The world’s refugee crisis has now reached proportions not scene since the last World War – A doctor frets that Ebola is “out of control” – An infamous wrongful conviction will cost New York City – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The United Nations says there are now more refugees in the world than at any time since the end of World War II – 51 million people forcibly driven from their homes, most by war.  Half of them are children.  The largest group by nation is Syrian civilians – 6.5 million displaced internally, and 6.5 million outside the borders.  And many of the same Sunni Muslim radicals that routed the Syrian civilians have since driven hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes in northern Iraq.

Two men identifying themselves as Australians are the ‘stars’ of a recruiting video put out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  One calls himself Abu Yahya ash Shami, although his real family name is reportedly Raad.  Members of the Sydney-based clan were convicted of funding a terrorist organization in 2008.  Raad supposedly died in battle in Iraq.  The other man calls himself Abu Nour al-Iraqi.  The striking thing about the video is that it is an English language production, aimed at recruiting jihadis from Anglophone nations.

It’s not just Sunni ISIS guerillas threatening Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  Now, Iraq’s top Shia cleric says the PM ought to step down.  In nationally-televised comments during Friday prayers, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani suggested that al-Maliki is to blame for the crisis from the north because he alienated the Sunni population, cutting them out of any meaningful power sharing in Baghdad.

Back to Syria for a moment – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.  So far, Russia – backed by China – has shielded most moves against Syria with its veto power.  Ban is going a step further, saying if the Security Council can’t act, then individual nations should.  Syria’s three-year civil war has killed at least 150,000 people; see the first item in this News Brief for the refugee situation.

Aight, a little more and we’re out of the perpetually troubled Middle East:  Israeli security forces shot and killed a Pakestinian teen in the crackdown following the reported kidnapping of three Israeli teens.  15-year old Mohammed Jihad Dudeen was throwing rocks at IDF forces, when one soldier opened fire hitting the boy in the heart and abdomen.  His mother was inconsolable when located by reporters.

The three missing Israeli teens – 19-year old Eyal Yifrach, and 16-year-olds Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel – were last seen on 12 June, hitchhiking back home from their religious schools in West Bank settlements.  One of the teenagers called police and whispered, “I’ve been kidnapped”, but the cops didn’t take it seriously and delayed the search for several hours.  The IDF has been gung-ho looking for them, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu has repeatedly blamed Hamas – just without offering any proof.  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the kidnapping.

Rolf Harris – No verdict yet.

US Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Guatemala to tamp down an immigration crisis:  Smugglers are lying to poor Central Americans, telling them that their kids will be welcomed to stay in America – for a fee, of course.  These countries are overrun by drug gangs, and the murder rates are astronomical, so the parents do what they can to get their kids out.  Between October 2013 and the end of May 2014, US border officials intercepted more than 47,000 unaccompanied minors trying to illegally enter the United States.  The US and Mexico want to form a “regional strategy” to deal with what they call a “humanitarian crisis”.

The Ebola virus is “totally out of control” in West Africa according to a physician from Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).  Dr. Bart Janssens says his group has now reached its limit as to what it can do, and that “the epidemic is now in a second wave”.  The World Health Organization this week raised the death toll to more than 330 after deaths were reported in Liberia’s capital city Monrovia.  Ebola has no vaccine, no cure, and is fatal in up to 90 percent of infections.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is giving Australia another year to prove it’s really trying to protect the Great Barrier Reef.  Otherwise, it’s World Humiliation if the Reef is labeled as endangered.  The committee was impressed by efforts to clean up the Reef, but still concerned about the Abbott government’s planned coastal developments and coal shipping plans that could further damage the undersea treasure.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko declared a week-long cease fire with pro-Russian separatists in the east.  But the insurgents show no signs of laying down their arms, there are new reports of military hardware entering eastern Ukraine, and Russia is building up its forces on the border.

Spain’s government is proposing new immunity for Juan Carlos, who abdicated his crown – and his legal immunity – this week.  Two paternity suits were filed against the dirty old man last year, but didn’t move in the courts because you just can’t sue the king.  The ruling right-wing People’s Party (PP) has a clear majority in parliament, so it’ll probably pass.

New York City will pay US$40 Million to the “Central Park Five”, a group of African American men who were wrongfully-convicted in their teens and each spent six to twelve years in prison for the 1989 rape and bashing of a female jogger in Gotham’s famous park.  The case was legendary in the US, and gave rise to idiotic, fear-based, conservative social theories of “urban predators” from dimwits who feared hip-hop music.  Yeah, it was pretty racist.  Anyway, the kids didn’t do it and they were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2002.