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 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 editors are Doctor RJ and annetteboardman.
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BBC:Ukraine crisis: Russia assures US on aid convoy
Ukraine crisis: Russia assures US on aid convoy
Russia's defence secretary has assured his US counterpart that there are no military personnel in its controversial aid convoy for Ukraine, the US says.
It said Sergey Shoygu told Chuck Hagel the convoy was not being used as a pretext to intervene further .
The convoy, which aims to aid eastern Ukrainian cities held by pro-Russian rebels, is still stalled at the border.
Earlier Russia denied Ukraine's claims that a column of Russian armoured vehicles had crossed the border.
BBC:Ebola crisis to last 'at least six months' - MSF
Ebola crisis to last 'at least six months' - MSF
The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa will take at least six months to bring under control, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says.
Speaking in Geneva, MSF President Joanne Liu said the situation was "deteriorating faster, and moving faster, than we can respond to".
Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the scale of the outbreak appeared to be "vastly underestimated".
It said that "extraordinary measures" were needed.
BBC:US welcomes start of base move on Japan's Okinawa
US welcomes start of base move on Japan's Okinawa
The United States said it welcomes the start of Japan's relocation of a US military base on the island of Okinawa.
Japan has placed buoys in a bay in the north of the island to cordon off an area earmarked for the new base.
The two sides agreed in 1996 on the move, which involves relocating Futenma airbase from a highly-congested part of the island to Nago in the north.
But residents have long opposed the new base, saying it will damage marine life. They want it moved off Okinawa.
BBC:Al Gore sues Al Jazeera America over TV channel sale
Al Gore sues Al Jazeera America over TV channel sale
Former American Vice President Al Gore is suing Al Jazeera America over the sale of a TV network he founded.
Mr Gore and his partners agreed to sell Current TV to the Qatari-owned broadcaster last year.
But Mr Gore and other former shareholders in the company claim Al Jazeera America is trying to retain $65m (£39m) of the purchase money.
They have filed a lawsuit claiming the terms of the contract have not been honoured.
BBC:UN troops disperse Haiti protesters supporting Aristide
UN troops disperse Haiti protesters supporting Aristide
UN peacekeepers in Haiti have clashed with supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
Dozens of Mr Aristide's supporters had set up barricades outside his home, fearing he could be arrested.
UN troops fired smoke grenades to disperse the protesters after a car carrying UN staff was attacked.
Mr Aristide faces charges of money laundering, but his supporters say the investigation is politically motivated.
BBC:Brazil crash: Black box 'did not record Campos flight'
Brazil crash: Black box 'did not record Campos flight'
The black box recovered from the wreckage of the plane crash that killed Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos did not record his flight, Brazilian Air Force (FAB) says.
It said the audio recording FAB experts had analysed was not related to the flight that crashed on Wednesday.
A spokesman said they were trying to determine what the recording was.
Mr Campos and six others died when his private jet crashed in bad weather in the port city of Santos near Sao Paulo.
Reuters:AIG boosting Washington lobbying effort as hiatus prompted by crisis ends
AIG boosting Washington lobbying effort as hiatus prompted by crisis ends
(Reuters) - Insurer American International Group (AIG.N) is ramping up its lobbying team in Washington, almost six years after it halted such efforts following its rescue by the U.S. government during the financial crisis.
Many large companies deploy a handful of staff to provide access to Capitol Hill and the White House, but AIG has employed no officially registered lobbyists since 2009. Some of its government relations positions in Washington, which companies typically use to influence policymaking by regulators and other government officials, have been left vacant.
Yet in May of this year, Lauren Scott started working as AIG's director for international regulatory and government affairs in Washington, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was previously a director of international and insurance regulation at the American Council of Life Insurers, a trade group.
That follows the arrival in February of Mary Frances Monroe - a former Federal Reserve supervisor who worked for a Washington consultancy firm - as AIG's head of international regulatory in February, also according to LinkedIn.
Reuters:Japan PM sends offering to war dead shrine, angers China and South Korea
Japan PM sends offering to war dead shrine, angers China and South Korea
(Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday sent a ritual offering to a Tokyo shrine to war dead, triggering angry criticism from China and South Korea despite his decision not to visit the shrine in person as he seeks a Sino-Japanese summit.
His offering to the Yasukuni Shrine on the 69th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two still angered South Korea and China, where bitter memories linger of Japan's actions before and during the war.
