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:Boko Haram: Nigerian army frees another 234 women and children
Boko Haram: Nigerian army frees another 234 women and children
Another 234 women and children have been rescued from Boko Haram militants in Nigeria, the military has announced.
It said the operation took place on Thursday in the vast Sambisa forest - a militant hideout - in the north-east of the country.
It was not immediately clear if any of more than 200 girls abducted from a school in Chibok in April 2014 were among those freed.
Nearly 300 women and children were freed by the army earlier this week.
BBC:Nepal quake: 1,000 EU citizens still unaccounted for, says envoy
Nepal quake: 1,000 EU citizens still unaccounted for, says envoy
Officials are struggling to find 1,000 EU citizens who are unaccounted for in Nepal, six days after an earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people.
An EU official said most are thought to have been trekking in the Everest or remote Langtang regions. Many are hoped to be alive but isolated by the quake.
The fate of thousands of Nepalese in remote communities is also unknown.
Nepal has called for more foreign help and humanitarian aid, admitting it was ill-prepared for the disaster.
BBC:Central African Republic child abuse: UN denies 'cover up'
Central African Republic child abuse: UN denies 'cover up'
The United Nations has denied allegations it covered up child abuse by French troops in the Central African Republic, calling them "offensive".
A high-ranking UN employee has been suspended on suspicion of leaking an internal report on the allegations.
A UN spokesman said the report had not been made public in order to protect the identity of victims, witnesses and investigators.
The report alleged soldiers assaulted hungry children in exchange for food.
BBC:Yemen crisis: Saudi Arabia 'repels Houthi border attack'
Yemen crisis: Saudi Arabia 'repels Houthi border attack'
Three Saudi troops and "dozens" of Houthi rebels were killed as Saudi forces repelled a major attack from inside Yemen, Saudi officials say.
The rebels attacked near the town of Najran, reports say, in what would be their biggest assault on Saudi soil since a Saudi military campaign began.
A Saudi-led coalition has staged air strikes against rebels since late March in support of Yemen's exiled president.
Meanwhile aid groups say a lack of fuel is threatening their operations there.
BBC:Mexican army helicopter shot at in drug cartel attack
Mexican army helicopter shot at in drug cartel attack
A Mexican army helicopter has been shot at in the western state of Jalisco, killing three soldiers and injuring 12 others.
The country's defence minister said the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after it came under fire from members of a drug cartel.
A government official said the Jalisco New Generation gang was believed to be behind the attack, Reuters reports.
There were violent clashes elsewhere in the state on Friday.
BBC:Russia beefs up anti-piracy laws
Russia beefs up anti-piracy laws
Russia is beefing up the law it uses to tackle online piracy.
The law was introduced in mid-2013 and gave the authorities the power to tell internet companies to cut off access to sites found to be pirating media.
As first enacted, the law only applied to sites that shared pirated movies and TV shows.
The updated law has been expanded to cover sites that share links to pirated music, books and software. It does not cover images.
'Common goal'
The updated law comes into force on 1 May.
Reuters:North Korea says Japan's NY abduction summit bid to deceive world
North Korea says Japan's NY abduction summit bid to deceive world
(Reuters) - North Korea condemned on Friday plans by Japan to hold a summit in New York on the abduction of Japanese citizens by Pyongyang decades ago, saying the issue had been resolved and accusing Tokyo of escalating a human rights campaign against North Korea.
The denouncement of Japan's planned Tuesday summit came a day after North Korean diplomats disrupted dissidents speaking at a U.S. and South Korean panel at the United Nations on human rights abuses in the isolated Asian state.
North Korea's U.N. mission said the Japanese summit was part of a campaign "to deceive the people of the world by drawing attention to the so-called 'abduction' and 'human rights' issues of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)."
Japan's U.N. mission was not immediately available to comment on North Korea's statement.
Reuters:Abe, seeking new spark for Japan high-tech, meets Silicon Valley chiefs
Abe, seeking new spark for Japan high-tech, meets Silicon Valley chiefs
(Reuters) - In the 1980s when Sony and Toshiba were setting the agenda in the global TV and memory chip markets Japan was bristling with confidence as a hub of technological innovation.
Three decades later, with Japan's electronics industry in decline, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has come to Silicon Valley - the first sitting Japanese leader to do so - in the hopes of rekindling that innovative spark.
Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo; the CEO of local services search company Yelp Inc, Jeremy Stoppelman; and the head of ridesharing company Lyft, Logan Green, were among a group of tech leaders whom met Abe at a hotel near Stanford University on Thursday afternoon.
Abe told the group that business conditions in Japan were strong with corporate profits up and stocks at 15-year highs. But he said he recognized the need to expand investment opportunities, including for venture firms.
