Brazil decides – Hong Kong’s leader sets a deadline to end protests – Cuba provides the one thing aid groups agree is needed to help stop the West African Ebola Epidemic – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Brazil’s election is today.  It’s highly likely that incumbent President Dilma Rousseff will get the most votes, but not enough to avoid a runoff with environmentalist challenger Marina Silva later this month – Polls indicate Dilma will win that one, too.  Although the front-runners are two Leftist women, it’s not all going according to Anglophone definitions of Leftism.  Marina is strong on environmental issues, but as an evangelical Christian has renounced her party’s support of same sex marriage rights and she opposes abortion.  Dilma is a Socialist but has supported market-based solutions to the country’s poverty problems.  Marina wants to repair frayed ties with the United States; Dilma is pushing closer ties among the BRICS nations.

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier is dead of a heart attack at age 63.  Duvalier ruled Haiti with an iron fist dripping with the blood of his opponents killed by the Tonton Macoutes, a quasi-civilian militia of machete-wielding loyalists who acted as his enforcers.  Duvalier was just 19 years old in 1971 when his father Francois “Papa Doc” died, making “Baby Doc” the world’s youngest head of state at the time.  He ruled with the backing of America’s CIA until an uprising forced him into exile in a posh Parisian Villa in 1986.  He returned to Haiti in 2011, and did not apologize for the thousands who died, disappeared, or were illegally detained during the Duvalier dynasty.

Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying, or “C.Y. Leung,” is warning that the territory will take “all necessary actions” to make sure that government workers can go back to their jobs on Monday morning.  That brought out defiance and thousands more protesters outside the government center, demanding that they be allowed to vote for any candidate they choose to replace C.Y. in 2017 – not just the candidates approved by a Beijing panel.  Leung did not specify what measures would be used – but observers still believe it’s unlikely that Hong Kong will have a massive military crackdown, as happened 25 years ago in Tiananmen Square.

Three senior aides to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are in South Korea for an extremely rare visit.  They’ll attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games and then take part in the highest-level cross-border talks in years.  The delegation included: National Defense Commission vice chairman Hwang Pyong-so; Kim’s top aide Choe Ryong-hae; and Workers’ Party official Kim Yang-gon.  The visit was something of a surprise because of increased criticism of the South from Pyongyang, and also because of the mystery surrounding Kim Jong-un’s health.  He’s been out of view for a month.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital officials admit that emergency room doctors did have access to information showing that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan had recently arrived from Liberia.  After his first visit to the facility, emergency room doctors gave him a fistful of antibiotics and sent him home; he was admitted when his relatives called the US Centers for Disease Control for direction and his symptoms grew worse.  Duncan’s condition on Saturday was downgraded to ‘critical’ at the Dallas institution. 

America loves a good panic, and Ebola is scary!  Authorities are dealing with about 100 cases of suspected Ebola – of course, only the one in Texas is for real.  Ebola was ruled out in the case of a traveler who barfed on a flight from Brussels to Newark Liberty International airport just outside New York City.  Disease-control agents in biohazard suits took the man and his daughter off the flight.  But it all turned out to be cos-play, because health officials later ruled out Ebola.

Meanwhile, Cuba’s contribution to the fight in Africa is well underway.  165 doctors and other health professionals are on the ground in Sierra Leone for training.  And then another 296 Cuban doctors and nurses will arrive soon to spread out in Liberia and Guinea, putting much needed help in each of the three worst-affected countries in the West African Ebola Epidemic, which has killed at least 3,439 people.  Medecins sans Frontieres has repeatedly warned that manpower is more important than cash donations at this point.

The Pakistani Taliban says it is now supporting Islamic State (IS), the terrorist group holding large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.  The Taliban says it has already sent as many as 1,500 fighters to IS.  At least ten people were killed and dozens are hurt in Taliban attacks on Shiite Muslim targets in Quetta city and in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A stampede of Hindu worshippers crushed at least 33 people to death at a religious festival in Bihar Province in northern India.  Many of the victims were children.  It’s not clear what caused people to run out of control while leaving Patna's Gandhi Maidan, after celebrations for the festival of Dussehra were held.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is calling for talks with Catalan regional authorities.  On Friday, Catalan leader Artur Mas said he will press ahead with a non-binding independence referendum, despite an earlier Constitutional Court ruling declaring it illegal – a ruling that should have been a clear victory for Rajoy, but instead just raised the back hairs of the independence-minded Catalonians.  Now, Rajoy is using words such as, “The law and dialogue, these are the ways out of the situation in Catalonia,” and, “I want us to stay together.”  Just FYI, Mariano:  When you say, “I want us to stay together,” you are acknowledging there are more than two entities.

Also in Spain, dozens of people were hurt and arrested as anti-monarchy protesters clashed with cops in Madrid.