Top News Stories –

Christiano times it right for Christmas –
Christiano Ronaldo has given each of his Real Madrid team-mates a Bulgari watch worth £6,500. Each watch is engraved with the recipient’s name, the motif CR7 (he wears shirt number 7) and the words ‘La Decima’, to celebrate Real Madrid winning their 10th European Cup last season.
Christiano Ronaldo

New female boss of Santander –
Baroness Shriti Vadera is appointed chair of Santander UK, making her the first woman to chair a major British bank. Vadera, a former Labour minister, will receive £650,000 a year for a three-day week. She will also continue her roles as a non-executive of drugs group AstraZeneca and mining company BHP, two of the largest companies in the FTSE 100.
Baroness Shriti Vadera

No returns accepted –
US firm Astobiotic launches the first postal service to send items to the moon – with prices ranging from $460 to $26,000.
The firm, which calls the service MoonMail, says it can give over entire missions for larger items that need more shipping space and hopes to fund the development of its lunar landing by offering to take items. (See video of the day)

Video of the Day –

Astrobotic: Lunar Delivery Service

List of the day –

Distances from sun to planets and earth to moon. [List from nineplanets.org]

                        Distance  O_Period				   
Name       #     Orbits (000 km)   (days)    Incl Eccen  Discoverer   Date   A.K.A.
---------  ---- ------- --------  --------  ----- -----  ----------   ----  -------
Sun         -      -        -         -       -     -       -           -   Sol (0)

Mercury    I    Sun        57910    87.97    7.00  0.21     -           -   (0)
Venus      II   Sun       108200   224.70    3.39  0.01     -           -   (0)
Earth      III  Sun       149600   365.26    0.00  0.02     -           -   (0)
Mars       IV   Sun       227940   686.98    1.85  0.09     -           -   (0)
Jupiter    V    Sun       778330  4332.71    1.31  0.05     -           -   (0)
Saturn     VI   Sun      1429400 10759.50    2.49  0.06     -           -   (0)
Uranus     VII  Sun      2870990 30685.00    0.77  0.05  Herschel     1781  (0)
Neptune    VIII Sun      4504300 60190.00    1.77  0.01  Adams(9)     1846  (0)
Pluto      IX   Sun      5913520 90550      17.15  0.25  Tombaugh     1930  (0)

Moon       I    Earth        384    27.32    5.14  0.05     -           -   Luna (0)

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Taliban insurgency
  • A Taliban suicide bomber kills at least six Afghan National Army soldiers in Tangi Tarakhil on the outskirts of Kabul.(AFP via France 24)
  • A suicide bomber attacks a cultural center putting on a play critical of terrorist attacks, killing a German national and wounding 16 others. (Reuters/AFP via ABC News Australia)
  • The Obama Administration orders the closing of the last US-run detention facility in Afghanistan at the Bagram Airfield. (New York Daily News)
• Islamist insurgency in Nigeria:
  • Two bombs explode in the central Nigerian city of Jos with at least 40 people dead. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
• A study by BBC World Service and King’s College London finds the death toll from jihadist attacks during the month of November surpassed 5,000. (BBC)

Arts and culture

• The oldest time capsule in the United States is unearthed at the Massachusetts State House. The capsule was first buried in the cornerstone by Samuel Adams in 1795 and reburied by Henry Gardner in 1855. Wrapped in cowhide, four silver coins fell out when it was found. (ABC), (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

• The American state of California prepares for its worst storm in five years with schools closed in the San Francisco Bay Area. (USA Today)
• Typhoon Hagupit (Ruby)
  • The death toll from Typhoon Hagupit rises to 18. (Phil Star)

Law and crime

• The National Truth Commission set up to investigate human rights abuses by the Brazilian military government of 1964-1985 draws a link between regime era killings and kidnappings to the high number of killings by today’s police force. (AP via Washington Post)
• Former British radio DJ Ray Teret is jailed for 25 years for a series of sexual assaults on 11 girls in the 1960s and 1970s conducted in association with Jimmy Saville. (Billboard)
• British police charge Aravindan Balakrishnan or Comrade Bala with 25 offences including rape in relation to the Lambeth slavery case. (AP via CTV News)
• Alleged Brazil serial killer, Sailson Jose das Gracas, confesses to 42 murders in Rio de Janeiro. (Reuters)
• In R. v. Fearon, the Supreme Court of Canada rules by 4–3 vote that searching for cell phones without a warrant during an arrest does not violate the Section Eight of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (Global News)

Politics and elections

• 2014 Hong Kong protests
  • Authorities start clearing the main protest site in Hong Kong following a recent court order for protesters to vacate the site in Admiralty area. (Wall Street Journal)
• The United States House of Representatives narrowly passes a budget spending bill to avoid a potential governmentshutdown. (NBC News)

Science and technology

• The US Navy initiates the operation of laser weapons. The first use is to protect ships deployed in the Persian Gulf.(Military.com via FOX News)

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