1 Britons have gone space mad with their 'Major Tim' arriving at the International Space Station. Former military pilot Major Tim Peake is the first astronaut from Britain to join the ISS crew and blasted off in a Soyuz space capsule with Russian Yuri Malenchenko and American Tim Kopra from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Children waving flags watched the launch at London's Science Museum and the media coverage has been intensive. Peake, who will be in space for six months, is employed by the European Space Agency. Seven Britons have previously been to space, most either as private individuals or by taking US citizenship.
2 The entire Los Angeles school district with more than 640,000 students - the largest school system in the US - has closed due to a threat. The unspecified threat, which has brought 1000 schools to a standstill possibly involves backpacks. Police are searching schools. Students have been told to stay at home and school buses have been returned to depots. New York officials said they had received the same threat but concluded it was a hoax. Reuters reports Los Angeles authorities did not consult the FBI before making the move. Los Angeles School superintendent Ramon Cortines said the threat was to "many schools". Cortines said police "talked about backpacks, talked about other packages". Steve Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles school police department said the threat was delivered by electronic message.
3 Donald Trump's support among Republicans has reached a new high, the Washington Post reports, as the businessman prepares for the last party debate of the year this afternoon. The Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that criticism of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US hasn't hurt his primary campaign. Trump is at 38 per cent among registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. The poll discovered that 60 per cent of all Americans oppose the ban but nearly 60 per cent of Republicans support it.
4 The Washington Post has a handy article on how to avoid Star Wars spoilers before you see The Force Awakens, which had its premiere yesterday. It says there are at least two Chrome extensions that will block any webpage that mentions the film's title.
5 Scientists in Poland have rejected the claim by amateur treasure hunters that there is a Nazi gold train hidden in a railway embankment, the Guardian reports. "There is no train. The geo-magnetic model anomalies would be far greater if there was," Professor Janusz Madej of the Polish mining academy said. The treasure hunters originally made the claim last August. A team of scientists spent a month surveying the site on the Warsaw-Walbrzych railway.
6 A man who survived a 15-month castaway ordeal is being sued for US$1 million after being accused of 'eating his dead colleague', the Daily Telegraph reports. Salvador Alvarenga, 36, who survived 438 days adrift, is being sued by the family of Ezequiel Cordoba, a fellow fisherman, amid allegations that he ate the 22-year-old's corpse. A storm sent their boat away from Mexico in November 2012 and eventually Alvarenga washed up in the Marshall Islands in January 2014. He said he threw Cordoba overboard after he died.
7 Wide areas of the central Philippines are in darkness as Typhoon Melor cut power and caused flooding and storm surges. Nearly 800,000 people have been evacuated. Three deaths have been reported but not yet confirmed.
8 A genetic study of dogs has revealed their evolution and journey from grey wolves, making contact with humans about 33,000 years ago in south-east Asia. Domesticated dogs entered the Middle East and Africa about 15,000 years ago and Europe 10,000 years ago. Scientists from across the world writing in Cell Research compared the genomes of 58 canids including 12 grey wolves.
9 A Thai man faces up to 37 years in prison for insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej's dog. Factory worker Thanakorn Siripaiboon mocked the dog on social media in an alleged violation of Thailand's laws against insults aimed at the monarchy, the New York Times reported. The military, which controls the country, did not detail the insult against Tongdaeng. A top film in Thailand at the moment is Khun Tongdaeng: The Inspirations, an animated feature based on a book the king wrote in 2002 about his dog.
10 The United Nations watchdog has decided to drop its nuclear weapons probe of Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board chose to close the inquiry into whether Iran once had a secret nuclear weapons programme. Reuters reports that it is opting to support Iran's deal with world powers, allowing inspectors to police the programme.
11 The European Union is planning a 1500-strong rapid-reaction force to stem migration, nearly trebling its spending on frontier defence. The plan, which has to be approved by governments, aims to boost security on the EU's perimeter. A European Border and Coast Guard with 322 million euros in funding by 2020 will replace the Frontex agency and include the standby force.
12 A man has crashed his pickup truck into the lobby of an Oklahoma hotel, the BBC reports. CCTV footage shows the moment the truck is driven into the lobby of the Alva Comfort Inn and Suites in a dispute over a bill. John Parsley, 62, has been arrested.
