bill would authorize $100 million in total each year through 2013 for planning grants and $3.75 billion through 2013 for implementation grants.
A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in February.
Gates Foundation gives $1.5 bln for women's health
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.5 billion on Monday in a joint push with the United Nations to improve the health of women and children, while launching a lobbying effort to get governments and other non-profit groups on board.
The program aims to cut across the "silos" of health initiatives focused on one thing -- AIDS, for example, or nutrition -- and get broader initiatives into place.
"That is in addition to grants that we already make in vaccines, diarrhea, malaria," Melinda Gates told reporters.
Waiter, there's a potential carcinogen in my soup
Ernest Scheyder
New Hampshire (Reuters) - Yolande Sprague could be forgiven for feeling virtuous.
Four years ago, just after giving birth to her second child, the stay-at-home mom heard about BPA, a chemical inside some plastics that can leach into water or food slowly over time, potentially causing serious health problems like cancer. Unwilling to take any risks, she ran to Babies "R" Us, which had a program to exchange baby bottles containing BPA, and walked out with $100 in rebates.
If only life were so easy.
Business
RPT-WRAPUP 11-BP shares plunge, U.S. threatens new penalties
By Ayesha Rascoe and Tom Doggett
* BP U.S.-traded shares down nearly 16 percent
* U.S. government threatens BP with additional penalties
* Justice Department looking at BP dividend
* BP eyes showdown with U.S. over liability-company source
* BP siphons more oil from blown-out Gulf well
BP eyes showdown with US govt on liability-BP source
Oil major BP (BP.L) believes it may be heading for a showdown with the White House over ever- increasing demands that it cover costs related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP source said on Wednesday.
"At some point a line has to be drawn," the source said.
Google protests Apple's iPhone developers agreement
Gabriel Madway
SAN FRANCISCO
Google Inc said on Wednesday recent changes to Apple's developers agreement would effectively cripple Google's advertising tools for the iPhone, creating "artificial" barriers to competition.
Apple changed the language of the agreement on Monday. As written, it appears to prohibit certain third-party ad agencies from collecting critical usage data from iPhone applications.
This would hamper rival ad agencies' ability to target their ads and make it more difficult to compete with Apple's own ad network, which is set to launch July 1.
Florida Ponzi mastermind gets 50-year sentence
Tom Brown
FORT LAUDERDALE
Florida (Reuters) - South Florida Ponzi scheme mastermind Scott Rothstein was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Wednesday for an investment fraud that bilked clients out of more than $1 billion.
The sentence was more than the 40 years federal prosecutors had recommended for Rothstein, a disbarred lawyer who pleaded guilty to racketeering and fraud conspiracy charges in January.
He had faced up to 100 years in prison but his lawyer had asked U.S. District Judge James Cohn to give him no more than 30 years.
On the Lighter Side
Chicago wins Stanley Cup, ends 49-year drought
Larry Fine
PHILADELPHIA
The Chicago Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup since 1961 with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday that clinched the National Hockey League's best-of-seven championship series.
Patrick Kane's goal early in the first sudden-death overtime period gave the Blackhawks a 4-2 series win and also snapped a 49-year title drought that was the longest of any franchise in the 30-team league.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, who scored seven goals in the playoffs and assisted on Chicago's first goal Wednesday, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player for his team in the NHL playoffs.
Woman striving to be world's heaviest
Karina Ioffee
OLD BRIDGE
A New Jersey woman is waging a campaign to become the world's heaviest living woman, admitting that she is as hungry for attention as she is for calorie-rich food.
Donna Simpson, 42, weighs more than 600 pounds (272 kg) and aims to reach 1,000 pounds (455 kg).
The mother of two children, ages 3 and 14, models on a website called supersizedbombshells.com, where admirers and the curious can pay to watch videos of her eating greasy foods or walking to the car.
Scientists use Calvin Klein cologne to lure jaguars
Reuters Television
Guatemala City
Biologists tracking jaguars in the Guatemalan jungle might smell nice but it's all in the name of science, with researchers finding the Calvin Klein cologne Obsession for Men attracts big cats.
Biologists Rony Garcia and Jose Moreira from the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Jaguar Conservation Program say they use hidden cameras as a primary source for observing and tracking jaguars in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve.
But they also rely on Obsession for Men, a cologne known for its complex scent, to help lure then research and hopefully ultimately preserve jaguars in the Central American country.