The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

REUTERS/Gene Blevins Los Angeles city firefighters battle a massive fire at a seven-story downtown apartment complex under construction in Los Angeles, California December 8, 2014.

Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Friday.

1. Eight children died Friday morning in a mass stabbing in Australia.

2. The United Nations has requested more than $8.4 billion for 2015 to help nearly 18 million people affected by the war in Syria.

3. British police are looking into the murders of three young boys as part of an ongoing investigation into child abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s. 

4. Investigators said arson was the cause of a massive fire in an unfinished Los Angeles apartment building last week that caused an estimated $30 million of damage.

5. European Union leaders agreed to a new round of sanctions against Crimea, banning all investment in the region as further punishment for Russia's annexation of the region from Ukraine.

6. Canadians are fretting that renewed relations between the United States and Cuba will ruin their vacation spot, currently free of American tourists. 

7. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country could bounce back from the current economic crisis within two years during a three-hour news conference on Thursday.

8. Sierra Leone's leading doctor Victor Willoughby died of Ebola on Thursday, bringing the West African country's death count from the virus to 109.

9. A new BBC documentary alleges that Apple sources the tin for its iPhones from Indonesian mud pits where children work in dangerous conditions.

10. Scientists discovered a new fish that sets the record for the world's deepest during an expedition to the Mariana Trench.

And finally ...

Brown bears, grey wolves, the Eurasian lynx, and wolverines are making a comeback in Europe, after being driven to near extinction decades ago.