Welcome to
Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall,Doctor RJ, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news.
OND is a regular 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Nemtsov killing: Russia court charges two men with murder
A Moscow court has charged two men in connection with the murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov.
It said one of the men, Zaur Dadayev, had admitted involvement in the shooting on a bridge near the Kremlin on 27 February.
He and the other accused, Anzor Gubashev, are of Chechen origin.
Three other suspects were remanded in custody. A sixth man is reported to have killed himself in a standoff with police in the Chechen capital Grozny.
The suspect threw one grenade at the arresting officers and blew himself up with another, a security source told Interfax news agency.
Mr Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and veteran liberal politician, who was 55, was shot in the back four times as he was walking with his girlfriend within sight of the Kremlin. He was buried in Moscow on Tuesday.
Anzor Gubashev and Mr Dadayev, who are both accused of organising and carrying out the murder, were brought into court amid heavy security.
BBC
Vatican: Michelangelo letter drew ransom demand
The Vatican says it has received a ransom demand for the return of a stolen letter by Renaissance artist Michelangelo.
The request for money, made to the cardinal in charge of St Peter's Basilica, was refused, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.
The letter was among several that went missing from Vatican archives in 1997.
Il Messaggero newspaper said a former Vatican employee had demanded a ransom of €100,000 (£72,000) for the letter.
It said the letter had been written entirely in Michelangelo's hand and signed by him.
This was rare, as the artist normally dictated letters to assistants, writing only his signature, Il Messaggero reported. Other details of the documents have not been disclosed.
It is not clear why the Vatican had not previously made public the theft, which was reported for the first time by the newspaper.
Police are now investigating the case.
The documents were stolen from the archive of the department that is responsible for the upkeep of St Peter's.
Michelangelo, who lived from 1475 to 1564, helped design the basilica, which was only completed in 1626.
Al Jazeera America
Chad, Niger to launch joint offensive against Boko Haram in Nigeria
Chad and Niger launched a joint army operation against Boko Haram in Nigeria on Sunday, military sources said, intensifying a regional push to try to defeat the armed group that has killed thousands in a six-year insurgency.
Boko Haram has expanded cross-border raids into Cameroon, Chad and Niger in recent months, spurring Nigeria's neighbors to retaliate, although cooperation between them and the government in Abuja has been limited and at times strained.
Sunday's strike marks Niger's first incursion deep into Nigerian territory; the country's troops had until now only fought Boko Haram in the border area.
Chad has already sent troops many miles inside northeastern Nigeria, winning back areas from the rebel group near the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
"We can confirm that Chadian and Nigerien forces launched an offensive this morning from Niger. The offensive is underway," said Col. Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for Chad's army.
A witness in Niger's southeastern town of Diffa said he saw a convoy of at least 300 vehicles, including army jeeps equipped with heavy weapons as well as water and fuel trucks, leaving barracks overnight and heading toward the border.
Al Jazeera America
This week marks four year since start of uprising in Syria
This week marks four years since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al Assad. The uprising, which has been a part of the larger Arab Spring, spiraled into a civil war that’s left more than 200,000 people dead, and more than 9 million others displaced.
On Friday, the UN Security Council approved a US-drafted resolution condemning the use of toxic chemicals in Syria, including chlorine. The Council did not assign blame for previous chemical attacks, like the one in Ghouta in 2013 that killed hundreds of people, including children, but it did threaten military action for any future attacks. Following multiple chemical attacks, Syria cooperated with UN inspectors and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2014 to have its chemical weapons stockpiles shipped out of the country and destroyed.
Over the weekend, Syrian government forces conducted an air strike that killed a senior commander of Jabhat an-Nusra. Abu Homam al-Shami was said to be the second in command of the group. Reports say that three other senior leaders were killed along with him. Al Nusra Front is al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, but it’s also a bitter rival of ISIL, which now controls about a third of Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, the European Union is imposing more sanctions on people with ties to the Assad regime. Seven Syrian businessmen have had their assets frozen and are barred from entry into Eurozone countries. One of them is accused of acting as a middle-man for oil purchases from ISIL. The EU has placed sanctions on a total of 218 people and 69 Syrian entities since 2011.
USA Today (autoplay link)
Peacefully, Madison processes police shooting
A series of protests and vigils continued Sunday in Madison, Wis., as the stunned city processed the shooting of an unarmed black teen by a police officer Friday night.
A modest memorial sits near the site where Tony Robinson, 19, was shot by Officer Matt Kenny, a 12-year department veteran who shot and killed another suspect eight years ago in what Police Chief Mike Koval described as a suicide-by-cop.
Kenny has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of Friday's shooting by the state Department of Criminal Investigation.
The city of about 250,000 — a bastion of liberalism, the state's capital and home to the University of Wisconsin — has adhered to Koval's plea for calm. A protest Saturday drew scores of demonstrators but produced no violence.
