The US steps up attacks in Islamic State militants – Russian-backed rebels ask Ukraine for a break – Liberia struggles with picking up the dead in the Ebola outbreak – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The US military says said jet fighters and drones carried out four new air strikes on Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.  The IS fighters were attacking Yazidi civilians using armored carriers and a truck, American vehicles that were abandoned by Iraq’s military in earlier fighting.  The US also made a third airdrop of relief supplies to the Yazidi hiding in the mountains above Sinjar, and the UK will soon follow up with a relief drop of its own.

Word is getting out of the specifics of Islamic State’s atrocities in the territory it commands in Iraq and Syria.  Two women were publicly stoned to death for alleged sex outside of marriage; a 14-year old boy was tied to a cross and left out in the sun for breaking the Ramadan fast; and there’ve been several reports of beheadings as well as cutting off the hands of supposed thieves.  The Sunni group has also brutalized Shiite Muslims and others whom it views as apostates.

Palestinian negotiators are threatening to leave peace talks in Cairo on Sunday, if Israel does not attend without preconditions.  Israel refuses to take park unless Hamas militants in Gaza stop launching rockets into Israeli territory.  The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Israeli officials as saying that if rocket fire continued, “all options” were on the table – not just air strikes.  This is happening while pretty much every other country in the world is asking Hamas and Israel to knock it off and agree to another ceasefire.

Guinea, the first West African nation struck by the current Ebola outbreak, has closed its border with Sierra Leone to stop the spread of the killer virus, and other African countries are blocking entrance to anyone from the affected countries.  In overwhelmed Liberia, the government sent riot police to respond to a mob demanding that a pile of Ebola-infected bodies be picked up.  Doctors Without Borders has reports of bodies lying in homes, on streets, along roadsides.  At least 40 health workers in Liberia have contracted Ebola in recent weeks and most of the city's hospitals are closed.

A top separatist leader in Donetsk, Ukraine is calling for a cease-fire on humanitarian grounds.  The city is surrounded by government troops gradually retaking territory from the Russian-backed rebels.  The call for a truce coincide with Moscow’s push to send a so-called “humanitarian convoy” to the rebels in Donetsk – something opposed by the UN and the Ukrainian government which considers the Russian offer a pretense to an invasion.

Russia says its fleet detected a submarine believed to be American and chased away from its waters in the Barents Sea.  State media presumes the sub to have been a Virginia-class vessel, which was met with “An anti-submarine attack group and an Ilyushin Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft”.  The Pentagon is not commenting on the Russian claims.

China is not thrilled with the US, which used the ASEAN forum in Myanmar to call for a freeze on provocative acts in the South China Sea – say.. for instance.. China dragging a massive oil drilling rig to the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by Vietnam.  Could you please not do that?  Thanks!  China responded by insisting its claim over he South China Sea is “unshakable”.  The Paracels and most of the South China Sea are well south of China’s internationally-recognized maritime boundary, and its “unshakable” claim bigfoots over waters used over generations by Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, et cetera.

Mount Sinabung in Indonesia is erupting again. 

A tourist bus plunged off a cliff in Tibet, killing 44 people.  He tourist vehicle crashed into two other vehicles before leaving the road and going over the side.  Tourism is on the rise in the Tibetan Plateau, but the treacherous mountain roads get even more dangerous in the summer rainy season.

Venezuela and Colombia are agreeing to close their mutual border at night.  This is to stop the smuggling of petrol, food, and other goods that are produced with jolly good government subsidies in Venezuela, but which black marketers sell as a vast profit in Colombia – which loses out on the sales tax.