Overnight News Digest, aka OND, is a community feature here at Daily Kos. Each editor selects news stories on a wide range of topics.
The OND community was founded by Magnifico.
Ravi Shankar's gift went beyond his skills on the strings
By Moni Basu, CNN
(CNN) -- If there was a musician who transcended the difficult boundaries between East and West, it was sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.
Panditji, as he was known to his fans, did it by remaining true to his craft. "He was an amazingly pure artist," says Kartik Seshadri, one of Shankar's pupils and a sitar master in his own right.
Though he's often thought of in the West as an experimenter and collaborator -- with guitarist George Harrison, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, saxophonist John Coltrane, composer Phillip Glass and conductor Andre Previn -- Shankar was a traditionalist.
Indian classical music, as ancient as the scriptures of Hinduism, flowed from his fingers with ease. His music transfixed even those who knew not one iota about the complexities of it.
"That is the beauty of his approach to music and how he was able to transfer that and translate that to an audience in the West," Seshadri says.
Shankar's music moved from introspective to playful.
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Lie of the Year: the Romney campaign's ad on Jeeps made in China
By Angie Drobnic Holan
It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign -- that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China. It originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep's parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.
And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false.
People often say that politicians don’t pay a price for deception, but this time was different: A flood of negative press coverage rained down on the Romney campaign, and he failed to turn the tide in Ohio, the most important state in the presidential election.
PolitiFact has selected Romney's claim that Barack Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China" at the cost of American jobs as the 2012 Lie of the Year.
It is the fourth year PolitiFact has looked back over a year’s worth of political mendacity and selected the most significant falsehood. Last year, it was the claim that Republicans voted to end Medicare. In 2010, it was the claim that the federal health care law was a government takeover of health care. In 2009, it was the claim that the same health law included "death panels."
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Post-Sandy, Newly Unemployed Struggle To Stay Afloat
by Margot Adler
Hurricane Sandy's effect on the nation's unemployment figures was less pronounced than expected. The reasons are complex, but one thing is clear: Thousands of victims are still struggling to rebuild their lives and get back to work.
Danielle Siekierski was tending bar at a restaurant in Manhattan's Meatpacking District before Sandy hit. When the restaurant was damaged in the storm, the workers were told it might be a week before it reopened.
Two weeks later, it closed for good. Siekierski says the restaurant's finances were already shaky, and Sandy was the nail in the coffin.
'It's Beating Me Down'
Now Siekierski is on the hunt for work. Every day she gets up, goes on the Internet and sends out resumes — often applying for 10 or 20 jobs in a day. She's had no luck, she says, and "it's beating me down."
She tries to go to several interviews a day, but that has also been discouraging. At her most recent interview, there were 30 people in the room when she arrived. Knowing the window for interviews was short, Siekierski left. "I know that by the time I get in there and I wait, they will cut it off at [7 p.m.] and no one is going to even speak with me," she says.
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Governor: Pennsylvania won’t set up its own health care exchange
By Marc Levy and Mark Scolforo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania will not set up its own health care exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act — at least not for now, Gov. TomCorbett said Wednesday.
Setting up a state-based exchange would be irresponsible, Mr. Corbett said as he faulted federal authorities for what he said were inadequate answers to his questions about cost and other issues.
“Health care reform is too important to be achieved through haphazard planning,” said the governor, a Republican. “Pennsylvania taxpayers and businesses deserve more. They deserve informed decision making and a strong plan that responsibly uses taxpayer dollars.”
Many Democratic lawmakers, insurers and hospitals wanted Mr. Corbett to set up a state-run system.
The new insurance exchanges will allow households and small businesses to buy a private health plan, and many will get help from the government to pay their premiums. Under the law, states that can’t or won’t set up exchanges will have theirs run by the federal government.
A third choice for states is a partnership approach with the federal government, and states have until mid-February to make a decision. The partnership option allows states to handle consumer relations and oversight of health plans, while the federal government does the bulk of the work, including handling enrollment and figuring out how much taxpayer-funded help consumers may be entitled to.
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Lindsay Lohan's Probation Revoked
By SHEILA MARIKAR
Lindsay Lohan's probation has been revoked again.
The 26-year-old actress was arraigned in California today on misdemeanor charges for lying to police, driving recklessly, and obstructing an officer from doing his duties after she crashed her Porsche on the Pacific Coast Highway in June.