The shooting came just days after the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against the white former police officer in Ferguson, Mo., who fatally shot unarmed black teen Michael Brown in August. The Justice Department also issued a report blasting the Ferguson police force for a pattern of racial profiling and discrimination against its majority-black populace.
Raw Story (as expected)
Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards to seek seat held by retiring Sen. Mikulski
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic Representative Donna Edwards is expected to announce on Tuesday she will seek Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Barbara Mikulski, the Washington Post reported, citing two Democrats familiar with her plans.
Fellow Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen said last week he was running to succeed Mikulski in next year’s election. On Friday, he won the endorsement of U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.
Edwards, 56, the first black woman to serve in Congress from Maryland, said last week she was “seriously considering” a run for the seat.
Other Democratic members of Maryland’s House of Representatives delegation, including Dutch Ruppersberger and John Delaney, have said they are considering runs.
Raw Story
New Puerto Rican law would brand parents of obese children ‘child abusers’
Nikhol Cruz Cepeda doesn’t look like a victim of child abuse. She has a wide, sparkling smile, enjoys spending time with her family and close circle of friends, and is doing well at school. Like any young teenager, she is a little shy when you first start talking to her, but she warms up quickly and is soon chatting happily about maybe working in science when she completes her studies.
Her mother, Wandalee, is a devoted single parent who works hard at her job in a busy Puerto Rico car rental agency, in order to send her 14-year-old to one of the island’s best private schools. She says she has no bigger priority than steering her daughter towards adulthood in a happy, healthy and safe environment.
Yet under a controversial new law that might soon be adopted by the Puerto Rico government, Nikhol’s mother could be branded a child abuser, with social workers and officials from the US territory’s department of education combing through the family’s affairs.
The reason is that Nikhol, at 206lb, is considered to be obese. And under the terms of the proposed legislation, which many experts say is unfair and unenforceable, her mother could be fined up to $800 if Nikhol fails to lose weight.
“I could lose my daughter because I feed her?” Wandalee said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s the culture in Puerto Rico. You see a skinny baby and people will say it needs feeding up. Is that really child abuse?”
What many families see as a cultural issue, others consider a national health crisis, supported by statistics from recent studies that show rates of childhood obesity on the island running anywhere from 24% to 30%. That compares to an average of 17% across the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Raw Story
Illinois oil train fire still burning two days later
Firefighters on Sunday were still working to extinguish the last of a series of fires that erupted when a BNSF Railway train loaded with crude oil derailed two days ago in a rural area south of Galena, Illinois, a local official said.
The incident marked the latest in a series of derailments in North America involving trains hauling crude oil, heightening focus on rail safety.
Nobody was injured in the fiery Thursday wreck, in which 21 cars of a 105-car BNSF train that originated in North Dakota derailed about 3 miles outside Galena, a town of just over 3,000 near the border with Wisconsin.
Five of the 103 cars packed with Bakken crude oil caught fire, sending plumes of black smoke and fireballs over the area, city and company officials said.
By Sunday, one fire was still burning and crews were building a temporary road and platform over marshy land surrounding the site in order to haul away the damaged cars, Galena City Administrator Mark Moran told Reuters.
Some 50 large trucks were us.ing material from a local quarry to build the “haul road,” which is expected to be finished today, Moran said. There are still 10 cars that need to be either removed or rerailed, he said
Editor's note: I should include a story about the ISIS monument destruction but I just can't bring myself to read about the details. It's so against everything I expect of humanity.
The Guardian
US tourists caught carving names into Rome’s Colosseum
Tourists are once again getting into trouble in Italy, with two American women caught carving their names into Rome’s Colosseum.
The Californians, aged 21 and 25, snuck away from their tour group on Saturday and began scratching their initials into the amphitheatre with a coin. They managed a “J” and an “N” around 8cm high, before taking a selfie with their handiwork.
Police were quick to catch the two Americans and report them for damaging the ancient site. The women may now go in front of a judge and face a penalty.
Defacing the walls is strictly forbidden, as pointed out on signs in both English and Italian. But some visitors think little of breaking the rules as they view the crumbling monument differently from other top sites such as the Vatican, said a spokesman for the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome.
“There’s a difference in perception. Museums are treated like churches, sacred places where there are things of great value. Whereas the Colosseum is an incomplete building which has already been robbed,” the spokesman said.
C/Net (Check out the photo at the link……amazing)
Concept faucet makes saving water beautiful
Water may be a liquid, but that doesn't mean it can't be shaped. If you've ever mucked about looking for water experiments on YouTube, you would have seen that it can be guided into a variety of standing waves by sound.
The shape of the aperture through which water flows can also be designed in such a way as to shape the flow -- as seen in a concept faucet designed by London's Royal College of Art student Simin Qiu. Called Swirl, and the recipient of a 2014 iF Haier special prize student award, the faucet is not just designed as a water saving measure -- saving up to 15 percent of water used over a regular faucet.