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.
OND Editors 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.
OND Editors consist of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, BentLiberal and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent. We invited our readers to comment & share other news.
BBC:North Korea warns foreign embassies to prepare escape
North Korea warns foreign embassies to prepare escape
North Korea has told foreign embassies in Pyongyang it cannot guarantee their safety in the event of conflict, and to consider evacuating their employees.
Both Russia and the UK said they had no immediate plans to evacuate their embassies in the North Korean capital.
The North's move comes amid threats to attack US and South Korean targets.
South Korea has reportedly deployed two warships with missile defence systems after the North was said to have moved at least one missile to its east coast.
BBC:S&P reaffirms UK triple-A rating
S&P reaffirms UK triple-A rating
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has reaffirmed its triple-A rating for the UK, but warned of the continuing negative outlook for the economy.
S&P said it may downgrade the UK from the highest rating in the future if economic conditions worsened.
In February, Moody's became the first rating agency to downgrade the UK from triple-A status.
The Treasury welcomed the S&P decision, saying it supported the government's efforts to cut the budget deficit.
BBC:Argentina flash floods claim more lives
Argentina flash floods claim more lives
Catastrophic flash floods have killed 57 people in the province of Buenos Aires, while hundreds more remain homeless, officials say.
The worst hit is the city of La Plata, where 51 people died. Six people also died in the capital Buenos Aires.
Many victims drowned as they tried to scramble to safety on rooftops and treetops and some were electrocuted.
The government declared three days of national mourning after what it called "an unprecedented catastrophe".
BBC:Central Africa Republic crisis: Refugee numbers 'swell'
Central Africa Republic crisis: Refugee numbers 'swell'
The number of people who have fled from the Central Africa Republic has risen to 37,000 since the start of a rebellion in December, the UN has said.
There have been reports of fresh arrivals in the last two weeks since a rebel alliance seized power, it said.
Most of the refugees have gone to the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo, others to Chad and Cameroon.
President Francois Bozize himself fled to Cameroon when the rebels captured the capital, Bangui.
BBC:Mali crisis: France's Fabius calls for reconciliation
Mali crisis: France's Fabius calls for reconciliation
France's foreign minister has urged Mali's government to begin a process of reconciliation, assuring the war-torn country of continued military support.
Laurent Fabius said restoring security was essential but so was restoring democratic dialogue.
He called for elections this summer, saying that it was possible to have a legally elected president by July.
A French-led intervention that began in January has regained the main cities of northern Mali from Islamist groups.
BBC:Italy Abu Omar rendition: Col Romano pardoned in CIA case
Italy Abu Omar rendition: Col Romano pardoned in CIA case
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has pardoned a US Air Force colonel convicted in absentia over the rendition of an Egyptian imam in 2003.
Joseph Romano was one of 23 Americans tried and sentenced by Italian courts over the CIA-led operation to abduct a cleric known as Abu Omar.
The Egyptian said he was flown to his home country and tortured there.
Mr Napolitano's office cited what it said were changes to US security policy undertaken by President Barack Obama.
Reuters:Boeing finishes 787 testing, focus shifts to regulators
Boeing finishes 787 testing, focus shifts to regulators
(Reuters) - With a successful flight on Friday, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner completed tests aimed at proving that a revamped safety system can prevent the jet's lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or overheating.
Friday's test flight marks a major step toward resuming passenger flights and jet deliveries, which would stem millions of dollars in losses that have piled up at airlines and Boeing since the jet was grounded more than two months ago.
The end of testing also turns attention from Boeing Co to regulators in the United States, Japan and Europe, who must decide whether the battery fix is safe.
Amid gusty winds, a LOT Polish airline plane rose from a runway near the Boeing factory just north of Seattle and soared out along the Pacific Coast, covering 755 miles in just under two hours before touching down at 12:28 pm Pacific Time (1928 GMT).
Reuters:No deal in sight on final day of Iran nuclear talks
No deal in sight on final day of Iran nuclear talks
(Reuters) - Iran enters a second day of talks with world powers on Saturday no closer to resolving a nuclear dispute that has led to sanctions on its oil exports and talk of a new Middle East war.
The final day of negotiations is unlikely to achieve more than a willingness to keep talking, after Iran responded on Friday to a limited offer to ease sanctions with a proposal of its own that puzzled Western diplomats and which Russia said raised more questions than answers.
With all sides aware that a breakdown in diplomacy could move the decade-old standoff a step closer to war, no one in the Kazakh city of Almaty was talking about abandoning diplomatic efforts. But an actual deal was as far away as ever.
