The clock is ticking on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters – The King meets the Duke and Duchess – There are some rotten things that even al Qaeda won’t do – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters are bracing for the police to move in and clear them out, after the High Court issued orders to remove the main protest camp in the Admiralty district around government headquarters.  The demonstrators have until 9:00 o’clock on Thursday morning.  They want Beijing to agree to free elections for the next Hong Kong chief executive, and Beijing has refused.

17-year old education campaigner Malala Yousafzai and Indian child labor opponent Kailash Satyarthi will get their shared Nobel Peace Prizes on Wednesday in Oslo.  The blood-stained uniform that Malala wore when she was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban will be on display before the ceremony.  Malala will appear at the ceremony with five other young education advocates, including two girls who were injured alongside her during that Taliban attack.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended a basketball game in New York City, while hundreds of protesters outside the arena demonstrated against US police violence.  The Brooklyn Nets hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers with star LeBron James – known as “King James” to fans.  The demonstrators chanted the same phrase that was on LeBron’s t-shirt during the warm up:  “I can’t breathe”, the last words of Eric Garner, the black man choked to death by a white NYPD officer, who was not charged with any crime.  After the game, LeBron met briefly with the other royals.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says a coordinated global response and cut in half the number of people who die from malaria.  WHO says between 2001 and 2013, 4.3 million deaths were prevented.  And 3.9 million of which were children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.  Ten years ago, only three percent of people at risk of catching the mosquito-borne illness had access to mosquito netting – now, 50 percent do.

Israel’s parliament voted to dissolve itself in preparation for elections on 17 March, moving elections up two years earlier than expected.  Although things can change in three months, polls indicate ultra-conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be returned to power, but will have to form another coalition to do it.  It was Netanyahu’s sacking of two moderate and critical members of his cabinet that started Israel on the path to early elections.

A senior leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen says beheadings are barbaric and un-Islamic, and his terrorist group is banned from carrying out such acts.  That’s a dig at rival terrorist group Islamic State, which has occupied territory in Syria and Iraq, and has frequently uploaded videos of the beheadings of hostages and military prisoners.  Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi especially objects to the uploading part, tweeting: “Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him and upon his family, has ordered us to be kind in everything, even in killing, and it is not part of kindness to film beheadings and slayings and publish them in public, where sons and daughters of those killed can see.”  Uhmm.. thanks?

Secularists in Turkey are criticizing the education council for proposing lowering the age for mandatory religious classes in schools, and for calling for so-called “values education” in nursery school.  Turkey’s main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused the council of trying to take “society backwards”.  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised three years ago to raise a new religious generation, and appears to be succeeding in steering Turkey away from the modern secular path set by its founder Mustafa Ataturk.

Police in Egypt arrested 33 men at a Cairo bathhouse on suspicion of “debauchery” – a legal codeword for “gay stuff”.  Last month, cops arrested eight men for “inciting debauchery” after video of a gay wedding went viral.  Homosexuality is not specifically outlawed, but Human Rights groups have condemned Egypt for its oppressive treatment of gay people. 

But it's just the reverse in Kyoto, Japan, where an historic Zen Buddhist Temple has begun offering gay weddings.  The 425-year old Shunkoin Temple’s website now proudly declares, “Shunkoin Temple is against any forms of ‘Human Rights Violations’ in the world.  No religion teaches how to hate others.  Religion teaches how to love and respect others.”