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:King's Cross trains cancelled on Saturday
King's Cross trains cancelled on Saturday
All trains to and from London King's Cross have been cancelled because of overrunning engineering.
Network Rail said the work near the station was part of a £200m Christmas investment programme and described the move as "regrettable and unfortunate".
Operators intend to run services into other stations but watchdog Passenger Focus said it was "frustrating".
The Department for Transport said it would have talks with Network Rail about the "disappointing" delay.
Editorial Note: Reports of construction problems at track 9&3/4 have been disputed by the Government.
Happy Boxing Day
BBC:Syria barrel bombs 'kill dozens in Islamic State areas'
Syria barrel bombs 'kill dozens in Islamic State areas'
Syrian planes and helicopters have dropped barrel bombs on Islamic State-held areas in the north-east, killing some 40 people, activists say.
The barrel-bombs, crudely made drums of explosives, were dropped during Thursday and overnight, targeting al-Bab and Qabaseen near Aleppo.
Activists say the government has stepped up air raids in recent days.
Some 200,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in 2011.
BBC:Pakistan judge issues arrest warrant for Abdul Aziz
Pakistan judge issues arrest warrant for Abdul Aziz
A judge in Pakistan has issued an arrest warrant for a cleric at a radical mosque in Islamabad who has refused to condemn the massacre of children at an army-run school.
Imam Abdul Aziz has been accused of threatening protesters outside the Red Mosque.
The cleric said the charge against him was insignificant.
Last week, Taliban fighters attacked the school in Peshawar, killing 152 people, including 133 children.
BBC:Brazilian oil company Petrobras sued by US city
Brazilian oil company Petrobras sued by US city
The US city of Providence, Rhode Island is suing the Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras over investor losses due to a corruption scandal.
Unlike other class actions, some of the company's senior executives have also been named as defendants.
Providence alleges that Petrobras made false statements to investors that inflated the company's value.
Its lawyers say that when the corruption scandal broke, the city's investments plummeted.
BBC:Egypt bans 'inaccurate' Exodus film
Egypt bans 'inaccurate' Exodus film
Egypt has banned a Hollywood film based on the Biblical book of Exodus because of what censors described as "historical inaccuracies".
The head of the censorship board said these included the film's depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids, and that an earthquake, not a miracle by Moses, caused the Red Sea to part.
Exodus: Gods and Kings stars Christian Bale as Moses.
There have also been reports that the film is banned in Morocco.
BBC:Aung San Suu Kyi: More action needed for Myanmar reform
Aung San Suu Kyi: More action needed for Myanmar reform
Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader in Myanmar (also known as Burma), has told the BBC that the international community must do more to aid reform.
Speaking to the Today programme in Yangon, she said that the world had "really lost interest in reform".
She also called for the constitution to be amended to allow her to stand for the presidency.
The 66-year-old spent almost two decades under house arrest because of her efforts to introduce democracy.
Reuters:Doubts deepen over Chinese-backed Nicaragua canal as work starts
Doubts deepen over Chinese-backed Nicaragua canal as work starts
(Reuters) - When one of the poorest countries in the Americas and a little-known Chinese businessman said they planned to undertake one of the biggest engineering projects in history, few people took them seriously.
A year and a half after the $50 billion project to build a canal across Nicaragua was launched by President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, the doubts have only grown.
Work officially began this week. But reporters hoping to see any evidence of how it would be done in a fraction of the time it took to build the much-shorter Panama Canal, or discover who would pay for it, were left with more questions than answers.
At events marking the start of what is meant to be a five- year job, Nicaraguan officials and the Hong Kong-based company behind the canal dodged questions about its financial backers, mounting delays and whether Washington had been consulted.
Reuters:
Islamic State targeted in 39 strikes by U.S., allies: Task Force
Islamic State targeted in 39 strikes by U.S., allies: Task Force
(Reuters) - U.S. forces and their allies staged 39 air strikes on Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria over the past two days, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Friday.
Fighters, bombers and remotely controlled aircraft hit 19 targets in Syria while 20 strikes were carried out in Iraq, a task force statement said.
