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, Doctor RJ 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 editor is annetteboardman.
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BBC
Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew dies at 91
Lee Kuan Yew, the statesman who transformed Singapore from a small port city into a wealthy global hub, has died at the age of 91.
The city-state's prime minister for 31 years, he was widely respected as the architect of Singapore's prosperity.
But he was criticised for his iron grip on power. Under him freedom of speech was tightly restricted and political opponents were targeted by the courts.
A state funeral will be held on 29 March, after a week of mourning.
In a televised address, his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong paid tribute to him.
"He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none, and made us proud to be Singaporeans. We won't see another man like him."
Mr Lee oversaw Singapore's independence from Britain and separation from Malaysia. His death was announced early on Monday. He had been in hospital for several weeks with pneumonia.
BBC
Oil price unlikely to rebound - Saudi official
The oil price is unlikely to reach again the record levels seen in the past few years, according to Saudi Arabia's representative at Opec.
Mohammed al-Madi, Saudi's Opec governor, told an energy conference that hitting the $100 to $120-a-barrel mark again would be "difficult".
Mr Madi also told the meeting in Riyadh that that his country's oil policy had no "political dimension".
Saudi is Opec's biggest producer and the dominant voice with the group.
On Friday, Brent crude closed at $55.2 a barrel, while US oil was $46.5.
Asked if the price could return to previous highs, Mr Madi said: "$100-$120 - I think it's difficult to reach $120 another time."
He also rejected suggestions that Saudi Arabia was letting the oil price fall for political and competitive reasons. Iran has criticised Saudi Arabia's refusal to support the oil price by cutting production.
Meanwhile, some analysts have speculated that Saudi Arabia's willingness to see the price slump is because it will hurt America's booming - but high cost - shale gas industry.
CNN
Houthi rebels seize airport; U.N. envoy warns Yemen at 'edge of civil war'
(Autoplay at link)
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)Rebels seized an international airport in Yemen Sunday as a U.N. envoy warned that the country was at "the edge of civil war."
Houthi militants took over the airport in Taiz as they swept through the city and surrounding province, two officials with the Taiz provincial government said.
One civilian was killed and 82 others wounded when the rebels fired at local residents protesting their presence, the officials said.
The rebels have also seized security and intelligence buildings in Taiz and set up checkpoints in the area, the officials said. Taiz, about 390 kilometers (240 miles) south of Sanaa, is Yemen's cultural capital.
The rebels -- Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- surrounded the presidential palace in January. Yemen's President and his Cabinet resigned days later.
Al Jazeera America
WHO: Ingredient in Monsanto Roundup 'probably carcinogenic' to humans
The most widely used herbicide in the world, glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto product Roundup, was classified as "probably carcinogenic to humans,” in a report released Friday by cancer researchers affiliated with the World Health Organization.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced its assessment of glyphosate after convening a meeting this month of 17 cancer experts from 11 countries. They looked at the available scientific evidence on five different pesticides, including glyphosate, to determine whether to classify them as carcinogens. Carcinogens are substances that can lead to cancer under certain levels of exposure.
Glyphosate caused DNA and chromosomal damage in mammals, and in human and animal cells studied in laboratories, the report said. Studies of workers who had been exposed to the chemical in the U.S. Canada, and Sweden found “increased risks for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that persisted after adjustment for other pesticides,” the report said.
Glyphosate is usually used on crops, including corn and soybeans, that are genetically modified to survive it. The herbicide has been detected in food water, and in the air after it has been sprayed, according to the IARC report. “Its use has increased sharply with the development of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crop varieties,” the report said.
Monsanto, the agrochemical giant, objected to the findings.
Al Jazeera America
Tsipras, Merkel to meet amid high drama over Greek debt
Almost six years into Europe’s roller-coaster debt drama, the man at the forefront of the continent’s anti-austerity movement, Greece’s newly installed prime minister Alexis Tsipras, is going to Berlin.
“We are looking forward to this meeting,” says the Greek government spokesman Gavriel Sekallarides. “There’s a good chemistry between the two leaders. It’s much better that they talk directly to one another.”
Less than a week after the German chancellor Angela Merkel extended the invitation to hold talks, anticipation is growing. Against a backdrop of unprecedented tensions in bilateral relations, the meeting is being seen as a “moment of truth,” a potential decisive turning point in the crisis that has rattled the global economy.
Two months after Tsipras’ leftist Syriza party catapulted into power, the rhetoric between Athens and Berlin has rarely been as shrill. Amid calls for Merkel’s coalition government to pay reparations to the victims of Nazi war crimes and growing voter impatience in Germany, Greece’s place in the eurozone is being increasingly questioned. In a poll released on March 13 by the public broadcaster ZDF, 52 percent of Germans said they thought it was time for Europe’s most heavily indebted state to leave the 19-member bloc.
Al Jazeera America
Wisconsin federal judge finds state abortion law unconstitutional
A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled as unconstitutional on Friday a state law requiring any doctor performing an abortion to have privileges to admit patients to a nearby hospital.
