The 10 most important things in the world right now
1.A fire at a hospital inSaudi Arabia on Thursday killed 25 people and injured 107. The fire started on the first floor in the intensive care unit and the maternity ward.
2. A Thai court sentenced two Myanmar migrant workers to death after finding them guilty of murdering two British backpackers on a Thai island.
3. Forty cities in northern China issued or maintained their red alerts for hazardous air pollution levels on Thursday.
4. Syria's foreign minister said the country is ready to participate in peace talks in Geneva, speaking during a meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.
5. The office of British Prime Minister David Cameron is looking why a British Muslim family was barred from boarding a flight from London's Gatwick airport to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland.
6. US immigration officials are reportedly planning raids to deport hundreds of Central American immigrants who crossed the border since last January.
7. Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley company that sells technology that scans through huge amounts of data looking for patterns and is used by a lot of law enforcement and spy agencies, just raised $880 million (£591 million) at a $20 billion (£13.4 billion) valuation.
8. Cameroon's army killed 70 civilians they mistook for Boko Haram. "Before we could say a word, they started firing. That scared most of us and we began to run," a resident of the village and deputy commander of a local fighting group opposed to Boko Haram told the Associated Press.
9. Japan is investigating the reported kidnapping of a journalist in Syria. The freelance journalist was kidnapped in July and is still being held hostage by an armed group, according to Media rights group Reporters Without Borders.
10. Transportation officials say an eighth US death has been linked to Takata's faulty airbags. The bags can explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel.
And finally ...
For the first time in 38 years, the last full moon of the year will fall on Christmas.