Overnight News Digest: The other news, over there

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 with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. 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.  Or, if it is me and it is Friday night, it might be a little later (sorry).

The breaking news this evening is from Russia.  This updated report from the AP through the New York Times:

All 61 Aboard Dubai Airliner Killed in Crash in South Russia

MOSCOW — An airliner with 61 people aboard coming from Dubai crashed early Saturday while landing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said.

All 55 passengers and six crew members had been killed, Igor Oder, head of the emergency ministry's southern regional operations, told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puckhov in a televised briefing.

 Back to the more planned coverage:

We start with stories about crime, first with one by Joanna Walters, from the Guardian:

North Korean labour camps: a harrowing reality but US student could be spared

Experts believe Otto Warmbier will avoid the worst but stories abound of camps where many die after working 16-hour days and subsisting on handfuls of food

The distraught pleadings of the American college student sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in a prison in North Korea for “crimes against the state” are sobering when considering the details of what such punishment normally entails.

The pariah state ruled three days ago that Otto Warmbier, 21, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was guilty of a heinous political crime committed with the “tacit connivance of the US government and its manipulation” and deserved harsh treatment. The crime the University of Virginia commerce student had allegedly carried out was the petty theft of a political propaganda poster from his vacation hotel in Pyongyang.

David Shariatmadari, also from the Guardian:                                      

Arsenic was their poison – we have tobacco, guns and sugar The 19th-century fight to restrict access to poisons echoes the US’s struggle with firearms today In the spring and summer of 1871, Brighton was gripped by a series of mysterious poisonings. Chocolate creams from Maynard’s, a local sweet shop, had made several people ill. A metallic taste in the mouth was the first sign that something was wrong, followed by a burning sensation in the throat, vomiting and muscle spasms.

The symptoms quickly passed, however, and no one thought to take it any further. No one apart from Christiana Edmunds, who confronted Mr Maynard in his shop, complaining about the taste and her upset stomach. She even took a sample to a chemist, who analysed it and found that it contained a metallic poison. But still no action was taken.

That changed on 12 June. Four-year-old Sidney Barker ate one of the chocolates and began to shiver and spasm uncontrollably. Within half an hour he was dead. Had the chocolate been contaminated by some industrial chemical? Was Maynard a psychopath?

Next we have news about terrorism and the fight against it, to round out the coverage of the subject that focused on the arrest of Salah Abdeslam.  

From Reuters, published in Al Ahram:

Bomb kills policeman in southeast Turkey, embassies warn on security

 bomb attack by Kurdish militants killed a police officer in southeast Turkey on Friday and another device was defused outside a local government building, as embassies issued security warnings about expected demonstrations this weekend.

Turkey has been on high alert since a suicide bombing, claimed by a Kurdish militant group, killed 37 people in the capital Ankara on Sunday. Germany shut down its diplomatic missions and schools in Turkey, while the US and other European embassies warned citizens to be vigilant.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were believed to have staged Friday's attack on the armoured police vehicle during security operations in the town of Nusaybin, near the Syrian border, security sources said.

And from Stephanie Nebehay and Angus McDowall, for Reuters, via Google:

U.N. says Saudi-led bombing of Yemen market may be international crime

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen may be responsible for "international crimes", a category that includes war crimes and crimes against humanity, the top U.N. human rights official said on Friday.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned an air strike in Yemen this week and added that the coalition was "responsible for twice as many civilian casualties as all other forces put together".

More than 6,000 people have been killed since the coalition campaign began a year ago to fight Iranian-allied Houthis and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and to restore the president they ousted, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri said on Friday major combat operations were less extensive than earlier in the war and there were "good signs" the U.N. might soon restart peace talks between warring Yemeni factions.

Environmental News next:

From Paul Mozur, in the New York Times

With ‘Smog Jog’ Through Beijing, Zuckerberg Stirs Debate on Air Pollution

A morning run can be the perfect way to overcome jet lag, but usually not when it’s through the choking haze of auto exhaust and industrial discharge.

In a Friday morning post, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his arrival in Beijing with a blithe message about what must have been a dizzying job through the center of China’s capital, which has been suffering from a weeklong bout of hazardous air pollution. 

“It’s great to be back in Beijing! I kicked off my visit with a run through Tiananmen Square, past the Forbidden City and over to the Temple of Heaven,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, most likely using a virtual private network to get around the Chinese government Internet filters, which block his site.

In a photo accompanying the post, made about 10:30 a.m., Mr. Zuckerberg smiles alongside several running companions in front of the famous portrait of Mao Zedong that overlooks Tiananmen Square.

At 9 a.m. an air-quality monitor at the United States Embassy in Beijing calculated the level of PM2.5, ultrafine particles that damage respiration, at 305 micrograms per cubic meter. That level is deemed “hazardous” under American air-quality standards.

The stories are not all hopeless, however, as this story from News Ghana shows:

KITA Introduces ecological engineering and ecovillage design courses

The Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture (KITA) is to begin a programme in ecological engineering and ecovillage design to help appropriately deal with the increasing degradation of the environment.

Mr. Samuel Owusu-Takyi, the Director, said the programme would build the capacity of environmentalists, agriculturists and students in renewable energy, water harvesting and purification, restoration of land and natural building technologies. It would also provide training in sustainable agriculture and afforestation.

He announced this at an international conference on “Promoting ecovillage strategies as models for sustainable development” held at Domeabra in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality.

It was organized by the Global Ecovillage Network, Ghana (GEN) with support from the Danish Civil Society Network.

And then some more cheerful news, from Gulf News:

Saudis looking for love find it on social media

Given gender-segregation rules, youth prefer opportunities and anonymity of online courtship

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia goes to great lengths to prevent unsanctioned romance. So citizens of the kingdom are increasingly turning to social media networks to pursue relationships and plan forbidden rendezvous, people here say.

In a country with strict gender-segregation rules, unmarried men and women who mingle can face harassment or worse from religious police. While Saudis have long cautiously challenged their society’s traditions by using the internet to flirt and chat, many say social media networks give them a relatively safe place to find potential spouses, too.

“All my friends are talking to boys on social media,” said a 23-year-old woman who described meeting a former boyfriend through Facebook.

Their relationship evolved into secret excursions in his vehicle, she said. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, she and other people interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity.