Don’t go to West Africa – Farmers who admitted shooting migrant workers are acquitted – Argentina blames the US – Giraffe and low bridges, not a good mix – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Just DON’T.  The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is warning Australians not to travel to the West African region affected by the deadliest-ever Ebola Outbreak, where 729 people have died.  DFAT says if travelers get into trouble, there’s little the Australian government can do.  Regional border restrictions could tighten and medical evacuations could be difficult, if even possible.  DON’T GO.

The Imam of China’s largest mosque is dead after what appears to be a targeted assassination.  74-year old Jume Tahir was stabbed as he led early morning prayers at the Id Kah mosque in the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang, where ethnic Uighur Muslims have been fighting for independence from China.  Authorities haven’t assigned blame, but stabbings have been the hallmark of Uighur separatist attacks in China.

Police across Europe arrested several members of an Italian mafia family for alleged cocaine trafficking.  They were acting on information given by the widow of a member of the Cacciola clan, who was forced to live in “slave-like” conditions with her in-laws after her husband committed suicide.  She eventually got a message out for help, cops rescued her, and her information led to 16 drug trafficking arrests in Netherlands, Italy, and Germany.

A Greek court is under fire for acquitting some farmers who admitted they shot 28 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers in a dispute over the workers’ back pay.  Four people were badly wounded in the attack.  Politicians, unions, anti-racist groups, and immigrants’ advocates condemned the verdicts, describing them as a black day for justice.  The Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat is calling for strikes, saying in a statement, “The hundreds of millions of profit made in the strawberry industry cannot come about by shooting laborers in strawberry fields.”

Guatemala re-buried the remains of 31 indigenous Ixil Mayans murdered during the bloody reign of fascist dictator Efrain Rios Montt in 1982, this time with proper funerals.  The bodies were exhumed from a mass grave, but only eight could be identified.  Rios Montt was convicted of genocide for ordering troops to wipe out the Ixil, whom he believed were sheltering Leftists.  The conviction was overturned on a technicality and the 87-year old will be retried next year.  Indigenous Mayans made up the majority of the 200,000 killed in Guatemala’s violence.

Argentina is blaming the United States for its debt default, and is considering taking the case to the international court at The Hague.  So-called Vulture Funds in the US refused to bargain with Buenos Aires, which wanted to make lower payments on bonds issued after the last financial crisis in 2001-2002.  Argentina says the US judge and court-appointed mediator in the case were biased for the American funds from the start.

The conservative Republican leadership in the US House of Representatives was humiliated by a cadre of extreme “Tea Party” reactionaries from the furthest right who refused to approved the Republican Party version of an immigration reform bill.  It would have would have authorized US$659 Million in emergency funds to deal with the flood of unaccompanied minors across the Mexican border.  Republicans have demanded something be done about it, and then they couldn’t pass their own legislation.  House leadership is urging President Barack Obama to deal with the problem unilaterally – which is about as ridiculous as it gets, because earlier this week, House Republicans voted to sue the White House for acting unilaterally to implement the US health care reform law known s “Obamacare”.

Meriam Ibrahim and her family have arrived in the United States.  The 27-year old woman was sentenced to die earlier this year by a Sharia Law court in her native Sudan because she would not renounce Christianity.  International pressure ensued, and Sudanese authorities eventually backed down, vacating the conviction and allowing her to leave the country.

South African animal welfare authorities are investigating the death of a young male Giraffe on a highway.  He was one of two animals in containers on the back of a truck, being transported along a highway.  South African celebrity Pabi Maloi was a passenger in a car on the same road, and saw the Giraffe’s head strike a bridge as the truck passed underneath.  She tweeted, “Who thought this one through? I wish I hadn't seen this.”