Top News Stories –

‘Li-fi 100 times faster than wi-fi’ –
A new method of delivering data, which uses the visible spectrum rather than radio waves, has been tested in a working office. Li-fi can deliver internet access 100 times faster than traditional wi-fi, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second). It requires a light source, such as a standard LED bulb, an internet connection and a photo detector. It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn. Velmenni used a li-fi-enabled light bulb to transmit data at speeds of 1Gbps. Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of up to 224Gbps. It was tested in an office, to allow workers to access the internet and in an industrial space, where it provided a smart lighting solution. [BBC]

US space rocket debris found in sea off Scilly –
A large chunk of an American space rocket has been found in the sea off the Isles of Scilly. The section of the spacecraft, measuring about 10m (32ft) by 4m (13ft), was spotted on the surface between Bryher and Tresco. Coastguards believe it is from the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 which exploded after take-off in Florida in June. However many astronomers believe it is from a different mission due to the size and markings. Local boatmen towed the section to Tresco where it has now been removed from the beach. [BBC]

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Wild Scotland from John Duncan on Vimeo.

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• One person is killed and several injured in clashes between police and Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldiers. (ABC News Australia)
• November 2015 Paris attacks
  • France holds a memorial service for the 130 victims of the attacks two weeks ago. (BBC)
• 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
  • Turkey‘s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warns Russia not to “play with fire” and says Russia is supporting the “state terrorism” of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria that has “killed 380,000 people”. Relations between the former Cold War antagonists have been severely damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 near the Syria–Turkey border on November 24, 2015. (Sky News)
• 2015 Bamako hotel attack
  • Malian forces arrest two men in their early 30s linked to a cell phone found at the scene of last week’s deadly hotel attack. No details are provided on what their exact role was. (CNN)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
  • Two Palestinian drivers drive their vehicles into groups of Israeli soldiers in two separate attacks in the occupied West bank. Both drivers are shot dead. In this current wave of violence that began in October, 19 Israelis, one U.S. citizen, and 93 Palestinians have died. (Reuters)
  • The Israeli cabinet authorizes the Israeli Army to close the village of Beir Ummar near Hebron to search for suspects. (Haaretz)
• Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea
  • Pirates attack a Polish-owned cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, kidnapping its captain and four crew. Polish Foreign Minister, Witold Waszczykowski, said the as yet unidentified kidnappers have made no demands so far and Poland was currently liaising with Nigerian authorities. (Reuters)
• Islamist insurgency in West Africa
  • A suicide-bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession in Nigeria‘s northern Kano state leaves at least 21 people dead. (BBC)

Arts and culture

• Archaeologists discover four prehistoric Ichma culture tombs in the centre of the Peruvian capital Lima. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

Business and economics

• China’s Shanghai index closed down 5.5%, a drop of almost 200 points in what was its largest single-day decline in three months. (New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015–16 Australian bushfire season
  • At least 87 homes have been lost in the fires that started in Pinery, South Australia which also claimed two lives and hospitalised 90 with five people in a critical condition. (ABC News Australia)
• Floodwaters in the North Texas area in the North Texas region of the United States claim at least three lives on Thursday and today with another person missing. (Dallas Morning News)

International relations

• Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
  • Pope Francis, speaking in the Kenyan shantytown Kangemi, a sprawling slum filled with tin-roofed homes, lashes out at the elite in a neighborhood that feels largely disenfranchised. He describes injustices against the poor, such as unfair distribution of land, and lack of access to infrastructures and basic services, as “new forms of colonialism.” (CNN)
  • Francis, at a Nairobi sports center, says education and jobs will prevent young people from being radicalized and heading off to join militant groups. At the Kasarani Stadium, the Pope urges attendees to resist the temptation of corruption. “It’s in all the institutions, including in the Vatican …” (USA Today)
• Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, is appointed as the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations. She will become the first woman to hold the position from April 2016. (NYSE Post)

Law and crime

• Former Saenuri Party member of the South Korean National Assembly Cho Hyun-ryong is jailed for five years for accepting bribes. (Yonhap)
• The appellate prosecutors office in the Polish city of Krakow decides not to appeal a decision against extraditing filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States to face prosecution for historic child sex offences. (Reuters)
• 2015 Colorado Springs shootings
  • An active shooter in a Planned Parenthood facility in the American city of Colorado Springs shoots at least four members of the Colorado Springs Police Department with one officer later dying. Two civilians were also killed, and six were injured. The shooter later surrendered. (Denver Post) (Reuters) (NBC News) (CNN)

Politics

• Detroit, a city in which neighborhoods are disappearing, banks aren’t lending, and property values are among the lowest in the nation, is looking to reverse these trends. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is moving aggressively to demolish structures that are beyond repair and auction (bids start at $1,000) ones that are salvageable. Some community banks are helping new buyers. (Washington Post)
• Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a major overhaul of China’s military to make the world’s largest army more combat ready and better equipped to project force beyond the country’s borders. Under the reorganization, all branches of the armed forces would come under a joint military command, Xi told a meeting of military officials in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Bloomberg in September reported details of the plan, which may also seek to consolidate the country’s seven military regions to as few as four. The Chinese president said the reform aimed to “build an elite combat force” and called on the officials to make “breakthroughs” on establishing the joint command by 2020, Xinhua said. (Bloomberg)

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