Overnight News Digest
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, side pocket, Man oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, and Oke. The guest editor is annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Peru snow state of emergency extended to more regions
An unusual cold spell has hit Peru and its neighbour Bolivia as well as Paraguay
The Peruvian government has extended to nine more regions a state of emergency called to cope with unusually cold weather and heavy snowfall.
At least two people have died and 33,000 others have been affected by the cold spell, local officials say.
Tens of thousands of animals have frozen to death over the past week.
President Ollanta Humala has travelled to Apurimac, one of the worst-hit areas, to oversee the distribution of emergency aid.
The state of emergency would be in place for 20 days, an official statement said.
BBC
Egypt to try ex-President Morsi for inciting murder
Egypt's state prosecutor says he has referred ousted President Mohammed Morsi for trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters.
The accusations relate to violence outside the presidential palace in Cairo last December when at least seven people were killed in clashes.
Fourteen other members of the Muslim Brotherhood are to stand trial on the same charges.
Mr Morsi has been held at a secret location since he was deposed in July.
He faces a number of charges but this case is his first referral to trial.
BBC
Our diplomats only go to upscale strip clubs.
Venezuelan jailed for shooting US diplomats in Caracas
A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for opening fire on two US diplomats in a Caracas strip club.
The attorney general's office said Carlos Mejias admitted wounding the military attaches after a brawl in May.
"He pulled out a gun and repeatedly fired at the Americans," it said in a statement.
One of the diplomats was shot in the leg, the other in the stomach. But neither had life-threatening injuries.
The incident took place at the Antonella 2012 Club, a pole dancing bar in the Chacao neighbourhood of Caracas, the statement said.
The Economist
This is a lengthy article on the history of chemical weapons.
How a whole class of weaponry came to be seen as indecent
“CLEARLY,” wrote an exasperated Winston Churchill in the summer of 1944, “I cannot make head against the parsons and the warriors at the same time.” Through most of that July the British prime minister had been asking his military chiefs to reconsider the question of using poison gas against Germany, telling them he wanted “cold-blooded calculation” rather than moralistic arguments about the unique iniquity of chemical weapons. The joint chiefs unanimously came down against the idea. Churchill grumpily acquiesced.
L A Times
Yosemite fire grows to 348 square miles, 4th-largest in state history
The Rim fire burning in and around Yosemite National Park became the fourth-largest blaze in California history as it grew to 348 square miles Sunday, officials said.
The wildfire, which began Aug. 17, is 40% contained with more than 5,000 firefighters battling the flames, according to the U.S. Forest Service. A September 1932 fire in Ventura County that burned 343 square miles previously held the spot, Cal Fire said.
San Diego’s 427-square-mile Cedar fire in Oct. 2003, which destroyed more than 2,800 structures and killed 14, remains the largest wildfire in state history. The blaze began as a signal fire set by a West Covina man who was separated from his companion on a deer hunting trip, according to Times archives.
L A Times
Human remains believed uncovered in search at Florida boys school
The first of many to die at a Florida reform school infamous for inflicting beatings and abuse is identified in official records only as “Unknown colored boy.”
Researchers say he died in 1911. But his name, final resting place, and the reason for his early death remain a mystery.
He’s not alone.
The whereabouts of nearly two dozen others who died at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys are also unknown, researchers said.
Those who once stayed at the reform school -- and were subjected to regular lashings by school officials -- say many more could be buried on the property of the now-shuttered state-run school, located in Marianna, a small town in Florida’s panhandle.
“I think there’s at least 100 more bodies,” Robert Straley, who was at the school for 10 months starting in 1963, said in a telephone interview.
L A Times
U.S.-Russia feud over Snowden cuts both ways
NEW YORK — For a wanted man, Boris Kuznetsov leads a very open life. His address, in a high-rise apartment with a view of the Manhattan skyline, is public record. He regularly updates his Facebook page with personal information and musings about the news of the day, including his own criminal case.
But Kuznetsov, a lawyer from Russia and a harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, doesn't worry about being arrested. That's because, like former U.S. government security contractor Edward Snowden, he has found protection from prosecution in the animosity between his homeland and the United States. By granting Kuznetsov asylum since 2008, American officials have blocked Russia from pursuing charges that he spilled state secrets.
L A Times
Russia bolstering naval presence amid expected Syria airstrikes
Russia has deployed two powerful warships to the Mediterranean Sea to augment its normal naval presence amid rising expectations of Western airstrikes on its ally, Syria.
A senior Russian naval officer denied Thursday that the dispatch of an anti-submarine ship and a guided-missile cruiser were in response to U.S. and European naval buildups in preparation for possible punitive strikes on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
But Russia's Interfax news agency this week quoted an unidentified Russian General Staff source as saying that "the well-known situation now in the eastern Mediterranean required us to make some adjustments to the naval force."
Reuters
Exclusive: USS Nimitz carrier group rerouted for possible help with Syria
(Reuters) - The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other ships in its strike group are heading west toward the Red Sea to help support a limited U.S. strike on Syria, if needed, defense officials said on Sunday.
The Nimitz carrier strike group, which includes four destroyers and a cruiser, has no specific orders to move to the eastern Mediterranean at this point, but is moving west in the Arabian Sea so it can do so if asked. It was not immediately clear when the ships would enter the Red Sea, but they had not arrived by Sunday evening, said one official.
"It's about leveraging the assets to have them in place should the capabilities of the carrier strike group and the presence be needed," said the official.
S F Gate
These young SF professionals choose to live in RVs
Tynan Smith, a 32-year-old tech entrepreneur, lives in what he considers his dream Castro district apartment. He's got marble counters, hardwood floors, a cedar closet and gold leaf ceiling. He doesn't have a roommate. And at $500 a month, you can't beat the rent.
The hitch is something he thinks is hardly a hitch: His apartment is a 1996 Winnebago. The rent is for a parking spot and a bit of electricity.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Happening in our very liberal county.
Judge bans preaching, protesting near Sonoma County courthouse
You might think the Sonoma County courthouse steps would be one place you could exercise free speech rights.
And you would be wrong.
New rules from Presiding Judge Rene Chouteau forbid preaching, protests and proselytizing within a defined perimeter around the Hall of Justice that includes corridors, outside walkways and the steps.
The policy, adopted earlier this month, also contains a dress code, outlawing attire such as baggy pants, shorts and mini-skirts. And it prohibits activities like using a cellphone or chewing gum in a courtroom.
The punishment for violations? Up to $1,500.