Pismis 24, approximately 8,150 light-years from Earth
h/t for the photo:Doctor RJ
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
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.
BBC
Italy's Eni discovers huge gas field off Egyptian coast
Italian energy group Eni says it has found one of the world's largest natural gas fields off Egypt's coast.
The company said the area was 1,450m (4,757 feet) beneath the surface and covered 100 sq km (39 sq miles).
It could hold as much as 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Eni said.
The company says that the Zohr field "could become one of the world's largest natural-gas finds" and help meet Egypt's gas needs for decades.
"This historic discovery will be able to transform the energy scenario of Egypt," said Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of Eni.
Eni, which has full concession rights to the area, is the biggest foreign energy firm in Africa.
In June, it signed an energy exploration deal with Egypt's oil ministry worth $2bn (£1.5bn) allowing the company to explore in Sinai, the Gulf of Suez, the Mediterranean and areas in the Nile Delta.
Eni's find follows other significant gas discoveries in the Mediterranean in recent years, including by Egypt's neighbour Israel.
BBC
Dominica clears up after deadly tropical storm Erika
The prime minister of the Caribbean island of Dominica says that his country has been set back 20 years by tropical storm Erika.
At least 20 people are known to have died in flooding and mudslides caused by the storm, and that number is expected to rise in the coming days
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BBC
Theresa May: Free EU movement 'for those with jobs'
EU free movement should mean the "freedom to move to a job" - not to look for work or benefits - Home Secretary Theresa May has said.
This would be a return to the "original principle" of free movement in the EU, she wrote in the Sunday Times.
Mrs May also said this summer's migrant crisis had been "exacerbated by the European system of no borders".
Meanwhile, Downing Street has confirmed David Cameron will travel to Spain and Portugal to discuss EU reform.
He will meet Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coehlo in Lisbon and Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Friday, a spokesman said.
'Simply unsustainable'
Mrs May's comments come days after official statistics showed net migration to the UK is at an all-time high, reaching 330,000 in the year to March.
The figure - the difference between the number entering the country and those leaving - is more than three times higher than the government's target.
BBC Breaking news at 7:40 Pacific. I'll update when I find out more.
US horror filmmaker Wes Craven dies
US horror filmmaker Wes Craven, creator of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, dies aged 76
American horror film director Wes Craven, creator of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, has died aged 76.
US media reported that Craven died at his Los Angeles home on Sunday from brain cancer.
Craven wrote and directed A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. His Scream franchise was reported to have grossed more than $100m (£65m) in the US.
He wrote, directed and edited his first film, The Last House on the Left, in 1972.
A tweet from his Twitter account featured a picture of him with the dates 1939-2015.
Craven was credited with reinventing the teen horror genre when the first film featuring Freddie Krueger was released in 1984 starring a then-unknown Johnny Depp.
BBC
Former Malaysia PM Mahathir calls for removal of PM Najib Razak
Former Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has called on protesters on the streets of Kuala Lumpur to "remove" the country's Prime Minister Najib Razak.
"To remove him, the people must show people's power," he said as he joined the protests for a second day running, undeterred by a heavy police presence.
Protesters are angered by a $700m (£455m) payment made to Mr Najib's bank account from unnamed foreign donors.
The prime minister denies any wrongdoing.
'No more rule of law'
Mr Mahathir said it was untenable for the current prime minister to continue in his position.
Al Jazeera
Hundreds rally in St. Petersburg over destruction of demon motif
Hundreds of Russians rallied in Saint Petersburg on Sunday after a century-old bas-relief of a mythical demon was destroyed amid fears of increasing religious intolerance under President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, the figure of Mephistopheles was ripped down from the facade of a century-old building in Saint Petersburg. An obscure group calling itself the Cossacks of Saint Petersburg [not Kossacks] claimed responsibility.
The seemingly religiously-motivated act of vandalism caused an outcry in the former imperial capital and police launched a probe.
The figure of a bat-winged creature on Lakhtinskaya Street dated back to around 1910. By some accounts, the bas-relief paid homage to legendary Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin famed for his role of Mephistopheles.
More than a thousand people including architecture preservationists gathered in front of the building in the city center to express their dismay over what activists dubbed a "brazen act of vandalism."
"Hands off art," read one placard, while another one said in English: "Save our Saint Petersburg."
"What happened is awful," said Anna Astakhova, 35. "If it's true that the bas-relief was destroyed for religious reasons, then we are descending into the Middle Ages. This is inadmissible."
Al Jazeera
Hawaii faces double hurricane threat
Hawaii, the isolated island archipelago in the central Pacific, lies close to the track of two major hurricanes in the eastern Pacific.
The more immediate threat comes from Hurricane Ignacio. At 00GMT on Sunday, Ignacio was centred approximately 450km to the east-southeast of the big Island. It is currently a Category 4 system (on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale) with sustained winds of 210 to 220km/h.
