Another Black Eye for the World Cup – The US and UK go after out of control banks – Mexican protesters attack a ruling party building over the 43 missing students – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Amnesty International says Qatar is dragging its feet on labor reforms for the workers building World Cup venues for the 2022 tournament.  The group says the wealthy OPEC nation has failed to tackle the “kafala” system that ties foreign workers to a single employer, and requirements them to get exit permits from their employers in order to leave the country – essentially making them indentured servants.  Qatar’s labor and social affairs minister claims new legislation should be ready by the end of the year.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is fining five banks more than A$2 Billion for failing to control business practices in foreign exchange trading operations.  They are HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, the Swiss bank UBS, and the US banks JP Morgan Chase and Citibank.  The FCA said the failings “undermine confidence in the UK financial system and put its integrity at risk”. Another probe into Barclays is continuing.  US regulators earlier fined the same banks more than A$1.6 Billion.

Argentine tax officials raided more than 70 banks and other financial organizations in an investigation into money laundering.  The institutions are accused of tax avoidance and of facilitating capital flight out of the country. 

Angry protests continue in Mexico over the missing 43 student teachers from Iguala town, and the government’s perceived inability to reign in violence by drug gangs and corrupt police.  About 1,000 people marched through the capital of Guerrero state, sacking the offices of the ruling PRI in the process.  The mayor of Iguala has been arrested for allegedly ordered the students to be rounded up and turned over the drug gang.   Several police and gang members have also been arrested.

Families of the victims of the South Korean ferry tragedy are outraged over the 36-year prison term given to the captain of the capsized vessel.  At 70-years old, that’s a life sentence for Lee Joon-seok, who was convicted of abandoning his vessel with hundreds of passengers trapped inside.  More than 300 people died, most of them teens on a class trip from a Seoul-area high school.  Many families demanded the death penalty for the captain.

Japanese lawmakers are preparing for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to call for a snap election in December, less than two years into his four-year term.  His reasons are three-fold:  The opposition Democratic Party is weak; an election campaign could shore up his decreasing popularity rating; and if as expected he wins, he can claim a mandate for his very unpopular plan to hike the national sales tax. 

A Japanese man committed suicide by self-immolation in protest of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalist bent and plans to scrap the country’s postwar pacifism.  This happened in Hibiya park in Tokyo, close to The Diet, Government offices, and the Emperor’s palace.  It’s the second such protest this year; another man set himself ablaze in June for the same reasons.

Warsaw police arrested at least 220 right-wing nationalists and neo-nazi scum after clashes broke out at celebrations of Poland’s Independence Day.  23 police officers were hurt in the violence.  Earlier in the day, President Bronislaw Komorowski led official Independence Day celebrations in the capital, marking the end of World War One in 1918 which reestablished the Polish nation after more than a century of occupation by Russia, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Bulgaria has unveiled a statue commemorating one of the Cold War’s most infamous killings.  Dissident Bulgarian playwright Georgi Markov was walking on London’s Waterloo Bridge in 1978, when he was shot with a pellet containing a deadly poison – a pellet believed to have been fired from a modified umbrella wielded by a Soviet KGB-trained agent.  Markov died within days.  But three and a half decades later in Sofia, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said, “The words of Georgi Markov spiritually liberated the Bulgarians even before the toppling of the communist regime,” and declared Markov to be a permanent part of the cityscape.

Yeah, but they really knew how to build monuments…