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
AirAsia QZ8501: Indonesia plane search resumes
The search has resumed for AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501, a day after it went missing with 162 people on board.
A commander at Surabaya air force base in Indonesia said that visibility in the search area was good.
The Airbus A320-200 disappeared over the Java Sea early on Sunday en route to Singapore from Surabaya.
The pilots had requested a course change due to bad weather but did not send any distress call before the plane disappeared from radar screens.
"God willing, we can find it soon," said First Admiral Sigit Setiayana at the Surabaya air force base.
Sunday's search was largely suspended as night fell.
Although some ships continued the hunt overnight, the main search planes and vessels, from several nations, resumed at first light on Monday.
Indonesian transport ministry official Tatang Kurniadi said: "Our primary task is to find the plane. We are co-operating with every possible department, and relevant countries.
BBC
Italy ferry fire: Scores awaiting rescue
Almost three hundred people are awaiting rescue from an Italian ferry that caught fire north-west of Corfu.
Rescue operations are continuing despite massive waves and strong winds. The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, said it would be a "long night".
Around 200 people have already been airlifted to safety - 478 in total were on board.
One person died after jumping from the ship and another has been confirmed injured, officials say.
The blaze on board the Norman Atlantic, which was travelling from Patras in Greece to Ancona in Italy, reportedly started on the ferry's car deck before spreading.
Passengers described panicking as the heat rose, then freezing as they stood on decks awaiting rescue.
Al Jazeera America
At least 24 killed in Malaysia, Thailand floods as 200,000 evacuated
Severe flooding in Malaysia and Thailand has killed at least 24 people and forced the evacuation of more than 200,000, according to official data reported Sunday.
Northeastern Malaysia and southern Thailand are regularly hit by flooding during the annual northeast monsoon, but this year the rain has been particularly heavy. Scientists have predicted that as climate change worsens, storm patterns will become less predictable and more severe.
The worst flooding in Malaysia in more than a decade has killed 10 people, authorities said Sunday. Five of those casualties were in the worst-hit state of Kelantan, in the northeastern part of the Malaysian peninsula. Across the border in southern Thailand, 14 people have been killed in the floods that began in mid-December.
There are fears that the death toll could increase as communities have been left stranded without food or medicine.
"There was a lot of noise outside my home. I could also hear people giving instructions to move to the school," Nazri Mohd Nor, a factory worker in Perak State in northwestern Malaysia, told The Star, a Malaysian news website. "I was shocked to see the water level had reached my knees as I got out of bed."
Al Jazeera America
The Year in Drug Policy: Movement at a crossroads
The 43-year-old war on drugs had never seen such a barrage of opposition as it did in 2014, with successful marijuana legalization initiatives in several U.S. states, California’s historic approval of sentencing reform for low level drug offenders and world leaders calling for the legal regulation of all drugs — all of which cement the mainstream appeal of drug policy alternatives and offer unprecedented momentum going into 2015.
Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C. joined Colorado and Washington state in legalizing recreational marijuana and will soon start seeing the tax benefit from the estimated $41 billion that U.S. consumers spend annually on marijuana. That these states voted for legalization during a Republican romp in November elections underscores the conviction among drug policy analysts that legalization has entered the mainstream culture. It’s a matter of time, they say, before more states — and countries — follow suit.
Proof of that allure lies in the South, where conservative states had kept their distance from the marijuana legalization until recently. Legalization activists have spearheaded decriminalization and medical marijuana campaigns in Texas, Alabama and Georgia, with initial bi-partisan support in some state legislatures, and 2015 promises further momentum. California, though, remains the state to watch. If the most populous state, and the world’s 8th largest economy, legalizes cannabis use via ballot initiative during the 2016 presidential elections, as it’s expected to do, it may lead to a dramatic chain reaction across the country — following the path of the gay marriage movement — and ultimately force the federal government to revisit its policy on the drug.
CNN
'The Interview': $15 million, 2 million streams
In a landmark moment for digital movie distribution, "The Interview" has earned more than $15 million through online sales in its first four days of release.
Sony Pictures said Sunday that the scandalous Seth Rogen comedy was "rented or purchased online more than 2 million times" between Wednesday, when it was released, and Saturday.
