Ebola is confirmed in Glasgow – Smoke is sighted in the search for the missing AirAsia jetliner – Obama gives a stunning critique of Putin – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Indonesian officials say they are sending teams to investigate reports of smoke on an island in the area where AirAsia Flight QZ8501 disappeared on Sunday.  The search is concentrating on at least four new sectors in addition to the waters around Belitung Island, Indonesia.  The US Navy guided missile destroyer USS Sampson is en route to the search area, joining Australia, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore in the effort.  The Airbus A320-200 lost contact with air traffic control after requesting a higher elevation to avoid a powerful storm over the Java Sea on Sunday morning.  At least 162 passengers and crew were aboard. 

The death toll from the Adriatic Sea ferry fire is now ten lives lost, but at least the evacuation of all persons aboard has been completed.  Rescuers braved gale force winds to get more than 400 people off of the ship, and those passengers were dealing with a lower passenger deck so hot it was melting their shoes, not to mention thick, acrid smoke.  The fire apparently occurred on the automobile deck down below, and it’s unclear what caused vehicle after vehicle to burn, creating an inferno in the ferry’s belly.  The ferry was packed with travelers going from Greece to Italy.

A healthcare worker is being treated for Ebola in Glasgow’s Gartnavel Hospital.  She was diagnosed after returning from Sierra Leone where she had been part of the fight against the West African Ebola Epidemic.  The plan is to fly the woman to London’s Royal Free Hospital, the same facility with the specialized isolation unit that successfully treated UK nurse William Pooley.  It was Sunday that the patient traveled from Sierra Leone, connecting at Casablanca and Heathrow, and arriving at Glasgow before midnight.  She was admitted to hospital and put under isolation within eight hours of arriving.  NHS officials say any risk to other travelers are negligible, but have set up a help line for people with concerns.

Liberia had to open a new national cemetery to keep up with Ebola deaths.  The UN World Health Organization says more than 20,000 people have been infected in the West African Ebola Epidemic, and more than 7,800 have died – the vast majority in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.  Liberia’s situation had stabilized, but in the last few days several new infections have occurred near the Sierra Leone border.

Russia has suddenly moved up the sentencing of anti-corruption campaigner and political dissident Alexei Navalny, a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin.  It’s now happening today, and the decision came down soon after Navalny’s supporters announced a big rally on 15 January, which was the original sentencing date.  Human rights groups say the corruption charges against Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg are politically motivated.

Oh dear.  US President Barack Obama belittled his Russian counterpart’s intelligence in a radio interview.  Mr. Obama tossed out copious amounts of verbal smacks, saying that Putin made a “strategic mistake” when he annexed Crimea; labeling the move as “not so smart”; noting that anyone who thought Putin was a “genius” had been proven wrong by Russia's economic crisis.  The barbs were intended equally for Washington’s noisy conservative pundits who after six years still haven’t figured out that Obama is a chess player who plans his strategy far beyond the 24-hour news cycle.

A high-ranking republican in Washington, DC is trying to explain himself after revelations he gave a speech before an overtly racist organization.  Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana is the third-ranking republican in the US House of Representatives.  In 2002, he addressed a group led by infamous scumbag racist David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand-imperial-wizard-dragon-jerkoff-whatever-they-call-themselves who was constantly in the US headlines for getting elected to state offices in the state, or at least running competitively.  While some republicans are attempting to close ranks and claim Scalise didn’t know about the group’s leanings, at least one conservative pundit points out that there’s no way Scalise couldn’t have known he was hanging out with those scumbags.

An autopsy shows that Los Angeles police officers shot an unarmed black man three times in the back at close range.  25-year old Ezell Ford, Jr. died in August.  At the time, police claimed he was on top of one officer and trying to grab that officer’s gun, at which point another cop opened fire – so close that a muzzle imprint was left in Ford’s flesh.  And somehow, the bullets didn’t pass through and injure the other cop.  Despite the autopsy results, the cops are sticking to the story.  Ford joins a growing and troubling list of unarmed black men shot and killed by American police.

So what would happen to a suspect who put on body armor, and drove around shooting at people, and who even allegedly pointed a loaded weapon at a police officer?  In America, mind you, in the rural south – what would happen?  Well thankfully, 45-year old Julia Shields was arrested without a drop of blood being spilled.  But then, she’s white.  That’s America today.

Meanwhile in the pointless and horrific bloodsport that is Bullfighting, a female Matador was gored twice in Mexico City.  Karla de los Angeles had already stabbed the beast with those decorated sticks, causing it to bleed from the neck.  But the bull jabbed Karla in the leg just as she tried to go in for the kill.  Medics attended to her, she went back in, but the bull named Gamusino got her in the arse one more time.  Mexico recently banned animal acts in circuses to prevent cruelty, and yet for some allows this gruesome crap to go on.  Here’s the video, watch at your own peril.

Lightning killed four beachgoers in Brazil.  Holidaymakers crowded Praia Grande on the ocean in Sao Paulo state, when bad weather moved in.  Four people ran into a kiosk for cover, but the structure was struck by lightning.  The victims were all from one family and included a pregnant woman.

Fire killed more than a dozen people as it raced through a shopping center in Lahore, Pakistan.  Firefighters say the businesses sold mostly clothing and small electronics like watches; there was no rear exit through which people could escape.