Good Morning, Australia! – A gas explosion at a hospital kills and injuries dozens – Malaysia formalizes the obvious – Are Nigeria’s neighbors taking the fight against Boko Haram into their own hands? – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

At least seven people are dead after a gas truck exploded right outside the maternity wing of a children’s hospital in Mexico City.  More than 54 are wounded and have been evacuated other facilities in the densely populated megalopolis.  A third of the building collapsed, and first responders are determining how many were trapped beneath the rubble.  Several babies were found alive in the skeletal wreckage of the building.

Malaysia formally declared missing Malaysia Air Flight 370 an accident and that all 239 passengers and crew aboard dead.  The formality finally allows victims’ families to file compensation claims.  The Boeing 777 went missing last March while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, when some unknown event occurred.  Forensic analysis of satellite data led investigators to believe it went horrible off course somewhere in the Indian Ocean west of Australia, but not one shred of physical evidence has ever been found.

Human Rights Watch took a close look and doesn’t see much good anywhere in Iraq and Syria.  The group’s annual report harshly blasts Islamic State for atrocities committed by the militants.  But it criticized the “sectarian and abusive” policies of the Syrian and Iraqi government for fueling the extremism:  Simply put, dropping barrel bombs on Sunnis makes Sunnis draw closer to and feel safer with the extremists in groups like IS and al Qaeda.  The report goes on to fault wealthy residents of the petro-states on the Gulf for funding the terrorists.

Israel says Hezbollah is not looking to escalate.  This comes after the deaths of two Israeli troops and one Spanish peacekeeper in a missile and mortar fight on the border with Lebanon, from which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make the militant group “pay the full price”.  The two fought a costly war in 2006.

Chad’s army and air force crossed Lake Chad and drove Boko Haram militants out of a town in northeastern Nigeria in two days of fighting.  What isn’t clear is if the operation was approved by Nigeria, or if Chad just got sick of Abuja’s inability to deal with the insurgent crisis and acted unilaterally.  Boko Haram operates with impunity in Nigeria’s Borno State and uses it as a base for cross-border attacks on Chad, Cameroon, and Niger – following the Nigerian refugees escaping the violence. 

Further south, protesters disgusted with inaction on the part of the Nigerian government attacked the convoy of President Goodluck Jonathan as he campaigned for reelection in Yola city.  Pelting the convoy with rocks and stones, they managed to shatter several windows and windscreens on his vehicles.  Police used tear gas and whips to beat back the protesters.  One protester said that the cops “should be deployed to Sambisa and fight with Boko Haram, not with innocent civilians”, as he tore down a poster of a smiling Jonathan.  Goodluck, Jonathan – stoning the ineffective president seems to be a growing pastime in Nigeria.

Bulgaria has extradited a suspect to France, one believed to be connected to the deadly terrorist attack at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.  The Bulgarians caught 29-year old Fritz-Joly Joachin while trying to cross into Turkey en route to Syria.  He admitted knowing the brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, but denied foreknowledge of their plans to murder twelve people at Charlie Hebdo on 7 January.