10 things you need to know today: December 1, 2014

1. Obama gathers leaders in White House to address Ferguson

President Obama is holding White House meetings on Monday to discuss the backlash over the fatal August shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. Obama and his cabinet will meet to discuss programs providing police with military-style equipment, like the weapons Ferguson officers carried when protests erupted. Later, Obama and civil rights leaders will discuss "mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color," a White House official said.

The New York Times

2. Canadian woman reported captured by ISIS

Islamic State militants have captured a Canadian-born woman, Gill Rosenberg, who reportedly joined Kurdish forces fighting the Islamist group this month, Israeli media reported on Sunday. Syrian websites associated with ISIS are reporting that the group's fighters captured several women in the besieged town of Kobani on Syria's border with Turkey. At least 50 ISIS fighters were killed in 24 hours over the weekend in a flurry of street battles, suicide bombings, and U.S.-led airstrikes.

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The Star Alarabiya

3. Pro-democracy protesters try to surround Hong Kong government offices

Hong Kong officials on Monday ordered pro-democracy protesters not to return to their main protest site after demonstrators tried to surround government headquarters to prevent officials in the Chinese-run city from getting to work. The demonstrators, who have been demanding free elections since September, briefly shut down the headquarters as police armed with pepper spray, batons, and riot shields pushed back the crowd of thousands of activists.

Reuters

4. Pope urges Muslim leaders to denounce Islamist terrorists

Pope Francis, during his flight home from a three-day trip to Turkey, urged the world's Muslim leaders to condemn terrorism by Islamists. Francis denounced people who suggest that "all Muslims are terrorists," which he said was just as unfair as saying that all Christians twist the beliefs of their religion. The pontiff said Muslim leaders could help dispel the stereotype of their faith with a "global condemnation" of the violence carried out in the name of Islam.

BBC News

5. Two Egyptian protesters die in protest against Mubarak's acquittal

Egyptian police cracked down Sunday on about 1,000 protesters angry over Saturday's acquittal of former president Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 deaths of people who were demonstrating against his government. Officers tried to disperse Sunday's crowds using tear gas and water cannons. At least two of the protesters were killed, and nine were injured, government officials said. Mubarak, currently serving three years for embezzlement, was also acquitted on corruption charges, along with his sons Alaa and Gamal.

Voice of America

6. Missing Ohio State football player's body found

A woman and her son found the body of missing Ohio State football player Kosta Karageorge in a trash bin near his apartment on Sunday, Columbus police said. There was also a handgun in the bin, and police said Karageorge, 22, appeared to have used it to shoot himself. Before going missing on Wednesday, Karageorge, also a wrestler, texted his mother suggesting that several sports-related concussions might have driven him to despair. "I am sorry if I am an embarrassment," he wrote, "but these concussions have my head all [messed] up."

Columbus Dispatch

7. Plane evacuated at JFK after bomb threat

More than 200 passengers and crew were evacuated from an American Airlines plane arriving from Barcelona on Sunday due to a bomb threat. A police spokesman said somebody phoned in the threat to Port Authority Police. After landing, the plane was towed to a remote hangar and notified of the "unspecified threat" against their plane. "They told us to grab our luggage and get off," said Flight 67 passenger Jacob Rosenberg, 37.

New York Daily News

8. Kabul police leader quits after Taliban attacks

Kabul's police chief resigned Sunday in the wake of a Taliban attack that killed three members of a South African family in a guest house that was home to the staff of a U.S.-based charity called Partnership in Academics and Development. The Saturday attack by insurgents armed with guns and explosives was the third strike against a foreign guest house in 10 days. These and other high-profile attacks have chipped away at confidence in Afghan security forces as foreign troops leave.

Reuters

9. Quiet hurricane season comes to a close

An unusually calm Atlantic hurricane season ended Sunday. There were only eight named storms, just six of them hurricanes. Only one hurricane — Arthur, a Category 2 storm in July — hit the East Coast. That made the 2014 hurricane season the quietest since 1997. Hurricane-rattled Florida hasn't been hit since 2005, a year when there were 15 hurricanes. "A lot of it is plain luck. I'd love for us to go for another year," National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said, "but we have to assume that it is not going to happen."

Los Angeles Times

10. Black Friday weekend sales decline

Total spending for the four-day Black Friday weekend fell from $57.4 billion to $50.9 billion, an 11 percent drop compared to last year, the National Retail Federation reported Sunday. Store traffic dropped by 5.2 percent compared to last year. Analysts blamed several factors, including discounting that began as early as Halloween. Another theory, however, is that some people are less desperate for sales as the economy improves. The retail trade group is predicting overall holiday sales rise by 4.1 percent.

The Associated Press NBC News