Sydney's Business District in Hostage Crisis & 7 More Monday Headlines

1) Sydney's Central Business district was partly evacuated after an armed man took several people hostage in a cafe this morning. Five people, patrons and employees, managed to escape or were set free. As of this writing, the crisis has lasted more than 12 hours and little is known about the man's motives – only that he displayed a banner with an Islamic message – his eventual accomplices or the hostages. The CBD is home to many of the Australia's large businesses and financial institutions. Workers were invited to either evacuate or stay put until the situation is resolved. Landmarks like the Opera House were closed.

2) Uber added a stripe on its black belt in PR disasters by imposing 4x surge pricing with a $100 minimum during the evacuation of the CBD, as the Martin Place metro station was closed by police and thousands of office workers struggled to find a way home. "Demand is off the charts!" said the app. Uber reversed course following public outcry, saying its surge pricing is automated and it didn't mean to. The company then offered free rides out of CBD.

3) But Parisian taxis managed to look like the bad guys against Uber by going on strike today and blocking the road between Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport, right during morning rush hour. Can someone in taxi unions please take PR 101?

4) Sony warned media to stop publishing its employees' emails, obtained through a devastating hack on Sony Pictures' computer system. Should journalists continue to report on what Sony's lawyers call the "Stolen Information" (capital S, capital I), the company would have “no choice but to hold you responsible from any damage or loss resulting from such use or dissemination by you,” the letter says. Sony can intimidate all it wants, but much like that disclaimer you might have at the bottom of your emails, it stands on very thin legal ground: once the information is "out there" and unless the media outlets themselves stole the information, the First Amendment protects them. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin knows this: it's a big part of the storyline for the current season of his show The Newsroom. So instead he's debating the ethics of it in a New York Times editorial worth reading. He argues the hack reveals no information that is essential enough to the public that it warrants aiding and abetting criminals. There's always another option too: hackers have offered to spare Sony employees who contact them. Yeah, right...

5) Xiaomi is taking a page off Amazon's book. The Chinese smartphone maker is focused on growth but makes little profit: a regulatory filing shows a profit of $56 million in 2013. That's a mere 1.3% profit margin for the world's third smartphone maker, compared with figures nearing 20% for Samsung and 30% for Apple. Profits are likely to be larger in 2014 though hurt by a recent and indefinite suspension of sales in India over a patent row.

6) Private investors are buying pet supply chain Petsmart for $8.7 billion. That's the largest leveraged buyout this year.

7) US Senator Charles Schumer and the rest of us would like to know why airfares remain so high while oil prices have markedly declined. Schumer called for a federal investigation. Airlines are usually quick to blame oil markets when prices go up, so why doesn't it work the other way around? Because demand remains high – we all want to fly home for the holidays – and airlines control supply – they can make sure there are never quite enough flights, rather than lower prices to fill them up. Say what? It's explained very clearly here.

8) Today is the last day to sign up for health insurance under the ACA if you want coverage starting January 1st. Healthcare.gov and state exchanges are bracing for increased traffic until the deadline at midnight PST.

Every morning, we share the top headlines professionals need to know about right now. Share with your network, read and discuss — and let us know what we missed in the comments below.