Hello, Australia! – Twelve are still missing from the Taipei plane crash – The Empire strikes back against Greece’s rebellious new leaders – A disturbing new trend emerges in Britain – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Rescue teams are continuing the search for twelve people still missing from the crash of TransAsia Flight GE235, which was caught on video plunging across a highway in Taipei, Taiwan on its way towards crashing into a river.  The death toll of 31 lives lost is expected to grow, as the remaining twelve are located.  But 15 people including a toddler were pulled from the wreckage alive.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is tightening the screws on Greece’s new government, saying it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral for lending money to commercial banks.  It makes it more difficult for Greek banks to access cash.  This comes after Greek officials visited European capitals looking for support from leaders for Athens’ plans to ease the its burden to pay back the EU bailout – but it also follows the new Greek government canceling EU-imposed privatization plans to sell off the country’s major assets, like its trains and shipping ports.  “These threats are perfectly illegitimate.  They are trying to asphyxiate us with arbitrary deadlines,” said Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has a meeting later today with his German counterpart and long-time nemesis Wolfgang Schauble.

An Egyptian court handed down life sentences to 230 defendants in a crackdown on government opponents.  One of the defendants was Ahmed Douma, a prominent Left-wing activist who helped organize the pro-Democracy revolt that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.  The judge was Mohamed Nagi Shehata, the same guy who jailed Peter Greste and two Al Jazeera colleages in 2013, prompting international outcry.  Peter’s home in Brisbane, we’re waiting for word on the other two.

A US missile strike has killed the chief military planner for the east African terrorist group al Shabaab.  Yusuf Dheeg planned attacks inside and outside of Somalia, the group’s base.  Al Shabaab was behind a 2013 raid on a Nairobi shopping mall that killed 67 people.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain hit a record high in 2014.  The Community Security Trust logged 1,168 incidents last year, more than double the 535 cases documented in 2013.  Concerns about smoldering anti-Semitism in Europe have grown in recent years because of the rise of right-wing nationalist political parties.  But the terror attacks in Paris last month including the murders of four hostages at a kosher supermarket.

One of those anti-Semitic voices kicking up so much trouble in Europe has spoke up against the Paris attacks.  French “comedian” Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala told a court that he condemned the attacks in which 17 people were killed, including the aforementioned kosher food store hostages.  Dieudonne is charged with “condoning terrorism” for his social media post, “I feel like Charlie Coulibaly” which referred to the kosher food mart gunman.  This, as France and much of the world repeated the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan in solidarity against terrorism.  Prosecutors want Sieudonne, who already has numerous anti-Semitism convictions, to pay in excess of A$43,000 or go to jail.

A jury in London has cleared a doctor charged with perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on a woman.  The prosecution claimed way 32-year old Dr. Dhanuson Dharmasena stitched up a young woman after she gave birth, re-doing the FGM she had as a six year-old in Somalia.  The jury apparently agreed with the defense, which contended the hospital failed to put the patient into a special FGM program meant to deal with her specific concerns, and failed to train Dr. Dharmasena – who told the court that he “regarded FGM as an abhorrent practice”.

The UN World Health Organization says the number of new cases of Ebola went up in all three of West Africa’s worst-hit countries in the last week of January.  It follows several encouraging weeks of a plummeting infection rate.  Sierra Leone registered 80 of the 124 new cases; Guinea had 39 and Liberia is dealing with the remaining five.  Around 9,000 people have died of Ebola since the beginning of last year, mostly in those three countries.