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:Islamic State tightens siege of Syria border town Kobane
Islamic State tightens siege of Syria border town Kobane
Islamic State militants are advancing on the Syrian town of Kobane, where they are battling Kurdish fighters.
The clashes are visible from Turkey, where some protesters have stormed a border fence to go to defend the town.
Earlier, the US said it had destroyed four tanks and damaged another during a fourth night of bombardments in Syria.
The UK parliament has voted to conduct air strikes against IS in Iraq, while Belgium and Denmark have also announced they will take part in the operation.
BBC:Palestinian leader accuses Israel of 'genocide' at UN
Palestinian leader accuses Israel of 'genocide' at UN
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of carrying out a "war of genocide" in Gaza in his speech at the UN General Assembly.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was a "speech of incitement filled with lies".
Mr Abbas said Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza should be punished, but stopped short of saying he would take the issue to the International Criminal Court.
The 50-day conflict left about 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead.
BBC:MPs support UK air strikes against IS in Iraq
MPs support UK air strikes against IS in Iraq
The UK Parliament has backed British participation in air strikes against Islamic State extremists in Iraq.
After a seven-hour debate, MPs voted for military action by 524 votes to 43.
The Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour leaderships all backed air strikes although some MPs expressed concerns about where it would lead and the prospect of future engagement in Syria.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said RAF planes could be called into action as early as Sunday.
BBC:UN Human Rights Council backs Argentina on US debt row
UN Human Rights Council backs Argentina on US debt row
The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed a resolution in Geneva condemning a group of American hedge funds that took Argentina to court.
The investors are demanding payments worth more than $1.3bn (£766m) dollars on government bonds they hold.
Argentina defaulted on its debts in July after refusing to comply with a US court ruling in favour of the funds.
It is searching for ways of meeting its obligations to its other creditors without paying the hedge funds in full.
BBC:Hong Kong democracy protesters enter government complex
Hong Kong democracy protesters enter government complex
At least 100 pro-democracy protesters have pushed through a police cordon to break into the main government compound in Hong Kong.
The break-in occurred just before 22:30 local time (15:30 BST), as protesters scaled security fences to get inside.
Police used pepper spray to dispel the crowd. Several people were detained.
Students and activists have been protesting against a decision by Beijing to rule out fully democratic elections in Hong Kong in 2017.
BBC:Somali pirates in 'deadly clashes over ransom'
Somali pirates in 'deadly clashes over ransom'
At least five people have died in Somalia in clashes between pirates fighting over a ransom paid for a recently released hostage, sources have told the BBC.
The gunfight broke out in the central town of Galkayo on Thursday afternoon.
Journalist Michael Scott Moore, who has dual US and German citizenship, was freed on Tuesday after nearly three years in captivity.
But there has been no confirmation that a ransom was paid for his release.
Reuters:How Bill Gross became too hot for Pimco to handle
How Bill Gross became too hot for Pimco to handle
(Reuters) - Bill Gross' abrupt departure from Pimco, the giant bond firm that he co-founded more than four decades ago, was preceded by months of clashes between the star investor and the firm's executive committee that got progressively worse, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Tensions had been building within Pimco, the Newport Beach, California-based asset manager with about $2 trillion under management. Co-Chief Investment Officer Mohamed El-Erian, Gross's long-time heir-apparent, made an acrimonious exit in January. The flagship Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, suffered 16 straight months of outflows. The wrangling and the underperformance grated on the executive committee, chaired by Chief Executive Douglas Hodge.
"While we are grateful for everything Bill contributed to building our firm and delivering value to Pimco's clients, over the course of this year it became increasingly clear that the firm's leadership and Bill have fundamental differences about how to take Pimco forward," Hodge said in a statement on Friday.
As Gross, known as the "Bond King" within the industry, butted heads with colleagues, the clashes got worse. In recent days, about five senior portfolio managers told the executive committee that they would quit if Gross stayed, the sources said.
Reuters:Top U.S. regulators warn banks over 'Shellshock' bug
Top U.S. regulators warn banks over 'Shellshock' bug
(Reuters) - A group of top U.S. financial regulators urged banks to quickly fix their software to protect it against the "Shellshock" computer bug, saying it could expose them to fraud.
Shellshock is a newly emerged major Internet threat that affects a common software tool found in many operating systems known as Bash, or Bourne-again Shell.
