Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, 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.
The featured story comes from Reuters.
South Africa, world mourn 'giant for justice' Mandela
By Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher
JOHANNESBURG Thu Dec 5, 2013 11:57pm EST
(Reuters) - South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died peacefully at home at the age of 95 on Thursday after months fighting a lung infection, leaving his nation and the world in mourning for a man revered as a moral giant.
The former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been frail and ailing for nearly a year with a recurring lung illness that dated back to the 27 years he spent in apartheid jails, including the notorious Robben Island penal colony.
President Jacob Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of a man who was a symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation reverberated through South Africa and around the world. It triggered an avalanche of tributes.
Follow over the jump for the rest of tonight's news.
International News
South Africans, some fearful, wake to life without Mandela
By Peroshni Govender and Pascal Fletcher
JOHANNESBURG Fri Dec 6, 2013 1:00am EST
(Reuters) - South Africans woke on Friday to a future without Nelson Mandela, and some said they feared the anti-apartheid hero's death could leave their country vulnerable again to racial and social tensions that he did so much to pacify.
As dawn broke and commuters headed to work in the capital, Pretoria, the commercial hub, Johannesburg, and Cape Town in the south, many were still in shock at the passing of a man who was a global symbol of reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.
South Africans heard President Jacob Zuma tell them late on Thursday that the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate passed away peacefully at his Johannesburg home in the company of his family after a long illness.
U.S. News
Key U.S. lawmakers urge China to back off on air defense zone
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON Thu Dec 5, 2013 7:19pm EST
(Reuters) - The Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged China on Thursday not to implement an air defense zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea, saying in a letter that Beijing's recent activities threatened "vital national interests of the United States."
Beijing's decision to declare the air defense identification zone in an area that includes disputed islands has triggered protests from the United States, Japan and South Korea, and was a central topic of discussions during a visit to Japan, China and South Korea this week by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
President Barack Obama's administration has made clear it will stand by treaty obligations that require it to defend the Japanese-controlled islands, but is also reluctant to get dragged into any military clash between rivals Japan and China.
White House reverses, says Obama met uncle and lived with him during law school
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON Thu Dec 5, 2013 5:21pm EST
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama lived briefly with his Kenyan-born uncle while attending law school, the White House said on Thursday, reversing earlier statements that there was no record of the two men ever having met.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said he clarified the issue with the president directly after reports that Onyango Obama, who faced deportation from the United States, said he had housed his nephew temporarily.
A U.S. immigration judged ruled on Tuesday that the 69-year-old half brother of the president's late father could stay as a lawful U.S. resident despite decades dodging deportation and a 2011 drunken-driving arrest.
Business and the Economy
RPT-UPDATE 1-Ford leans on global Mustang to burnish overseas image
By Deepa Seetharaman and Samuel Shen
Thu Dec 5, 2013 8:07pm EST
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co unveiled its 50th anniversary Mustang sports car in its first global launch on Thursday, with a sleek redesign aimed at enhancing the brand's status outside the United States.
The second-largest U.S. automaker is betting that upscale touches will appeal to buyers in Europe and Asia, where the pony car will be sold for the first time in 2015. The new model features the trapezoid front grille that Ford has used to lend a more premium look its other global models.
"This was a chance to bring Mustang and actually lift the rest of the brand up with it," Ford's global design chief J Mays said on Thursday. The design change "helps us tie this car to the rest of the vehicles that we sell," he added.
Entertainment and Sports
U.S. television, Twitter, alive with new version of 'Sound of Music'
By Jill Serjeant
NEW YORK Thu Dec 5, 2013 11:45pm EST
Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. television was alive with "The Sound of Music" on Thursday as country singer Carrie Underwood and "True Blood" actor Stephen Moyer starred in a live version of the classic musical about an aspiring nun who falls in love with an Austrian captain.
Filmed on vast movie sets and with lavish costumes but without an audience, the NBC television broadcast harked back to the traditions of the 1950s and 1960s when live musicals were often shown on American television.
Thursday's three-hour show was based on the 1959 stage version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show rather than the Oscar-winning 1965 musical starring Julie Andrews.
After heavy promotion for weeks, the live broadcast was the No. 2 topic on Twitter on Thursday, behind the death of South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