Reuters:Brazil takes aim at U.S. farm subsidies as Rousseff readies visit
Brazil takes aim at U.S. farm subsidies as Rousseff readies visit
(Reuters) - After finally turning the page on a dispute over spying that hampered attempts to deepen trade ties, Brazil and the United States may be headed for another clash, this time over U.S. farm subsidies.
Brasilia is gathering evidence to show that the United States is increasing subsidies for soy and corn farmers, which threatens to further push down prices for the key crops grown in the South American country and hurt its already sputtering economy, four Brazilian officials told Reuters.
Although it is too early to launch a full-out trade dispute, Brazil plans to apply pressure on Washington by questioning its farm program at the World Trade Organization's agriculture committee and by rallying support among other commodities exporters, officials said.
Brazil's growing concerns over U.S. farm subsidies comes as President Dilma Rousseff prepares to visit Washington in June, a trip aimed at bolstering trade between the hemisphere's two largest economies.
Reuters:Ghana's Mahama urges workers not to jeopardize IMF deal
Ghana's Mahama urges workers not to jeopardize IMF deal
(Reuters) - Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama on Friday appealed to workers not to make demands that could derail an IMF assistance package in the runup to elections next year.
The International Monetary Fund last month approved a three-year $918 million deal aimed at tackling Ghana's wide public deficit, growing public debt and high inflation.
Mahama is expected to face a strong opposition challenge in a presidential election next year. The government overshot its 2012 budget deficit target by nearly 100 percent ahead of the last election, due in part to a larger-than-anticipated wage bill.
The president said the success of the IMF program depended on strict adherence to prescribed spending restrictions.
Reuters:Russia: U.N. Security Council should stay out of Burundi dispute
Russia: U.N. Security Council should stay out of Burundi dispute
(Reuters) - Russia said on Friday the United Nations Security Council should not intervene in Burundi's constitutional dispute that has sparked the biggest political crisis in the East African state since an ethnically fuelled civil war ended in 2005.
Diplomats said Russia and China on Thursday blocked a French-drafted council statement on the situation in Burundi, where there has been almost a week of street protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term.
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters, "it's not the business of the Security Council and the U.N. Charter to get involved in constitutional matters of sovereign states."
The Burundi constitution and the Arusha peace accord ending ended the civil war limit the president to two terms, but Nkurunziza's supporters say he can run again because his first term, when he was picked by lawmakers, does not count.
Reuters:Russian U.N. envoy: West, Arab states pay 'lip service' on Yemen aid
Russian U.N. envoy: West, Arab states pay 'lip service' on Yemen aid
(Reuters) - Russia criticized Western and Arab members of the U.N. Security Council on Friday for paying "lip service" to humanitarian needs in Yemen after the council was unable to agree on a Russian-drafted statement calling for pauses in fighting to allow delivery of aid.
In the latest sign of increasing tensions between Russia and the West, who are already at odds over Syria and Ukraine, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his three-paragraph statement on Yemen was met with a "procrastination reaction."
"I was prepared to drop a reference to (a call for) an immediate ceasefire, just at the very least they need to have periodic humanitarian pauses to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian supplies, they couldn't even agree to that," Churkin said after closed-door consultations on Yemen.
"If you cannot agree to a motherhood and apple pie statement what can you agree on," he said. "They pay lip service, they say 'things are very bad, but what can we do about it'."
WSJ:Will Tesla’s Newest Battery Pan Out?
Will Tesla’s Newest Battery Pan Out?
The brand name won’t be enough.
As Tesla Motors Inc. makes a bid to dominate the budding market for electricity storage, it faces lots of competitors and rival technologies, energy experts say. And plenty of challenges—including driving down the price of its “power walls” to a level that will prompt price-sensitive consumers to spring for them.
Tesla announced Thursday that it is repackaging the lithium ion batteries it now uses in its electric cars to sell them as electricity-storage devices for homes, businesses and utilities. The battery packs are meant to absorb electricity when it is cheap and plentiful—during a sunny afternoon for a house with rooftop solar panels, for example—and release the power when electricity is expensive or scarce.
So far the market for electricity storage remains small, though growing quickly; last year about $128 million worth of such batteries were installed around the country, mostly at utilities, according to GTM Research, which tracks the renewable energy industry. Just 1% of the capacity was installed at homes.
Tesla plans to change all that. At an event to formally announce the battery products, Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, said it is “trying to change the fundamental energy infrastructure of the world.” The company’s shares, which had risen by about 6% in the days before the party, ended Friday almost unchanged at $225.96, down nine cents.