In Syria, 17 strikes were concentrated on an area near the city of Kobani and destroyed several Islamic State buildings, vehicles and fighting positions.
Two air strikes near Hasakah and one near Raqqa also caused damage.
Reuters:Japan says close to deal with South Korea and U.S. on North Korea defense
Japan says close to deal with South Korea and U.S. on North Korea defense
(Reuters) - Japan, the United States and South Korea are close to reaching a deal on sharing and safeguarding sensitive information on North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, Japan's Defence Ministry said on Friday.
As Japan lies well within the range of North Korea's mid-range missiles, acquiring military intelligence on North Korea in a timely manner is vital for its security.
"Ever since defense ministers of Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed on the importance of information sharing in May, discussion has taken place at various levels," a Japanese Defence Ministry official told a media briefing.
"And now we are in the final stages toward signing."
Reuters:Prosecutors won't indict former Tepco executives over Fukushima disaster: media
Prosecutors won't indict former Tepco executives over Fukushima disaster: media
(Reuters) - Japanese prosecutors will likely decide again not to indict three former Tokyo Electric Power Co executives over their handling of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, media reported on Friday, but a rarely used citizen's panel could still force an indictment.
The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office has been reinvestigating the case after a citizens' panel ruled in July that three former Tepco executives, including then-chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, should be indicted over their handling of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
The prosecutors are likely to finalize their decision not to issue indictments early next year because of insufficient evidence, the Yomiuri newspaper and Kyodo news agency said.
An official with the prosecutors office said no decisions had been made yet.
Reuters:Oil shock to tilt Mexico energy opening in private sector's favor
Oil shock to tilt Mexico energy opening in private sector's favor
(Reuters) - The allure of investing in Mexico's historic oil sector opening has been dimmed by the plummeting price of crude, putting pressure on the government to offer bigger incentives to private investors in the first major round of contracts up for grabs.
Since Congress in August approved the laws governing the dissolution of Mexico's 75-year-old state oil monopoly, crude prices have plunged more than 40 percent, reducing the appeal of investing in Mexican deposits.
Mexico, the world's 10th biggest crude producer, last week announced bidding terms for the first set of production-sharing contracts, unveiling 14 shallow-water exploration blocks that will pay winning firms a share of each project's output.
The overhaul aims to reverse a decline in crude output of 30 percent since 2004, but the slumping prices have cut potential returns, putting the onus on Mexico to make it more attractive for firms to invest - at the government's expense.
Reuters:Uganda says it will pull troops out of South Sudan only if Juba secured
Uganda says it will pull troops out of South Sudan only if Juba secured
(Reuters) - Uganda's president said on Friday he would pull troops out of South Sudan only if regional forces secured its capital Juba from rebel attack, as fighting in the world's newest state dragged on into a second year.
Yoweri Museveni, who backed South Sudan's now-ruling SPLM in its decades-long conflict with Sudan before independence in 2011, sent his troops across the border at Juba's invitation shortly after fighting began in mid-December last year.
Since then, Uganda's military presence has been a bone of contention during drawn-out peace talks in the Ethiopian capital between President Salva Kiir and rebels led by his sacked ex-deputy Riek Machar.
Machar has demanded Uganda's urgent withdrawal.
engadget:Hackers behind PlayStation Network, Xbox Live disruption reportedly targeting Tor
Hackers behind PlayStation Network, Xbox Live disruption reportedly targeting Tor
Lizard Squad, the merry band of hackers that claimed responsibility for taking Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network offline for Christmas, appears to have a new target: Tor. Reports of an attack on the network, which offers online anonymity, appeared earlier today, following a warning on December 19th of "Possible upcoming attempts to disable the Tor network."
A Tor spokesperson acknowledged the attacks, but said they were unlikely to have an effect on users' anonymity.
"This looks like a regular attempt at a Sybil attack: the attackers have signed up many new relays in hopes of becoming a large fraction of the network. But even though they are running thousands of new relays, their relays currently make up less than 1% of the Tor network by capacity. We are working now to remove these relays from the network before they become a threat, and we don't expect any anonymity or performance effects based on what we've seen so far.