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.
The OND concept was borne under the keen keyboard of Magnifico - proper respect is due.
Current Contributers are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader,Oke, rfall, JML9999 and Neon Vincent.
BBC:Syria: Homs and Hama protesters killed, say activists
Syria: Homs and Hama protesters killed, say activists
At least 13 people have been killed in anti-government protests in Syrian cities, human rights activists say.
At least six people were killed in Homs, campaigners say, with deaths also reported in Hama. A prominent dissident was reportedly arrested in Damascus.
President Bashar al-Assad's government has said it is taking decisive action against terrorists and criminals.
More than 500 people are thought to have been killed since mid-March as the security forces try to quash dissent.
BBC:Euro falls on rumours Greece is to quit the eurozone
Euro falls on rumours Greece is to quit the eurozone
The euro has fallen by more than 1% against the dollar, following a report that Greece had raised the possibility of leaving the single currency.
German magazine Der Spiegel reported that a meeting was taking place on Friday evening about Greece readopting its own currency.
The claim was vigorously denied by Greece and Germany.
However the BBC then learnt that ministers from four eurozone countries were indeed meeting in Luxembourg.
BBC:Vote 2011: UK rejects alternative vote
Vote 2011: UK rejects alternative vote
The UK has voted overwhelmingly to reject changing the way MPs are elected - dealing a bitter blow to Nick Clegg on top of heavy Lib Dem poll losses.
Officials say 19.1m people voted in the second UK-wide referendum in history - a higher than expected turnout of 41%.
The final result put the Yes vote at 32.1% and the No vote at 69.1%.
It comes as the Lib Dems suffered a rout in English local elections - and the SNP scored an historic victory in the Scottish Parliament poll.
BBC:Yemen al-Qaeda head Anwar al-Awlaki 'targeted by drone'
Yemen al-Qaeda head Anwar al-Awlaki 'targeted by drone'
A US drone attack in Yemen targeted but failed to kill one of al-Qaeda's most influential figures, US reports say.
The US-born radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Two brothers believed to be mid-ranking al-Qaeda officials died in a drone strike in south Yemen on Thursday, Yemeni officials said.
The attack came just days after al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US Navy Seals.
BBC:Egypt protest groups plan election strategy
Egypt protest groups plan election strategy
In Egypt more than 2,000 representatives of the groups that took part in the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak are to hold a national council.
The meeting aims to plan their strategy for the election for September.
It is the first organised meeting of the groups since Mr Mubarak left office in February.
From late January, huge numbers of people took part in mass protests that eventually overthrew Mr Mubarak.
BBC:U.S. warns Syria to halt violence against protesters
U.S. warns Syria to halt violence against protesters
(Reuters) - The United States and its international partners will take "additional steps" against the Syrian government unless it stops killing and harassing its people, the White House said on Friday.
"The United States believes that Syria's deplorable actions toward its people warrant a strong international response," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
"Absent significant change in the Syrian government's current approach, including an end to the government's killing of protesters ... the United States and its international partners will take additional steps to make clear our strong opposition to the Syrian government's treatment of its people," he said.
Syrian security forces killed 27 protesters on Friday who were demanding an end to President Bashar al-Assad's rule, rights campaigners said, and the European Union agreed to impose sanctions in response to his crackdown.
Reuters:Greece denies may quit euro
Greece denies may quit euro
(Reuters) - Top finance officials of the euro zone's biggest economies met to discuss Greece's debt crisis on Friday and Athens denied a media report that it was considering whether to leave the bloc.
Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of euro zone finance ministers, said the meeting in Luxembourg was attended by ministers from Germany, France, Italy and Spain. He said there was a broad discussion of Greece and other international economic issues.
Juncker denied a report in Germany's Spiegel Online magazine that the talks were held to discuss the possibility, raised by Athens, of Greece withdrawing from the 17-member euro zone, as well as the idea of restructuring Greece's 327 billion euro ($470 billion) sovereign debt.
"We have not been discussing the exit of Greece from the euro area. This is a stupid idea. It is in no way -- it is an avenue we would never take," he told reporters.
Reuters:Jobs report helps Wall Street salvage sour week
Jobs report helps Wall Street salvage sour week
(Reuters) - An unexpectedly strong report on U.S. payrolls helped equities bounce back on Friday from four days of losses, tempering worries that stocks could suffer
the sharp declines seen this week in commodities.
