Militants are on the rampage in the Syrian Civil War – Is Abe-nomics sputtering out? – Two stunning decisions advance LGBT rights in South America – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Militants fighting the Syrian Civil War are holding 43 United Nations peacekeepers near the Golan Heights as the world body tries to secure their release.  Another 81 peacekeepers, also from the Philippines and Fiji, are trapped in the strip bordering Israel and Syria.  The UN declined to identify the militant group causing all the trouble.

On the other side of Syria, the terrorist group Islamic State released video showing the execution of scores of Syrian soldiers captured when IS overran a Syrian airbase in Raqqa province.  It showed the bodies of dozens of men stripped down to their underwear lying face down.  The dead men were stretched out in a line that appeared to be dozens of meters long.  Another pile of bodies was shown nearby.

US President Barack Obama called an unscheduled news conference on Thursday, and reporters expected it to be the announcement that the US has started bombing Islamic State in Syria.  Instead, Mr. Obama told everyone to chill out. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse: we don’t have a strategy yet,” Obama said before the three-day Labor Day weekend (America doesn’t celebrate Labor Day on 1 May like every other country because Socialism is scary).  This brought indignation from the opposition Republican party which never met a war it didn’t like, and likes to solve every problem with things that go “ka-boom” – of course, that’s just the idiocy that brought the conditions that created al Qaeda and Islamic State.  So they can shut up.

The sister of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects allegedly made a bomb threat against a New York City woman.  Ailina Tsarnaeva of New Jersey reportedly made the threat over the phone – she turned herself in to NYPD, who released her pending a 30 September court date.  Her brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to planting two bombs near the Boston Marathon’s finish line in 2013, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.  Elder brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gun battle with police during the manhunt.

More than 20 companies are bidding for the rights to supply marijuana to Uruguay’s pharmacies.  It’s not clear how many will get licenses to grow.  Uruguay is the first nation on Earth to legalize the sale and possession of pot.  The law passed last December allows growers and users to form clubs and authorizes pharmacies to sell up to 40 grams of pot a month to registered users.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court says a Lesbian can adopt her partner’s children, and the kids – aged four and six – will have two mommies.  Ana Leiderman and Veronica Botero petitioned for full parental rights for both women after the first child was born.  The ruling applies to couples where one member is a biological parent.  But legal experts say it could indicate a willingness by the high court to extend adoption rights to all same-sex couples.

Chile has its first openly Gay sailor.  The Chilean Armed Forces is fully supporting 24-year old Mauricio Ruiz after he came out.  Ruiz simply told his superiors that he was tired of leading a double life, and they backed him up – no need for lengthy debates, or foamy-mouthed talking heads unscrupulously and insincerely fretting about “unit cohesion”, “traditional values”, or other crap that has nothing to do with swabbing the deck on a boat.  After decades mired in fascism, Chile is making great strides in becoming a modern nation.  The country was shocked into rethinking its attitudes on LGBT rights after the savage murder of Daniel Zamudio by neo-nazi scum in 2012.  The perpetrators were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and the legislature responded with a new anti-discrimination law.

The speaker of Niger’s parliament, and a potential presidential candidate has instead fled the country, accused in a baby-selling racket.  Hama Amadou says the allegations are politically motivated, and he had recently fallen out with the ruling coalition.  Two months ago, Amadou’s second wife and 16 other people were accused of illegally buying newborns from “baby factories” in south-eastern Nigeria, and apparently adoption is considered “un-Islamic” in Niger.

Japan’s economic vital signs remained weak in July.  Wages fell further and household spending dropped, signaling a lame streak in the world’s third-largest economy – and a signal that “Abenomics” isn’t all that it was cracked up to be.  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic plan to spur inflation on the premise that it would goad businesses and consumers into spending more.  But real incomes fell 6.2 percent in July from a year earlier, and the unemployment rate edged higher.