Hello Australia!! - The UN Security Council endorses Syrian peace talks - Europe is urged to quit dawdling and help the refugees - Islamophobic morons prompt an entire school district to cancel classes - Mother Teresa is slated for sainthood - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution outlining a peace process in Syria.  The text endorses talks between the Syrian government and opposition to commence in early January, as well as a ceasefire.  Syria's civil war is nearing its fifth year; more than 250,000 people have died and millions more are displaced.

Refugees and displaced people numbered well more than 60 million people this year, according to a report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  The total figure at the end of 2014 was 59.5 million.  The report says that this year's figures includes more than 20 million people fleeing wars and persecution. 

Because of the refugee emergency, Europe needs to set up a "massive" resettlement program, according to the UNHCR.  Before this year is over, more than a million people will have arrived in the EU hoping for asylum.  EU states have agreed to resettle 22,000 people direct from UN refugee camps but so far only about 600 have arrived.  UNHCR Antonio Guterres says that's not enough:  "And when I mean massive, I mean hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, not just what has been discussed until now in relation to resettlement," he said, "If this is not put in place and the tragedy in the Aegean goes on and the Balkan chaotic situation goes on, I must say I am very worried for the future of the European asylum system."

In Stupid America, an entire county in Virginia closed its school system as a "safety precaution" after people responded to a lesson in Arabic calligraphy with angry complaints from parents and threats from outside the district.  The statement translates as Islamic motto, "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is the messenger of Allah."  Even though there were other examples in the lesson, hicks and rubes immediately assumed the teacher was trying to convert their kids to Islam and freaked out.  The school says the calligraphy class will continue to lean about world cultures through their writing, but from now on a non-religious example would be found for the Arabic lesson.

In front of journalists, foreign experts, and diplomats, Russian investigators opened the flight recorders from the SU-24 warplane that was brought down by Turkey.  They found that the the memory card data storage sustained damage in the attack, but they'll try to extract data from it.  The black box's findings will be revealed next week, possibly as early as Monday.

Ouch! That's gotta hurt.

Israel has put an Aussie with dual citizenship under administrative detention, which means jail without charges or trial.  This treatment was reserved for Palestinian militants in the past, but earlier this year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed police to apply to Jewish extremists after the arson attack that killed a one year old Palestinian baby and his parents, and left his severely burned four-year old brother without a family.  Fairfax media reports that 23-year old Evyatar Slonim is not linked to this arson - but he is well-known to police for alleged anti-Palestinian vandalism (no charges were ever filed), and has been named as a member of a shadowy extremist movement called "The Revolt" that wants to overthrow Israel's Democracy for a "Jewish kingdom". 

Pope Francis has approved a second "miracle" attributed to Mother Teresa, the Albanian nun whose work with the poor in India's Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) drew much praise as well as sharp criticism for her order's poor care for the indigent and sick, her hardline conservatism, questionable finances, and relationships with fascists and dictators.  That clears the way for the Roman Catholic Church to declare her a saint next year.  The latest "miracle" involves a Brazilian man whose priest prayed to her to cure his eight brain tumors.  Pope John Paul II certified a miracle cure of a woman's stomach cancer in 2002.