Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news.
The featured story comes from Reuters.
U.S. orders non-essential staff out of consulate in Pakistan's Lahore
By Katharine Houreld
ISLAMABAD | Fri Aug 9, 2013 12:14am EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S. government ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff from its consulate in the northeastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday due to the threat of attack, with the State Department also warning U.S. citizens not to travel to Pakistan.
"The Department of State ordered this drawdown due to specific threats concerning the U.S. consulate in Lahore," said a travel warning posted on the Department of State's website on Thursday.
The warning in Lahore, near Pakistan's border with India, comes two days after Washington evacuated some diplomats from Yemen and told its nationals to leave that country immediately.
Follow over the jump for the rest of tonight's news.
International News
Brazil won't rule out retaliation if U.S. cotton payments end
Thu Aug 8, 2013 5:36pm EDT
Aug 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, said on Thursday he could not rule out retaliation if the United States stopped paying Brazil monthly compensation for controversial cotton subsidies.
The dispute flared up days before the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is to plan an October state visit to Washington by President Dilma Rousseff.
The payments to Brazil could be suspended under automatic spending cuts that would take effect if the Obama administration and Congress fail to agree on the size of the U.S. deficit for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
Ties between the two countries have been roiled by recent revelations of U.S. spying on Brazil's Internet communications.
Drone strikes kill eight suspected militants in Yemen
By Mohammmed Ghobari
SANAA | Thu Aug 8, 2013 3:08pm EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. drone strikes killed at least eight suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen on Thursday, bringing the number of people killed by drones in less than two weeks to at least 25.
The strikes follow Yemen's announcement on Wednesday that it had foiled a plot by al Qaeda to seize two major oil and gas export terminals and a provincial capital in the east of the country.
Warnings of potential attacks have pushed Washington to shut missions across the Middle East, and the United States and Britain to evacuate staff from Yemen.
U.S. and Russia seek to keep working ties despite Snowden, summit fuss
By Lesley Wroughton and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 8, 2013 10:11pm EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. and Russian officials will seek to maintain a working relationship when they meet in Washington on Friday, even though the political mood between their countries has hit one of its lowest points since the end of the Cold War.
President Barack Obama's cancellation this week of a summit in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin finally put to rest any notion that a much-vaunted "reset" of ties sought by the United States in recent years is alive.
Obama's move came after Putin gave asylum to former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose public flight after revealing U.S. surveillance programs was a major embarrassment for Washington.
A pivotal moment for China's economic reforms: Bo Xilai's trial
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING | Thu Aug 8, 2013 5:02pm EDT
(Reuters) - When a court in a coastal province renders its verdict against disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai in a trial that appears imminent, it could also decide the pace of economic reforms planned by the new government of President Xi Jinping.
The ideological schisms exposed last year by Bo's extraordinary fall from power have, to a degree, hamstrung Xi, forcing him to move more slowly than he may have wanted on an ambitious program to rebalance the world's second-largest economy, sources close to China's leadership told Reuters.
And they are at least part of the reason that political reform is not on the table now.
U.S. News
U.S. declares 'unusual mortality event' as dolphin deaths rise
By Francesca Trianni
NEW YORK | Thu Aug 8, 2013 7:51pm EDT
(Reuters) - Federal scientists investigating an unusually high number of dead bottlenose dolphins washing up on the East Coast said on Thursday the carcasses are showing up at a rate that is seven times higher than usual.
More than 120 dead animals have been discovered since June from New Jersey to Virginia, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service said.
Federal scientists have declared it an "unusual mortality event" and are investigating the cause, said Maggie Mooney-Seus of NOAA Fisheries.
Southern California wildfire pushes east, forces evacuations
by Tim Gaynor
Thu Aug 8, 2013 3:03pm EDT
(Reuters) - A wind-whipped California wildfire that doubled in size overnight torched 15 buildings east of Los Angeles, injured at least five people and forced the evacuation of 500 homes in about half a dozen small communities, authorities said on Thursday.
The fire broke out on Wednesday near a back-country road in Riverside County, and by early Thursday had blackened more than 10,000 acres, the Riverside County Fire Department said on its website.
Four firefighters and one civilian have been hurt in the blaze, which is raging through tinder-dry brush and is just ten percent contained. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
U.S. slowly opening up commercial drone industry
By Matt Haldane
WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 8, 2013 5:45pm EDT
(Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration's recent certification of two expensive unmanned aircraft for commercial use further opens up the U.S. market for drones, but cheaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will still have to operate in regulatory limbo.
The drone industry was heartened by the FAA's decision in late July to greenlight Boeing Co's (BA.N) Insitu ScanEagle and AeroVironment Inc's (AVAV.O) Puma, in the first such U.S. certification of drones for commercial use.