Abe visited the shrine in December, sharply chilling ties with China and South Korea. By sending an offering on Friday, Abe appeared to be trying not to worsen tensions with both nations while upholding a conservative ideology that takes a less apologetic tone towards Japan's wartime past.
Koichi Hagiuda, an Abe aide and lawmaker, presented the ritual offering, which was made in Abe's name as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Reuters:Japan imposes asset freeze on North Korean shipping firm
Japan imposes asset freeze on North Korean shipping firm
(Reuters) - Japan on Friday froze the assets of the operator of a North Korean ship seized for smuggling arms, the Foreign Ministry said, just as Tokyo is engaged in talks with Pyongyang to return Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago.
The sanction against Ocean Maritime Management, which operated the ship detained near the Panama Canal a year ago carrying Soviet-era arms, follows similar steps by the United States and U.N. blacklisting of the North Korean firm in July.
It is not immediately clear how much assets, if any, Ocean Maritime Management holds in Japan, the Finance Ministry said.
North Korea in May agreed to reinvestigate the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by the reclusive state in the 1970s and 1980s. In return, Japan last month eased sanctions on the North, lifting travel curbs and allowing port calls of North Korean ships for humanitarian purposes.
Reuters:Mexican president signs landmark energy reform into law
Mexican president signs landmark energy reform into law
(Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday signed a package of laws that will serve as a rule book for comprehensive energy reform designed to lure billions of dollars in investment to the country's ailing oil, gas and electricity sectors.
Pena Nieto has made the energy overhaul the top economic priority of his administration, which aims to boost slumping growth in the world's 15th biggest economy.
He said at a ceremony at the national palace that the energy ministry will announce two next steps in the reform later this week. A so-called Round Zero allocation of oil and gas fields that Pemex will keep is to be unveiled on Wednesday.
The energy ministry will also announce which fields will be put up for grabs for foreign and private oil companies in the first round of public tenders, expected to take place next year.
Reuters:White House: Russia has no right to send vehicles, persons into Ukraine
White House: Russia has no right to send vehicles, persons into Ukraine
(Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it could not confirm reports that Ukraine had disabled vehicles in a Russian convoy inside Ukraine and warned Moscow that any intervention into Ukraine without Kiev's permission was unacceptable.
"Even as we work to gather information, we reiterate our concern about repeated Russian and Russian-supported incursions into Ukraine," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.
"Russia has no right to send vehicles, persons, or cargo of any kind into Ukraine, under any pretext, without the government of Ukraine's permission."
Ukraine said its artillery destroyed part of a Russian armored column that entered its territory overnight and said its forces came under shellfire from Russia on Friday in what appeared to be a major military escalation between the ex-Soviet states.
Reuters:Islamic State 'massacres' 80 Yazidis in north Iraq: officials
Islamic State 'massacres' 80 Yazidis in north Iraq: officials
(Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents "massacred" some 80 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority in a village in the country's north, a Yazidi lawmaker and two Kurdish officials said on Friday.
"They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing this afternoon," senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters. "We believe it's because of their creed: convert or be killed."
A Yazidi lawmaker and another senior Kurdish official also said the killings had taken place and that the women of the village were kidnapped.
A push by Islamic State militants through northern Iraq to the border with the Kurdish region has alarmed the Baghdad government, drawn the first U.S. air strikes since the end of American occupation in 2001 and sent tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians fleeing for their lives.
LA Times:Apple Adds China Telecom to Host User Data Amid Security Concern
Apple Adds China Telecom to Host User Data Amid Security Concern
Apple Inc. (AAPL) is shifting mainland Chinese users’ data to servers run by China Telecom (728) Corp., a move that may address concern by government officials that the information could be a security vulnerability.
The data is encrypted, so state-controlled China Telecom, the country’s third-largest wireless carrier, won’t be able to access it, Cupertino, California-based Apple said in an e-mailed statement. Apple’s iCloud service lets users store contacts, e-mails, photos and other personal information on external systems they can access virtually.
“Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously,” the company said. “We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland China.”
The maker of the iPhone and iPad is counting on more growth in the world’s most populous nation, even as Chinese government scrutiny of U.S. technology companies has intensified. Sales from the Chinese region, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, made up 16 percent of Apple’s $37.4 billion in revenue last quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. IPad sales in the country increased by 51 percent and Mac sales by 39 percent, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said July 23.