Its forecast track from the US National Hurricane Centre, takes it just to the north of the islands on Tuesday and Wednesday. Although a direct hit is not expected, Ignacio is expected to bring gusty winds, heavy rain, dangerous surf and rip currents to the islands, as early as Sunday.
Although there are typically seven tropical systems in the central Pacific basin each year, the number which approach these tiny islands is very small.
Since 1950 there has been an average of just seven storms per decade that have severely impacted the islands. Of those approaching from the east, since 1949, only one (unnamed storm) has hit Hawaii.
N Y Times
Young Hands in Mexico Feed Growing U.S. Demand for Heroin
EL CALVARIO, Mexico — With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester.
Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina.
Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week.
That she is only 15 is not so important for the people of her tiny mountain hamlet. If she and her classmates miss school for the harvest, so be it. In a landscape of fallow opportunities, income outweighs education.
“It is the best option for us,” Angelica said, leaning against a wood-plank house in her village, where nearly all of the children work the fields. “Back down in the city, there is nothing for us, no opportunities.”
As heroin addiction soars in the United States, a boom is underway south of the border, reflecting the two nations’ troubled symbiosis. Officials from both countries say that Mexican opium production increased by an estimated 50 percent in 2014 alone, the result of a voracious American appetite, impoverished farmers in Mexico and entrepreneurial drug cartels that straddle the border.
Doctors said they see addicts switch back and forth between pills and heroin.Prescription Painkillers Seen as a Gateway to Heroin
Al Jazeera
In 'hidden epidemic,' senior citizens getting hooked on painkillers
In “Take as Prescribed,” Fault Lines explores why so many elderly Americans are becoming addicted to painkillers—and what’s being done to stop it. The film premieres on Monday, Aug. 31, at 10 p.m. Eastern time/7 p.m. Pacific on Al Jazeera America. |
In early July, 70-year-old Carol Billker traveled two hours from her home in Rockledge, Florida, to Hanley Center, an in-patient substance abuse treatment facility in West Palm Beach, to attend a support group for recovering drug addicts.
With her silver hair, soft-spoken voice and sweet demeanor, she looked out of place in a circle that included former alcoholics and drug abusers, many of whom were in their 20s and 30s. As she addressed the group, Carol described the impact that being hooked on powerful opioid painkillers had on her life.
“You never realize how foggy you are until you go through the recovery and get off the drugs,” she said.
Three years ago, Billker came to Hanley to seek treatment for her addiction. She had been taking opioids—drugs like hydrocodone and oxycodone—to treat pain she experienced from frequent migraine headaches. She was on a pain regimen involving the drugs Percocet and Demerol.
Raw Story
US considering sanctions over Chinese cyber theft
The White House is considering applying sanctions against companies and individuals in China it believes have benefited from Chinese hacking of U.S. trade secrets, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
The newspaper, citing several unidentified Obama administration officials, said a final determination on whether to issue the sanctions was expected soon, possibly as early as the next two weeks.
Suspicions that Chinese hackers were behind a series of data breaches in the United States have been an irritant in relations between the world’s two largest economies as President Xi Jinping prepares to make his first visit to the United States next month.
Obama administration officials have said China is the top suspect in the massive hacking of a U.S. government agency that compromised the personnel records of at least 4.2 million current and former government workers. China has denied involvement.
U.S. government officials and cyber analysts say Chinese hackers are using high-tech tactics to build massive databases that could be used for traditional espionage, such as recruiting spies or gaining access to secure data on other networks.
C/Net
Popping champagne cork causes emergency landing of jet
If you've seen and heard everything, this story isn't for you.
For me, though, this is a new one. Here, you see, is the tale of a champagne cork bringing a plane down earlier this month.
No, it wasn't shot from the ground by malicious types. Instead, a member of the cabin crew merely opened a champagne bottle.
As the Telegraph reports, the cork was popped on budget airline EasyJet. It flew into the ceiling panels and smashed them.
It's not clear whether this was a particularly excitable cork or whether EasyJet's panels are excessively sensitive.
What is clear is that the oxygen masks descended and so did the plane -- in an emergency landing. The plane was two hours into its flight from London's Gatwick airport to Dalaman in Turkey before it made a detour to Malpensa airport in Milan, Italy.
A representative of EasyJet said, "EasyJet can confirm that flight EZY8845 from London Gatwick to Dalaman on 7 August diverted to Milan Malpensa as a precautionary measure due to a technical issue with the cabin crew oxygen masks."
The spokesman said the oxygen masks needed to be reset.
A bottle of champagne contains 90 pounds per square inch of pressure, around three times more than your Subaru's tires. Some believe that a cork can pop at speeds of 40 or even 60 mph. Some scientists believe it's usually more like 24.8 mph.
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