Spain plans to force women back into the 1980s – Freed from prison, a former billionaire flees Russia as fast as possible – Ban Ki-Moon goes to Tacloban City – All this and Gay Penguins, in your Careerspot World News Briefs.

Spain’s conservative government agreed on a draft bill to ban abortion except in the rarest of circumstances, in effect rolling back women’s’ reproductive rights to the days of the fascist Franco dictatorship.  The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy caved in to pressure from the Catholic Church, allowing abortion only in case of rape, serious fetal deformity or if the pregnancy presents a grave mental or physical health risk to the mother.  Yes, protesters already hit the streets and more are planned. 

Former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky fled Russia as soon as he was released from prison under a pardon signed by President Vladimir Putin.  Arriving in Germany, he did not admit guilt and said others were “unjustly convicted and continue to be persecuted” in his case, in which he spent years in prison for tax evasion and theft.  Human rights groups had considered him a political prisoner.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) and UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) snooped on 1,000 officials including a European Union Commissioner, an Israeli Prime Minister, and numerous humanitarian organizations.  This, in simultaneous reports from three newspapers based on the Snowden Documents.  One document says the emails of an Israeli PM were monitored in 2009; that would be when Ehud Olmert had the job.  The EU official is Joaquin Almunia who investigated monopolies and clashed with giant US tech firms like Google.  The US denies it spies to help corporations.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has signed a controversial law that allows foreign companies to drill for oil for the first time since the sector was nationalized in 1938.  President Pena Nieto says the reform will help Mexico attract the investment needed to boost its falling oil output.  Opponents say it damages national interests by privatizing an asset that belonged solely to the Mexican people.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will visit typhoon-ravaged areas of the Philippines to assure people that international relief will continue.  It’s still weeks since the typhoon and killer storm surge that hit the islands like a tsunami, and dozens of bodies are still being recovered daily.

Gunmen killed the mayor of a southern Philippines town, his wife, and two other people including a baby in an attack at Manila airport.  The murderers fled the scene on a motorcycle.  Police are reportedly investigating the possibility that a political rivalry was the motive.  Mayor Ukol Talumpa survived two earlier attacks, not so lucky this time.

Well, that was sad.  How about a Baby Otter?  Or Zoo Animals getting Christmas presents?

African negotiators say talks to avert a civil war in South Sudan have been “productive”.  Clashes began a week ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy of a failed coup.  Hundreds of people have died in fighting since then.  Uganda evacuated its citizens and reportedly will contribute troops to help secure the capital.

How about three from the global fight for LGBT rights?

1) Uganda’s parliament approved legislation imposing harsh penalties on gay people, including life imprisonment for what it called “aggravated homosexuality”, whatever that is.  MPs in effect brushed off the concerns of outside powers, including US President Barack Obama, who succeeded only in getting them to take out a part of the bill approving the death penalty.  The bill must be signed by President Yoweri Museveni to become law.

2) In Russia, a third person has been convicted of violating that country’s controversial law against spreading “homosexual propaganda”, whatever that is.  A court in the central city Kazan ordered gay rights activist Dmitri Isakov to pay A$135 for holding a sign that read, “Being gay and loving gays is normal. Beating gays and killing gays is criminal.”  Isakov doesn’t plan to stop his activism.

3) Gay couples in the very conservative US state of Utah ran down to their city halls to get married, after a US federal judge ruled that state’s ban on gay marriage was constitutional.  It’s a major victory for gay rights activists in a state where the Mormon Church wields considerable influence.  The governor whined about “activist judges”, and the state of Utah will appeal.

Also, Lesbian Penguins.  So there.  Oh, don't act so shocked, they're hardly the first.  Or maybe some of these South Korean Zoo Penguins dressed as Santa are..

And, Bolivians celebrated the launch of the country's first telecommunications satellite, the last nation in South America to get a bird in orbit.  Crowds in La Paz watched on video link from the launch site in China, where President Evo Morales witnessed it.  The satellite is named Tupak Katari, after a legendary indigenous hero who fought Spanish colonial rule.  Evo says it will bring an end to Bolivia’s reliance on foreign countries for its communications.