Commissioner Jane Godfrey revoked Lohan's informal probation from her 2011 necklace theft case and set a probation violation hearing for Jan. 15. If Godfrey decides Lohan did violate her probation, she could face 245 days in jail.
Lohan did not appear in court. She was represented by her longtime lawyer Shawn Holley, who did not respond to ABCNews.com's requests for comment.
Lohan's legal troubles boiled over again last month. She was arrested on Nov. 29 after a New York City bar brawl in which she allegedly punched a Palm Beach psychic. She faces a misdemeanor assault charge in that case.
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North Korea rocket launch raises nuclear stakes
By Jack Kim and Mayumi Negishi
(Reuters) - North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to opponents.
The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting targets as far away as the continental United States.
"The satellite has entered the planned orbit," a North Korean television news reader clad in traditional Korean garb announced, after which the station played patriotic songs with the lyrics "Chosun (Korea) does what it says".
The rocket was launched just before 10 a.m. (0100 GMT), according to defense officials in South Korea and Japan, and was more successful than a rocket launched in April that flew for less than two minutes.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint U.S.-Canadian military organization, said that the missile had "deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit".
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Software pioneer McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala
By Kevin Gray
(Reuters) - John McAfee arrived in Miami on Wednesday night after Guatemala deported the computer software pioneer who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, according to fellow passengers on the American Airlines flight.
McAfee, 67, was escorted from the plane by airport security officers, passengers said. He had been held for a week in Guatemala, where he surfaced after evading police in Belize for nearly a month following the killing of American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.
Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's death, although the technology guru's lawyers blocked an attempt by Guatemala to send him back there.
Authorities in Belize say he is not a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee has denied any role in Faull's killing.
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Spain arrests woman with cocaine breast implants
The Associated Press
MADRID Spanish authorities say they have arrested a Panamanian woman arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.38 kilograms of cocaine concealed in breast implants.
The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that border police noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on her chest as well as pale patches beneath her skin.
The woman said she had recently had breast implant surgery. The statement said police were suspicious and sent her to a local hospital where the implants were removed and found to contain cocaine.
The woman arrived in Spain from Bogota, Colombia.
European authorities routinely submit passengers arriving from Latin America to stringent checks to combat drug smuggling.
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A Sign From Above? Needing New Roof, Monks Sell Rare Beer In U.S.
by Teri Schultz
The 12th day of the 12th month of 2012 is not a day of deliverance but of delivery for devout American fans of Westvleteren 12, brewed by the reclusive Belgian monks at St. Sixtus Abbey.
The celebrated beer — often called the best in the world — is usually only available for sale at the abbey, located in the Belgian countryside. But starting Wednesday, buyers in the U.S. and other countries can purchase the beer at select retailers for $84.99 for six bottles.
Why this sudden blessing for beer lovers? The abbey happened to need an expensive renovation recently. But its 21 monks live an austere life — which means, among other things, that they purposely lack cash reserves. So the monks reluctantly made the decision to export small amounts of the precious nectar overseas for the first time.
And, says Mark Bode, the longtime spokesman for the Westvleteren Brewery, "I think it will be the last." Bode is one of very few people privy to the monks' views, as no visitors are allowed inside the abbey.
"They say, 'We are monks, we don't want to be too commercial. We needed some money to help us buy the new abbey and that's it,' " Bode explains. "Back to normal again."
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In China, social divisions are written in a little red booklet
By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times
BEIJING — For millions of Chinese, the difference between a life of struggle and one of opportunity comes down to a little red booklet known as the hukou.
Introduced 54 years ago under Mao Tse-tung as a means of social control, this household registration permit limits where China's 1.3 billion citizens can live, work and go to school by splitting them into two categories — urban and rural.
Today, the hukou, inspired by family registers from centuries ago, has created a modern economic chasm between city dwellers and peasants that threatens China's economic future as a powerhouse world economy.
The hukou system also has become a flash point in China's wealth gap. Pent-up frustration with the country's growing divide has erupted in violent protests and riots.
Anger over the household registration system exploded again last month on China's frenetic micro-blogs after five rural boys in southern Guizhou province died of asphyxiation; the children had been huddled in a dumpster where they had lit a fire to escape the cold.
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