Nigeria’s President wants lots of money for a task at which he has shown no results – Mexico reviews its scrutiny of a house of horrors – Microsoft is slashing jobs – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking to borrow US$1 Billion to fund the fight against Boko Haram Islamist militants.  In presenting the plans to parliament, he did not specify which country he was looking at making a deal with.  Jonathan has been the focus of intense criticism for the appearance of doing little-to-nothing to find the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram months ago, and treating the girls’ families with derisive contempt.

Thailand’s military coup leaders are granting permission to ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to leave the country.  She had asked for permission to travel to Europe from 20 July to 10 August, and since she had kept a low profile since the coup d’etat, the junta has obliged.  The military says there will be no elections before October 2015.

Mexican prosecutors are examining past allegations of abuse at the rat and vermin infested group home ran by a woman some considered to be the “Mother Teresa of Mexico”, to find out if legitimate concerns had been ignored.  Earlier this week, federal police raided the “La Gran Familia de le Mama Rosa”, or Great Family group home, and rescued 458 children who were forced to beg for money and suffered sexual abuse while being against their will in filthy conditions.  Cops have arrested “Mama” Rosa del Carmen Verduzco and eight workers.

Before Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, the IDF observed a five-hour cease fire, allowing Palestinians to go to the bank, the market, and do the stuff they couldn’t do while pinned down by nine days of missile attacks.  Authorities also scrambled to perform repairs on water lines and other infrastructure devastated by Israeli bombing. 

One of France’s high-speed TGV trains collided with a regional train, injuring at least 40 people.  The TGV train had stopped briefly on its route and had only just began moving again, not at full speed.  That fact appears to have prevented a much more serious accident.  Police and firefighters arrived at the scene quickly to help the injured passengers from the train.

Dozens of people are dead after torrential rain better vast swaths of China, including Jiangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces.  It’s been raining since Wednesday morning in some places and officials are bracing for even more devastation.  Thousands of homes and other buildings have been destroyed.

Microsoft is laying off 18,000 workers worldwide, the deepest cuts in the software giant’s history.  Most are related to Microsoft’s disastrous purchase of Nokia earlier this year.  Still an incredibly profitable company, Microsoft has been beaten badly in emerging technology trends such as mobile, tablets, Internet search, and “cloud” computing.  At the same time, the company will cease making Android smartphones and focus exclusively on those featuring the Windows Phone operating system.

Buddhism is around 2,500 years old.  So, it’s about time someone introduced Rap Music to it.