"We had a substantive exchange. But there is still a wide gulf between the parties. We are considering how we move on from here," said one Western diplomat after five hours of talks.
Reuters:Mexico antitrust body suspends fine against Slim's Telmex
Mexico antitrust body suspends fine against Slim's Telmex
(Reuters) - Mexico's competition watchdog said on Wednesday it would temporarily suspend a $53 million fine it had levied against a fixed-line phone company controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim.
The Federal Competition Commission (Cofeco) ordered in February that Telmex, part of Slim's telecoms giant America Movil (AMXL.MX), should pay 657 million Mexican pesos ($53.4 million) after regulators found it had denied rival Axtel (AXTELCPO.MX) access to some of its network.
Cofeco said on its website that an appeal had been filed and that the fine would be suspended during a review by the regulators.
Telmex has said it believes Cofeco's ruling is unfounded. Slim's legal teams have been able to avoid major rulings against his firms by Cofeco and the country's telecoms regulator, which have both sought for years to curb the dominance of Slim's companies.
Reuters:Putin critic who faces trial says he wants to be president
Putin critic who faces trial says he wants to be president
(Reuters) - A Russian opposition leader said he wanted to become president and would do everything in his power to put Vladimir Putin in jail, in a defiant message days before he goes on trial on theft charges he says are politically motivated.
Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger who was a leader of the biggest opposition protests of Putin's 13-year rule last year, is to go on trial on April 17.
The 36-year-old says the case is part of a Kremlin campaign to silence dissent. He faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of stealing 16 million roubles ($512,000) worth of timber from a state firm in 2009.
He has denied wrongdoing in the timber case as well as separate cases in which he is accused of defrauding a mail transport company and stealing funds from a political party, describing the allegations as "absurd".
Reuters:No sign of sustained spread of H7N9 between humans: WHO
No sign of sustained spread of H7N9 between humans: WHO
(Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Friday there was no sign of "sustained human-to-human transmission" of the H7N9 virus in China, but it was important to check on 400 people who had been in close contact with the 14 confirmed cases.
"We have 14 cases in a large geographical area, we have no sign of any epidemiological linkage between the confirmed cases and we have no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing in Geneva.
"The 400 contacts are being followed up to see if any of them do have the virus, have had it from someone else," he said.
"There are reports of people or a person with fever, so this is obviously why it's so important to follow up with all contacts in order to know whether or not they do have the virus and/or from whom they contracted it."
Reuters:U.S., Japan agree on plan to hand back Okinawa base
U.S., Japan agree on plan to hand back Okinawa base
(Reuters) - The United States and Japan announced on Friday an agreement for the return to Japan of a U.S. air base, taking a step to resolving an issue that has vexed ties when both countries face a belligerent North Korea and a rising China.
The U.S. Marines' Futenma air base on Okinawa island will be returned to Japan as early as 2022 if a planned relocation within the island is carried out.
By unveiling the deal, which includes time frames for the return of all or part of five other U.S. military facilities on the southern Japanese island, Japan and the United States aim to send a message that their alliance is on a solid footing.
"With the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region getting tougher, I'm glad that we were able to show that the bond of trust in the Japan-U.S. alliance is not wavering at all," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.
Bloomberg:Ray Lane’s Bad Week Worsens as Fisker Cuts Follow HP Shakeup
Ray Lane’s Bad Week Worsens as Fisker Cuts Follow HP Shakeup
First there was the board shakeup with Lane stepping down as Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)’s chairman. Then came news that Fisker Automotive Inc., the luxury plug-in automaker, where he’s a board member and major investor, is eliminating as much as 75 percent of its staff.
The back-to-back bombshells reflect a fall from grace for a technology industry veteran, who spent eight years near the top of Oracle Corp. (ORCL) before turning to venture capital and helping Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers start its alternative energy practice. Lane’s star dimmed during a tenure at Hewlett-Packard that was marked by strategy shifts, management turmoil, a plunging stock price and acquisitions gone wrong. As a director at Fisker, he was unable to duplicate the success of Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)
“It’s been a bad week, no question,” said Sam Hamadeh, chief executive officer of PrivCo, a New York-based firm that tracks private companies and venture firms.
Lane, 66, resigned as chairman of Hewlett-Packard yesterday, although he will remain on the board. Two other directors, G. Kennedy Thompson and John Hammergren, resigned, two weeks after investors re-elected them in a narrow majority of votes. During his 2 1/2 years, he presided over the firing of Leo Apotheker as CEO and the acquisition and $8.8 billion writedown of software maker Autonomy Corp.