"The pervasive use of Bash and the potential for this vulnerability to be automated presents a material risk," the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council said.
The FFIEC is an interagency body that can prescribe common standards for banks that includes the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and others.
Reuters:Secret tapes of Fed meetings on Goldman prompt call for U.S. hearings
Secret tapes of Fed meetings on Goldman prompt call for U.S. hearings
(Reuters) - An influential U.S. senator wants to hold hearings into "disturbing" issues raised by secretly taped conversations between Federal Reserve supervisors and officials at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), a bank the Fed was tasked with policing.
Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, on Friday called for hearings after portions of the recordings from 2011 and 2012 were made public. Fellow Democrat Sherrod Brown, also a committee member, called for a "full and thorough investigation" into the allegations they raised.
Carmen Segarra, a former New York Fed bank examiner who brought a wrongful termination lawsuit against her former employer, recorded the conversations and provided them to the investigative news outlet ProPublica and the public radio show "This American Life" to illustrate what she saw as an inappropriately close relationship between regulator and bank.
The tapes appear to show an unwillingness among some Fed supervisors to both demand specific information from Goldman about a transaction with Banco Santander and to strongly criticize what Segarra concluded was the lack of an appropriate conflict-of-interest policy at Goldman.
Reuters:Iran and six powers make little progress in nuclear talks
Iran and six powers make little progress in nuclear talks
(Reuters) - Iran and six world powers made little progress in overcoming significant disagreements in the most recent round of nuclear talks, including on uranium enrichment, Iranian and Western diplomats close to the negotiations said on Friday.
Officials from Iran and the six countries had originally said a breakthrough in New York was unlikely on a nuclear deal to end sanctions on Tehran, although they had hoped substantial progress could be made in narrowing disagreements.
That, the diplomats said, did not happen at talks this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
"On the core issues we remain pretty far apart," a Western diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity. "On enrichment, we are not there yet. On sanctions, we are not there yet."
Reuters:Nine Japanese said to have joined Islamic State
Nine Japanese said to have joined Islamic State
(Reuters) - Nine Japanese nationals have joined Islamic State, Japan's former air force chief, Toshio Tamogami, quoted a senior Israeli government official as saying, but the government's top spokesman said on Friday it had not confirmed the information.
Tamogami, now a senior official of a tiny new political party, said on his blog that Nissim Ben Shitrit, the director-general of Israel's foreign ministry, told him this month that nine Japanese had taken part in Islamic State.
Asked about the possible participation of Japanese citizens in the militant group, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference, "The government has not confirmed such information."
No one was immediately available for comment at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, at the Israeli foreign ministry or at the Japanese foreign ministry.
Reuters:Wary of air strikes, Islamic State insurgents change tactics
Wary of air strikes, Islamic State insurgents change tactics
(Reuters) - Islamic State militants are changing tactics in the face of U.S. air strikes in northern Iraq, ditching conspicuous convoys in favor of motorcycles and planting their black flags on civilian homes, tribal sources and eyewitnesses say.
They reported fewer militant checkpoints to weed out "apostates" and less cell phone use since the air strikes intensified and more U.S. allies pledged to join the campaign that began in August, saying the militants had also split up to limit casualties.
A tribal sheikh from a village south of Kirkuk said Islamic State elements "abandoned one of their biggest headquarters in the village" when they heard the air strike campaign was likely to target their area.
"They took all their furniture, vehicles and weapons. Then they planted roadside bombs and destroyed the headquarters," said the tribal sheikh who declined to be named.
LA Times:UPDATE 1-Comic book legend Jack Kirby's heirs settle with Marvel
UPDATE 1-Comic book legend Jack Kirby's heirs settle with Marvel
(Reuters) - The legal war between comic book art great Jack Kirby's heirs and Marvel Entertainment over the rights to Iron Man, Captain America and other superhero icons has ended, not with a climactic final battle but with a settlement announced Friday by both sides.
The settlement came as the U.S. Supreme Court was set to discuss whether to take up the long-running case. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
It was the latest chapter in the dispute over Kirby's claim on rights to the popular, lucrative Marvel comic and movie characters co-created with then-editor and writer Stan Lee during the 1960s.
The wider dispute, dating back well before the court case, was what share of the credit for creating Iron Man, the Hulk and others was due Kirby.