Top News Stories –

World’s second-largest diamond ‘found in Botswana’ –
The world’s second-largest gem quality diamond has been discovered in Botswana, the Lucara Diamond firm says. The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from its Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of the capital, Gaborone. It is the biggest diamond to be discovered in Botswana and the largest find in more than a century. The 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond was found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels. [BBC]
copyright Lucara Diamond Corp.

Scientists have trained pigeons to diagnose breast cancer –
Doctors train for years in order to be able to correctly diagnose cancer – but could they soon be replaced by pigeons? Well, no. Obviously not. However, scientists have now discovered that pigeons are surprisingly adept when it comes to spotting cancerous cells. In a study led by Professor Richard Levenson of the University of California, pigeons were shown microscope images of breast tissue, and then rewarded with food if if they correctly pecked a coloured button that corresponded to either cancerous or healthy tissue. [Daily Telegraph]

Bangladesh: Government ‘mistakenly’ cuts off internet –
An internet shutdown in Bangladesh which lasted for more than an hour was a “mistake”, according to the authorities. Officials announced on Wednesday that access to Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp had all been blocked in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling upholding death sentences for two men convicted of war crimes. But the country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission says it accidentally cut off access to the internet across the whole country. The web blackout started at around 13:00 local time and lasted at least 75 minutes, according to the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star. “We restored the internet as soon as we realised the mistake,” says Shahjahan Mahmood, the commission’s chairman. The messaging services were blocked as originally planned in order to maintain security, he says. [BBC]

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Zoolander 2 Trailer – Paramount Pictures

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Killing of captives by ISIL
  • China vows to “bring to justice” those responsible for executing one of its citizens after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it had killed a Chinese hostage. China’s Foreign Ministry also confirms the hostage’s identity for the first time, naming him as Fan Jinghui. (Channel News Asia)
• Metrojet Flight 9268
  • According to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant‘s official propaganda magazine, a “Schweppes bomb” was used to destroy the Russian airliner. (Reuters)
• November 2015 Paris attacks
  • The French National Assembly approves President François Hollande‘s request to extend the current state of emergency for three months. The Senate must still approve the measure. (NPR)
  • U.S. officials say at least four of the Paris attackers were listed in a central counter-terrorism database maintained by the United States Intelligence Community. (Reuters) (UPI)
  • United States authorities report dozens of suspected radicals in the U.S. are under “tight surveillance” to preclude a Paris copycat. Federal officials are aware of a possible second ISIL video threatening Washington, D.C. Again, no credible plot has been identified. The U.S. beieves this is a part of a propaganda campaign to scare the American public. (ABC News)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
  • A Palestinian kills three people, including an American student and another Palestinian, and injures four others, after opening fire at Israeli cars and then ramming his vehicle into a group of pedestrians, injuring several more near Alon Shvut in the West Bank. (The Times of Israel)
  • A Palestinian kills two men and wounds another outside an office building synagogue in southern Tel Aviv. (Ynet), (The Times of Israel)
• A gunman shoots dead two Saudi Arabian policemen while they are on patrol in their vehicle in Saihat, located in Saudi Arabia’s restive Eastern Province, which is predominantly Shia. (BBC)
• U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehend five Pakistani nationals and one Afghan national trying to sneak into Arizona through the Mexico-U.S. border. (Fox 10 Phoenix)

Arts and culture

• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports more than 500,000 people – a quarter of them children – were homeless this year amid scarce affordable housing across much of the nation. Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, andHawaii all recently declared emergencies over the rise of homelessness. (Reuters)
• 16th Annual Latin Grammy Awards
  • The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences members present the Latin Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. (newser)
    • “Hasta la Raíz” wins Song of the Year and Record of the Year. (ABC News)
    • Todo Tiene Su Hora performed by Juan Luis Guerra wins Album of the Year. (Miami Herald)

Business and economy

• The World Economic Forum in its annual Global Gender Gap Report says that it would take 118 years before women and men have equal pay for similar occupations, such as white collar jobs. (BBC), (The Huffington Post), (The Guardian)
• The New York State Department of Financial Services fines Barclays $150m (£98.2m) for the way it treated its foreign exchange customers. (The Guardian)

Health and medicine

• In connection with World Toilet Day, the United Nations reports that 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation, and nearly one billion have no toilet facilities and are forced to relieve themselves in areas without facilities. (AP)
• The U.S. clears genetically-modified salmon for human consumption. (Reuters)
• The American Medical Association urges Congress and/or the FDA to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and medical devices. The AMA says that the ads increase demand for inappropriate, expensive treatments even if cheaper ones have the same potentials. (The Washington Post), (The Science Times)

International relations

• APEC Philippines 2015
  • Asia-Pacific leaders, in the Philippines for the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, which has been overshadowed by the concurrent Paris attacks, call on governments to urgently increase cooperation in the fight against terrorism.(AP)
  • Local labor and farmer groups protest in Manila over talks on inclusive growth during the APEC meeting. (The Economic Times)
• A Pew Research Center report finds, from 2009 to 2014, more Mexicans, including unauthorized immigrants, are leaving the United States than entering it. An increasing share of Mexicans says life north of the border is neither better nor worse than life in Mexico. (Reuters)
• The United Nations General Assembly humanitarian committee adopts, by a 112-19 vote with 50 abstentions, a resolution that condemns North Korea for gross violations of human rights and supports referring the country and its leaders to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The resolution will be sent to the full General Assembly, where it is expected to pass, given the committee vote. (Reuters via CBS News) (UPI)
• The United States State Department expresses deep frustration over the lack of democratic progress in Thailand after last year’s military coup, saying a new constitution there won’t pass the “smell test” unless civil society helps to draft it. (AP) (US Dept of State)

Law and crime

• A court sentences former restaurant spokesperson Jared Fogle to over 15 years imprisonment for sex with minors and the possession of child pornography. (NPR)
• Convictions for sex offenses against minors accounts for the largest group of military inmates in U.S. military prisons. (AP via The Star Tribune)
• Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. intelligence analyst convicted to a life sentence for providing top secret classified information to Israel, will be released on parole Friday after serving 30 years in U.S. federal prison. He will be given an ankle monitor while he completes five years of parole in America. (CNN) (AP) (Jerusalem Post)

Politics and elections

• 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
  • A mass rally due to be held on November 29, 2015 in Paris on the eve of climate change talks is called off due to the threat of terrorism. (ABC News)
• Peter Robinson announces he will step down as Northern Ireland‘s First Minister and as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, corresponding with recent tensions in the area and a murder linked with the Irish Republican Army. (ITV News)
• The U.S. House of Representatives, defying a veto-threat by President Barack Obama, overwhelmingly passes legislation to suspend the Obama administration’s program to admit 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country. The bill will now face a vote in the U.S. Senate. (Reuters)

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