Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editor is annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Michael Schumacher, ex-F1 champion, critical after ski fall
Michael Schumacher, seven-time Formula 1 world champion, is in a critical condition after a skiing accident, says the French hospital treating him.
The 44-year-old German suffered serious brain trauma, was in a coma on arrival and underwent a brain operation.
He was skiing off-piste with his son in the French Alps on Sunday when the accident occurred.
Schumacher was wearing a helmet when he fell and hit his head against a rock, his manager Sabine Kehm said.
Early reports had said his condition was not life-threatening and he reportedly walked away from the accident complaining only of feeling a bit shaken.
BBC
France's 75% tax rate gains approval by top court
Seems like a good idea in the U S.
France's highest court has approved a 75% tax on high earners that is one of President Francois Hollande's signature policies.
The initial proposal to tax individual incomes was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council almost exactly one year ago.
But the government modified it to make employers liable for the 75% tax on salaries exceeding 1m euros (£830,000).
The levy will last two years, affecting income earned this year and in 2014.
Football clubs in France went on strike earlier this year over the issue, saying many of France's clubs are financially fragile and say the plans could spark an exodus of top players who are paid huge salaries.
BBC
Saudi Arabia 'to give Lebanon army $3bn grant'
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman made the announcement in a televised address after the funeral of a senior Lebanese politician killed in a car bomb attack. He said it would help fight terrorism.
Mohamad Chatah, a Sunni Muslim, was a staunch critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement that backs him.
Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah have taken opposite sides in the Syrian conflict.
"The king of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is offering this generous and appreciated aid of $3bn to the Lebanese army to strengthen its capabilities," Mr Sleiman said in his address.
He said it was the largest assistance provided in Lebanon's history and would be used to buy weapons from France.
French President Francois Hollande said his country would "meet" any demands for weapons from Lebanon during a visit on Sunday to Saudi Arabia aimed at boosting commercial ties with the kingdom.
BBC
Barrel bombs 'kill 517 in Aleppo since 15 December'
Barrels packed with explosives and dropped from Syrian aircraft have killed 517 people in the northern province of Aleppo since 15 December, activists say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 151 were children and 46 women.
The city of Aleppo has been the focus of bitter fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels.
A Norwegian frigate is meanwhile preparing to collect chemical weapons from Syria for destruction.
The arms are due to be taken from the Syrian port of Latakia to Italy.
There, they will be loaded onto a US Navy ship and taken to international waters for destruction in a specially created titanium tank on board.
The global watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical arms stockpile, has called on Damascus to "intensify its efforts" to help the operation.
CNN
Rescue boat for trapped ship in Antarctic waits for better weather
(CNN) -- Seventy-four passengers trapped aboard an expedition vessel in the Antarctic for nearly a week will have to wait even longer as a rescue ship slowly makes its way through thick ice and snow.
The Australian icebreaker ship Aurora Australis was 11 nautical miles away from the Russian-flagged Akademik Shokalskiy early Monday, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
"It's hard to tell if it makes it through," said Lisa Martin, a spokeswoman for AMSA. "There are snow showers in the area that are causing bad visibility; conditions are deteriorating."
Visibility was only about 200 meters (656 feet), not enough to assess whether the ice breaker can cut through.
"It's a wait-and-see operation. It's a very complex situation," Martin said.
This attempt by the Aurora Australis follows one by the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, which was just six nautical miles away from the trapped vessel when it couldn't get any closer due to unusually thick ice.
CNN
El Salvador's Chaparrastique volcano erupts for first time in 37 years
(CNN) -- El Salvador's Chaparrastique volcano erupted Sunday, sending a dark cloud of ash miles into the sky, forcing thousands to evacuate from their homes and snarling travel in the Central American country as airlines canceled flights.
"We are not certain there will be new eruptions, but we can't rule out that possibility either," President Mauricio Funes said in a televised address urging residents near the volcano in the department of San Miguel to leave their homes and head to shelters.
According to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the eruption began at 10:30 a.m. and produced a column of gas and ash approximately 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) high.
Authorities warned residents not to approach the area near the volcano, which is located in eastern El Salvador.
L A Times
Insurgents could quickly bounce back in Afghanistan, analysis warns .
