Global News

The number of Europeans fighting for terrorist groups skyrockets – The US claims to know “Jihadi John’s” real identity – A country’s ban on abortions is killing women and girls, says Amnesty International – France is about to become more Australian – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Ebola has now killed more than 2,900 people in West Africa.  Sierra Leone is watching the infection rate pick up and is now taking more drastic and desperate measures to try and contain the deadly virus, putting more than one million people under quarantine.

Thousands of people are imprisoned on politically-motivated charges in Uzbekistan including activists, artists, journalists, and religious clerics.  They’re kept in abysmal conditions and forced to endure “unspeakable abuses”, including torture.

Pope Francis taken the “difficult decision” to remove an ultra-conservative bishop in Paraguay who frequently clashed with his fellow bishops, and who had sheltered a priest accused of molesting seminarians in several countries.  It’s another sign that Francis is willing to use his authority to take on lingering problems in the Roman Catholic Church, and provides a look into the stodgy hierarchy that the Pope is shaking up.

Authorities in South Carolina arrested a former state trooper and charged him with “assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature” for shooting an unarmed driver who he suspected of not wearing a seatbelt.  In an America coming to grips with compounding evidence that some of its cops are out of control, it stands out at particularly egregious.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and US President Barack Obama each had individual meetings with Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the plight of Australian journalist Peter Greste, locked up for seven years in an Egyptian jail for essentially doing his job.

Malcolm calls it quits – The US takes out Islamic State’s income generators – Nigeria claims to have killed Boko Haram’s leader – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

US President Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly that the American military and its allies will dismantle the Islamic State’s “network of death”, and warned Russia that it would pay for its attempts to destabilize Ukraine.

The US Justice Department will investigate the police shooting of a man holding a pellet gun he had just plucked off a store shelve, after a grand jury in Ohio decided not to charge the two officers.  The cops are white; the victim is another young black man cut down by those who are sworn “to protect and to serve”.

French President Francois Hollande is strongly condemning the beheading of one of his countrymen by a jihadist copycat group in Algeria as a “cruel and cowardly” act, released to the Internet on a video.  The Islamists wanted to strike back at France for this week’s air raids against Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

Japan has tightened up its economic sanctions against Russia because of Moscow’s meddling in Ukraine’s civil war, now blocking five top Russian banks from certain activities in Japan and limiting arms exports.  Tokyo had initially tried lighter sanctions that those leveled by the US, Europe, and Australia – but then, Russia aggravated an old territorial dispute.

Sierra Leone is stepping up border patrols and limiting cross-border movements with Guinea and Liberia, the other two countries that are hardest-hit by the West African Ebola Epidemic.  Even though medical groups have said that border lockdowns don’t work, there were concerns that people were bringing back more Ebola infections from visits to the other two countries.

After weeks of aggressive campaigning, incumbent Dilma Rousseff has closed the gap between her and former Environment Minster Marina Silva in the latest presidential polls.  The two are now in a statistical dead heat in the home stretch before the 5 October Presidential election.

Pope Francis’ Vatican gets tough on a suspected child abuser – India goes to Mars – The US shocks the world with a previously unknown target in Syria – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) upped the ante when it comes to Ebola Doomsday Scenarios.  Whereas yesterday the UN World Health Organization (WHO) predicted more than 20,000 infected by the killer virus within six weeks, the CDC slides it forward to 21,000 by 30 September – and 1.4 Million infections by mid January.

Turkey has insisted that there was no ransom or quid pro quo that led to the terrorist group Islamic State releasing 49 Turkish hostages in Mosul, Iraq last week.  But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted that there might have been a prisoner exchange.

Police say they had no choice but to shoot and kill an 18-year old "known terror suspect" who pulled a knife and stabbed two officers at the Endeavour Hills police station, in Melbourne’s outer southeast.  The “unprovoked attack” came after he was called to the station to answer some questions.

Israel forces killed two Hamas-linked terrorist who were believed to be responsible for the abduction and murders of three teens in the West Bank in June.  The murders helped triggers weeks of war in Gaza in which more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed.

China claims a dubious position – An Islamic State group kidnaps a westerner – An angry bear hunts some college students – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Sierra Leone claims its three-day nationwide lockdown to try was a success, and will not need to be repeated.  But a growing number of fresh graves in a cemetery in the capital Freetown suggest the fatality rate is much worse than has been reported.