The totals do not include Sunday, when Rogen and others held a live-tweet session to further promote online streams of the movie.
"Total consumer spending through Saturday for The Interview online is over $15 million," Sony said in a statement. Earlier, studio executives would only say that rental numbers were strong.
That's far more than the movie made in theaters -- despite sold out showings in a patchwork of theaters across the country. Through Sunday, "The Interview" is expected to make about $2.8 million at the 331 independently-owned theaters that have been showing it since Christmas Day.
Reuters
North Korea blames U.S. for Internet outages, calls Obama 'monkey'
(Reuters) - North Korea called U.S. President Barack Obama a "monkey" and blamed Washington on Saturday for Internet outages it has experienced during a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures.
The National Defense Commission, the North's ruling body chaired by state leader Kim Jong Un, said Obama was responsible for Sony's belated decision to release the action comedy "The Interview", which depicts a plot to assassinate Kim.
"Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest," an unnamed spokesman for the commission said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, using a term seemingly designed to cause racial offense that North Korea has resorted to previously.
In Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing, a White House official said the administration had no immediate comment on the latest North Korean statement blaming the United States for the Internet outages and insulting the president.
N Y Times
In Battle to Defang ISIS, U.S. Targets Its Psychology
WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East, sought help this summer in solving an urgent problem for the American military: What makes the Islamic State so dangerous?
Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies.
“We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts. “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”
General Nagata’s frustration is shared by other American officials. Even as President Obama and his top civilian and military aides express growing confidence that Iraqi troops backed by allied airstrikes have blunted the Islamic State’s momentum on the ground in Iraq and undermined its base of support in Syria, other officials acknowledge they have barely made a dent in the larger, longer-term campaign to kill the ideology that animates the terrorist movement.
NPR No foie gras and wine tonight.
Thousands Of Motorists Stranded By Snow In French Alps
Thousands of vehicles are stranded in the French Alps unable to come or go from ski resorts in southeastern France due to particularly heavy snowfall and icy conditions.
One man was reportedly killed when his car slid off into a ravine.
The BBC reports that as many as 15,000 motorists who spent Saturday night unable to move due to the snow and ice, are still unable to move in the region of Savoie, west of Turin, Italy.
Officials set up emergency shelters in at least 12 towns, France 24 says.
"Conditions improved on Sunday, with French forecasters lifting an orange weather alert - France's second highest - of ice and snow, according to French media reports.
"The French government had earlier urged drivers to "exercise the utmost caution" and avoid travel if possible."
Science
Raw Story
Scientists create first-ever primordial precursors to sperm, eggs
For the first time, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Weizmann Institute in Chiacago have created the precursors to egg and sperm using human stem cells.
While these primordial germ cells had previously been created from rodent stem cells, the new research – which was funded Wellcome Trust and BIRAX (the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership) and is detailed in the latest edition of the journal Cell – marks the first time they have been achieved efficiently using human embryonic stem cells.
As an egg cell is fertilized by a sperm, it begins to divide into a cluster of cells known as a blastocyst, the researchers explained. The blastocyst, which is the earliest stage of the embryo, contains cells that form the inner mass and will become the fetus, as well as some that form the outer wall and will become the placenta.
Cells contained within the inner cell mass are 'reset' into stem cells, which allows them to form into any type of cell in the human body. Some of those cells develop into primordial germ cells (PGCs), and they have the potential to become egg or sperm cells (also known as germ cells) later on in life, allowing them to pass on the offspring's genetic information to its own children.
Christian Science Monitor
Neil deGrasse Tyson lights up Twitter, Facebook. War on Christmas?
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson launched a Twitter storm with his wry tweets on Christmas. He’ll be tweeting on New Years Day too, he writes on Facebook, ‘in case you want to avert your eyes.’
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a very smart guy. Astrophysicist and cosmologist with degrees from Harvard and Columbia. Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Writer of best-sellers. Radio and TV host.
Oh, and the “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive,” at least according to People Magazine.
He also has a pungent sense of humor and irony quite evident over the Christmas holiday, starting with a string of irreverent tweets:
“QUESTION: This year, what do all the world's Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday … On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642 … A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).”