Stocks held strong gains for most of the session but ended the week down more than 1 percent. Speculation that Greece might leave the euro zone late on Friday caused stocks to trim gains and gave investors something to worry about as the strength of the market's rally comes into question.
However, the S&P held above key support levels, indicating the week's retreat could set the stage for further gains in contrast to the tumultuous declines in silver and oil markets.
Reuters:Berkshire Hathaway profit falls on Japan quake
Berkshire Hathaway profit falls on Japan quake
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc reported a smaller profit for the first quarter, as reinsurance losses from the March 11 earthquake in Japan dragged down results.
But the company's quarterly report made no mention at all of David Sokol, the former Berkshire executive whose sudden resignation at the end of the quarter created a scandal for Berkshire and prompted an SEC probe.
Buffett preannounced quarterly results at last Saturday's annual meeting of Berkshire, the ice-cream-to-insurance giant the world's third-richest man controls.
Berkshire reported a net profit of $1.51 billion, or $917 per Class A share, compared with a profit of $3.63 billion, or $2,272 per Class A share, a year earlier.
Reuters:Oil falls again, gutted in record weekly drop
Oil falls again, gutted in record weekly drop
(Reuters) - Oil fell on Friday to cap a frenzied trading week that sliced prices by a record of more than $16 a barrel on demand worries and a move by investors to slash commodities exposures.
Oil bounced up early, then began to erase gains as the dollar rose. Crude turned negative late, extending Thursday's shock-inducing collapse, when Brent fell by as much as $12, a record, in a furious, high-volume session that saw wave after wave of selling as key technical levels were broken.
Selling pressure on oil and other commodities came on several fronts throughout the week. Investors weighed factors from the death of Osama bin Laden to the impact of higher fuel and commodity costs on consumer nation economies to the monetary policy in major economies.
Cascading sell stops created a "domino effect", said Tom Bentz, director of BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York. "It became a vacuum of less people trying to buy and more people trying to sell."
Reuters:NY mayor unveils $66 billion budget, expects layoffs
NY mayor unveils $66 billion budget, expects layoffs
(Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday unveiled a near $66 billion revised budget plan that does not raise taxes but instead relies on attrition and layoffs to cut about 7,000 city workers.
Though the city is spending the majority of its reserves, "even that will not be enough to avoid layoffs of some city employees, including teachers," Bloomberg, a political independent, said at a news conference.
The school system, the nation's largest with more than 1 million pupils, stands to lose about 6,000 teachers, in what would be the first teacher layoffs in decades. Elementary schools and schools in poor neighborhoods, those with staff with far less seniority, will be hardest hit.
Despite a recent upswing in revenue, Bloomberg rescinded few cuts. Most notably he found funds for 16,000 child-care slots that were slated to be cut.
Reuters:High-frequency aura lifts year after "flash crash"
High-frequency aura lifts year after "flash crash"
(Reuters) - Regulators are moving to lift a veil of secrecy over a key constituency on Wall Street a year after the "flash crash," but how much disclosure should be required of high-frequency traders remains an open question.
One proposal to boost market transparency, rooted in the Black Monday crash of 1987 when the Dow plunged more than 22 percent in the largest, single-day drop in U.S. history, is pending and would be a key tool for regulators.
But the creation of a large trader reporting system still has not passed a year after the idea got preliminary, unanimous approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was supposed to vote again after 60 days and public comment.
A precipitous drop briefly wiped out almost $1 trillion in stock value on May 6, 2010, an unprecedented fall that was exacerbated by high-frequency traders unloading their inventory of securities at the depth of the plunge.
Venture Beat:Sony mulling reward for help catching hackers
Sony mulling reward for help catching hackers
With two online game services down and 100 million accounts possibly compromised, Sony is mulling a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the hackers, according to AllThingsDigital.
Sony hasn’t reached a final decision on whether to offer the reward. The options shows that the company is still taking a hard line on pursuing hackers, even as Anonymous, the hacktivist group, considers more attacks in the coming days against different Sony sites.
The PlayStation Networks, which has 77 million registered users, has been down fore more than two weeks as a result of a hacker attack. The Station, an online network for 24 million PC online gamers, has been down since Monday. Sony has apologized multiple times for the outage and says it is beefing up security.
If Sony moves forward on the reward, it will do so in cooperation with law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Sony is hoping to knock loose information about who carried out the attack on April 19. Our timeline on the sequence of events is here. Meanwhile, Sony said that accusations by computer security expert Gene Spafford during a Congressional hearing Thursday were wrong.