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies warn in a new, classified assessment that insurgents could quickly regain control of key areas of Afghanistan and threaten the capital as soon as 2015 if American troops are fully withdrawn next year, according to two officials familiar with the findings.
The National Intelligence Estimate, which was given recently to the White House, has deeply concerned some U.S. officials. It represents the first time the intelligence community has formally warned that the Afghan government could face significantly more serious attacks in Kabul from a resurgent Taliban within months of a U.S. pullout, the officials said, speaking anonymously to discuss classified material.
The assessment also concludes that security conditions probably will worsen regardless of whether the U.S. keeps troops in the country.
"It's very pessimistic about the future, more pessimistic than ever before," said one of the officials.
N Y Times
On Defensive, JPMorgan Hired China’s Elite
Nepotism goes international.
In a series of late-night emails, JPMorgan Chase executives in Hong Kong lamented the loss of a lucrative assignment.
“We lost a deal to DB today because they got chairman’s daughter work for them this summer,” one JPMorgan investment banking executive remarked to colleagues, using the initials for Deutsche Bank.
The loss of that business in 2009, coming after rival banks landed a string of other deals, stung the JPMorgan executives. For Wall Street banks enduring slowdowns in the wake of the financial crisis, China was the last great gold rush. As its economy boomed, China’s state-owned enterprises were using banks to raise billions of dollars in stock and debt offerings — yet JPMorgan was falling further behind in capturing that business.
The solution, the executives decided over email, was to embrace the strategy that seemed to work so well for rivals: hire the children of China’s ruling elite.
“I am supportive to have our own” hiring strategy, a JPMorgan executive wrote in the 2009 email exchange.
USA Today
Pet injures former mayor in Ariz., kills husband
The name coincidence is just too bizarre.
BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz. — The former mayor of this city of almost 40,000 was hospitalized and her husband died after the couple's pet dogs attacked them, according to the current mayor.
Former Mayor Diane Vick and her husband, Tom, tried to intervene after one of their larger dogs attacked one of their smaller dogs, but the dogs turned on them and attacked them, Mayor Jack Hakim said. They were flown to a hospital in Las Vegas.
Tom Vick and his wife tried to break up a fight Saturday evening between the family's boxer and cocker spaniel, police said. The boxer attacked both of them.
Tom Vick, 64, who taught social studies at Mohave High School, died of his injuries Sunday, Hakim said. Diane Vick "was pretty well beat up," but Hakim didn't believe her injuries were critical.
CNet
NSA reportedly planted spyware on electronics equipment
A new report from Der Spiegel, based on internal National Security Agency documents, reveals more details about how the spy agency gains access to computers and other electronic devices to plant backdoors and other spyware.
The Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, is described as a "squad of digital plumbers" that deals with hard targets -- systems that are not easy to infiltrate. TAO has reportedly been responsible for accessing the protected networks of heads of state worldwide, works with the CIA and FBI to undertake "sensitive missions," and has penetrated the security of undersea fiber-optic cables. TAO also intercepts deliveries of electronic equipment to plant spyware to gain remote access to the systems once they are delivered and installed.
According to the report, the NSA has planted backdoors to access computers, hard drives, routers, and other devices from companies such as Cisco, Dell, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung, and Huawei. The report describes a 50-page product catalog of tools and techniques that an NSA division called ANT, which stands for Advanced or Access Network Technology, uses to gain access to devices.
N Y Times (used Google; over my limit of stories)
Obama’s TV Picks: Anything Edgy, With Hints of Reality
WASHINGTON — War, terrorism, economic struggle, mass shootings — such is life in the Oval Office for President Obama.
Yet in his few quiet moments, this president seeks not to escape to the delicious back-stabbing of the “Real Housewives” or the frivolity of the singing teenagers on “Glee.” By his own accounts, Mr. Obama is drawn in his spare time to shows like HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “Boardwalk Empire,” the kind of heavy, darkly rendered television that echoes the sadness and strife that make up so much of his workday.
These days, when Mr. Obama retreats to the White House residence after a long day on the other end of the colonnade, he is working his way through the DVD box set of AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” the award-winning TV drama about a drug-dealing high school teacher . The show just ended after five seasons, but the president is way behind and frequently reminds those around him not to give anything away.
Obama, please contact Doctor RJ for complete analysis.