The UN Security Council is united in condemning Islamic State – Officials who went AWOL while Ebola ravaged West African are sacked – The Pope breaks the taboo on marrying couples who lived “in sin” – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The UN Security Council on Sunday condemned the beheading of British aid worker David Haines by Islamic State (IS) militants, calling it a “heinous and cowardly murder”.  The Council is calling IS and the al Qaeda-linked al Nusra Front to release the remainder of their hostages.  PM Tony Abbott had earlier dubbed IS a “death cult” as he committed warplanes and other aircraft as well as 600 military personnel to the US led effort to “degrade and destroy” the Sunni militant group. 

The US has been criticized for its tepid response to the West African Ebola Crisis that has killed more than 2,400 people.  To correct that, US President Barack Obama on Tuesday is expected to reveal a much larger US role to mitigate the killer virus, including the use of the US military.  Other steps could include sending portable hospitals, doctors and healthcare workers, and much-needed supplies. 

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has fired ten senior government officials who have failed to obey an order to return from overseas travel and help deal with the crisis in their country.  “These government officials showed insensitivity to our national tragedy and disregard for authority,” the government said in a statement.  More than half of the deaths in the West African outbreak have occurred in Liberia.

But Sierra Leone is also having a very hard time with Ebola, losing a fourth doctor to Ebola hemorrhagic fever.  Dr. Olivet Buck died hours after the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said it would not help transport her to hospital in Hamburg, Germany but would instead focus on her care in-country.  So far, only foreign aid workers have been evacuated from West Africa for treatment.  Cuba is sending more than 160 healthcare workers to aid in the crisis, which the WHO says will make a big difference.

Pope Francis presided over a mass-wedding of twenty couples at the Vatican, and some of the betrothed wouldn’t have been welcomed there so warmly just a few years ago.  Some were already cohabitating – still a no-no in the Roman Catholic Church – some were single parents.  Pope Francis has been more welcoming of people than his predecessors and insists the church should forgive those who have sex outside marriage or who don't obey church teaching to the letter.

Brazil is building a 325-meter tower in the heart of the Amazon, to monitor climate change and chart its effects on the rainforest.  The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory will be equipped with high-tech instruments and an observatory to monitor relationships between the jungle and the atmosphere.  It will gather data on heat, water, carbon gas, winds, cloud formation, carbon absorption and weather patterns.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is vowing to fight anti-Semitism.  There were some ugly incidents on the fringes of protests against Israel’s war in Gaza in July and August, and Merkel says it mustn’t be tolerated.  “Anyone who hits someone wearing a skullcap is hitting us all.  Anyone who damages a Jewish gravestone is disgracing our culture.  Anyone who attacks a synagogue is attacking the foundations of our free society,” she said.  The Holocaust remains a great source of shame with most Germans.