Shortly after Republican Governor Scott Walker signed it into law in August 2013, U.S. District Judge William Conley temporarily blocked the law, which requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of his or her practice.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and Affiliated Medical Services, the state's two abortion providers, challenged the measure in court, saying it could force abortion clinics in Appleton and Milwaukee to close.
On Friday, Conley ordered a permanent injunction against the law, saying in his 91-page order and opinion that the law violated women's 14th amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution.
"The marginal benefit to women's health of requiring hospital admitting privileges, if any, is substantially outweighed by the burden this requirement will have on women's health outcomes due to restricted access to abortions in Wisconsin," Conley wrote.
"While the court agrees with the State that sometimes it is necessary to reduce access to insure safety, this is decidedly not one of those instances," he said.
The Guardian
Nazis' secret hideout found in remote Argentinian jungle
Archaeologists believe ruins found in a remote jungle region may be the remains of a hideout built by Nazis to flee to in the event of defeat in the second world war.
Researchers are studying the remains of three buildings located in the Teyu Cuare park in northern Argentina near Paraguay, the Clarin newspaper reported.
University of Buenos Aires researchers found five German coins minted between 1938 and 1941 and a fragment of porcelain plate bearing the inscription Made in Germany.
“Apparently, halfway through the second world war, the Nazis had a secret project to build shelters for top leaders in the event of defeat – inaccessible sites in the middle of deserts, in the mountains, on a cliff or in the middle of the jungle like this,” the archaeologists’ team leader, Daniel Schavelzon, said.
In the end, though, the hideout was never needed. Thousands of Nazis, and Croatian and Italian fascists, arrived in Argentina with the blessing of president Juan Perón, who led the nation from 1946 to 1955 and again briefly in the 1970s, according to the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in California.
Raw Story
US authorities seize $180 million Colombian cocaine shipment
U.S. authorities confiscated a $180 million shipment of cocaine from Colombian drug traffickers aboard a boat on the Pacific Ocean bound for the United States, the Colombian attorney general’s office said on Saturday.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) found 5.28 tonnes of the drug aboard the vessel, captured in international waters off Central America, said Alexandra Ladino, director of the attorney general’s specialized police force, which cooperated with the DEA on the operation.
The Panamanian-flagged boat had earlier departed the Colombian port city of Buenaventura, Ladino said. The drugs belonged to a Colombian trafficking group, which she said would not be named for fear of compromising further investigations.
Fourteen crew members, from Colombia and other Latin American countries, were detained and will be processed in the United States, Ladino told reporters.
Colombia, a major cocaine producer, manufactures some 300 tonnes annually, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Authorities confiscated about 166 tonnes of the drug in 2014
.
I wonder what happens to the confiscated cocaine?
Raw Story
Students banned from watching solar eclipse due to ‘religious and cultural reasons’
A primary school in London’s Southall district prevented children at the school from observing yesterday’s solar eclipse first-hand, citing unexplained “religious and cultural” reasons.
According to The Telegraph, students at North Primary School were only able to observe the rare eclipse from inside the school, watching it on video screens.
Located in area known as “Little India,” the community is considered diverse, with a large population who subscribe to a range of Hindu cultural practices.
Headteacher Ivor Johnstone said the decision to bring the children inside was based on “religious and cultural” reasons
“The school made this decision when we became aware of religious and cultural concerns associated with observing an eclipse directly,” he explained. “Although we are sorry for any disappointment, pupils were still able to watch the eclipse on screens in classrooms.”
Some Hindu scriptures state that an eclipse makes believers impure, with fundamentalists saying believers must bathe immediately after an eclipse and chant the name of God to overcome the forces of darkness.
Parents of some of the children expressed their unhappiness, with one father comparing religion overriding science to Christian American fundamentalism.
“I am outraged – is it going to be Darwin next? We will be like mid America,” said Phil Belman whose 7-year-old daughter goes to the school.
N Y Times
At the Box Office, It’s No Longer a Man’s World
LOS ANGELES — Heading into the all-important summer moviegoing season, two converging box-office trends are startling studios: Women are driving ticket sales to a degree rarely, if ever, seen before, while young men — long Hollywood’s most coveted audience — are relatively AWOL.
With the release of “The Divergent Series: Insurgent” over the weekend, women have delivered the three biggest live-action openings of the year. The audience for “Insurgent,” which took in an estimated $54 million from Friday to Sunday, was 60 percent female. The opening-weekend crowd for “Fifty Shades of Grey” was 67 percent female, and women made up 66 percent of the audience for “Cinderella.”
It would be easier to dismiss those percentages as a fluke — three big female-oriented movies just happened to arrive in proximity — if a parade of movies aimed at young men had not bombed over the same period. Among the carnage: “Jupiter Ascending,” “Seventh Son,” “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” “Chappie” and, over the weekend, Sean Penn’s “The Gunman.”