Hello Australia! -The US shifts gears in Syria - A Saudi employer is accused of the most horrific abuse of an Indian domestic worker - A nurse who survived Ebola nine months ago is back in isolation, and in jeopardy - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The US is pulling the plug on its US$500 Million program to train and arm Syrian rebels, after mounting evidence it wasn't going to work.  Only four US-trained rebels are actually fighting in the country, and others took their US-supplied kit and turned it over to extremist groups.  Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says that for now, the US will continue to provide help to groups fighting Islamic State and the Syrian regime - such as the Kurds.

France has launched a new round of air strikes in Syria, claiming to have successfully targeted an Islamic State training camp.  But Paris also launched a verbal salvo at Moscow, alleging that 80 to 90 percent of Russia air strikes were in support of its faltering ally, Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad.  French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated the Western position:  "We do not consider Bashar part of the solution" in a post-war Syria.

Islamic State is closing in on Aleppo, seizing several villages on the outskirts of Syria's second city despite US, France, and occasional Russian air strikes.  A car bomb in the city killed at least 20 people, and an Iranian general advising Syrian forces was apparently killed in Aleppo province as well.  General Hussein Hamedani was a senior figure in the Revolutionary Guards.

The Nobel prize committee in Oslo awarded this year's Peace Prize to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet.  The group played an instrumental role in transitioning the country from autocratic rule to secular democracy in the Arab Spring of 2013, avoiding the civil war that enveloped its regional neighbors Libya, Syria, and Yemen.  "I think this is a message to the world, to all the countries, to all the people that are aiming for democracy and peace, that everything can be solved by dialogue," said Tunisian attorney Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh, one of the four laureates.  Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among the other 270 people nominated.

India is demanding justice after an Tamil Nadu woman working as a maid in Saudi Arabia had her right arm chopped off, allegedly by her employer.  55-year-old Kasthuri Munirathinam is being treated in a Riyadh hospital.   She says she complained to her family of long hours, little food, and no access to telephones to call her family.  When she tried to escape the home, she was caught - and her female employer chopped off her arm.  The Indian government is seeking attempting murder charges against Munirathinam's employer.

Brazil set a new record for violent deaths last year, with more than 58,000 - that's five percent higher than in 2013, when the country suffered a then high of 55,000 such deaths.  In this report, 'violent deaths' is defined as homicides, manslaughter, killings by police and robberies that end in deaths.  Brazil's security problems are being held up to the light because the country hosts the Summer Olympics next year.

The German government reports a rise in attacks on housing for asylum seekers - more than 500 attacks this year, which is (so far) a three-fold rise over 2014.  And many of those arrested have no previous criminal records.  The suspects "must be made to understand that they are committing unacceptable offences: assault, attempted murder, arson," said Interior Minister Thomas de Maizier.  The country expects to take in 800,000 refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia this year. 

The Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone last year and survived has again been placed in an isolation unit in hospital.  The NHS in Scotland confirms that the virus is still present in 39-year old Pauline Cafferkey's body.  She was flown back to the isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London in a serious condition.  When she was first infected back in January, Ms. Cafferkey was treated with blood plasma from an Ebola survivor and an experimental treatment drug closely related drug to ZMapp.  But Doctors have warned that even if Ebola is cleared from the bloodstream, the virus retreats to "out of the way" parts of the body such as the back of the eye or even breast milk.

US President Barack Obama went to Roseburg, Oregon to visit the families of the victims of last week's massacre at a community college.  Before he arrived, two more people had been shot dead in shootings at colleges in Arizona and Texas.