These remote aircraft weigh less than 50 pounds 22 kilograms), have wingspans of about 4.5 feet and come with a hefty estimated price tag of $100,000 each.
Business and the Economy
Dollar edges off seven-week low, China production data in focus
By Dominic Lau
TOKYO | Thu Aug 8, 2013 10:28pm EDT
(Reuters) - The dollar steadied above seven-week lows on Friday but remained vulnerable to more losses if Chinese industrial production data adds to a growing view Beijing was taming its economic slowdown, while Japanese shares are set for a heavy weekly fall.
Copper retreated from a near two-month high after unexpected strength in trade data from top buyer China on Thursday raised hopes of a pick-up in demand.
The dollar .DXY inched up 0.1 percent against a basket of major currencies, having fallen for five days in a row -- its longest such streak since mid-June -- on uncertainty about when the U.S. Federal Reserve would start winding back its stimulus.
Fannie Mae sending $10.2 billion to taxpayers as profit swells
By Margaret Chadbourn
WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 8, 2013 5:50pm EDT
(Reuters) - Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), the largest U.S. mortgage finance company, said on Thursday its second-quarter profit nearly doubled to $10.1 billion, triggering another big payment to the U.S. Treasury that could complicate the debate over revamping Fannie and its smaller sibling, Freddie Mac.
The quarterly profit was Fannie's sixth in a row, mainly driven by a housing recovery that has reduced mortgage delinquencies and lifted home prices. The government rescued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) in 2008, covering losses on soured loans. Since then, taxpayers have bailed out the pair to the tune of nearly $188 billion.
Fannie Mae said it will make a $10.2 billion dividend payment in September to the U.S. Treasury for its rescue aid. After that payment, which comes on the heels of nearly $60 billion Fannie sent to the government last quarter, it will have paid about $105 billion in dividends to the Treasury, roughly 90 percent of the $117.1 billion it received in taxpayer assistance.
Exclusive: U.S. steps up probe of JPMorgan over Bear mortgage bonds
By Emily Flitter, Karen Freifeld and David Henry
Thu Aug 8, 2013 3:47pm EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has stepped up a probe in recent weeks into Bear Stearns & Co's mortgage dealings in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to two sources familiar with the situation, raising the possibility that JPMorgan Chase & Co may face yet another case over mortgage bonds.
Justice Department lawyers in Washington have been interviewing people linked to Bear Stearns' mortgage securitization business, EMC Mortgage Corp, over sales of mortgage bonds going into the housing crisis, the sources said.
JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns during the financial crisis in 2008.
Exclusive: BlackBerry open to going private, sources say
By Nadia Damouni, Euan Rocha and Greg Roumeliotis
Fri Aug 9, 2013 12:01am EDT
(Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd is warming up to the possibility of going private, as the smartphone maker battles to revive its fortunes, several sources familiar with the situation said.
Chief Executive Thorsten Heins and the company's board is increasingly coming around to the idea that taking BlackBerry private would give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye, the sources said.
"There is a change of tone on the board," one of the sources said on Thursday.
Entertainment and Sports
'Five Easy Pieces' actress Karen Black dies at age 74
by Eric Kelsey and Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES | Thu Aug 8, 2013 8:48pm EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. actress Karen Black, who played leading roles in 1970s films "Five Easy Pieces" and "Nashville," died in Los Angeles on Thursday, her representatives said. She was 74.
Black died at West Hills Health & Rehab Center and had been suffering from cancer in recent years, her publicist Elliot Mintz said.
Black was best known for her role as Rayette, the big-dreaming waitress in the 1970 working class drama "Five Easy Pieces," in which she starred alongside Jack Nicholson.
L.A. police close inquiry into Scientology leader's wife
By Eric Kelsey
LOS ANGELES | Thu Aug 8, 2013 9:22pm EDT
(Reuters) - The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday closed their inquiry into the whereabouts of the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, a police spokesman said.
The location of Miscavige's wife, Shelly, had come under police investigation after actress Leah Remini, who recently left the Church of Scientology, filed a missing person report, a source close to the actress told Reuters.
The LAPD would not say who filed the report or when it was filed.
Serena avenges Venus loss to reach quarters-finals
By Matt Cronin
TORONTO | Thu Aug 8, 2013 10:45pm EDT
(Reuters) - Top seed Serena Williams avenged her older sister's defeat by Kirsten Flipkens with a 6-0 6-3 pounding of the Belgian to move into the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup on Thursday.
Flipkens put down Venus Williams in three sets in the first round as Serena watched from the stands, but the 13th seed struggled for rhythm in the face of the 31-year-old's monster serve and fierce returning.
"I definitely thought about Venus, and I thought what a good comeback Kirsten had, so I thought, ‘I'm not going to get overconfident,'" Williams, who next faces Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova, told reporters.