Actor/Director Leonard Nimoy has left us – The test of a promising Ebola drug is termed “unethical” – A Russian pol who opposed Vladimir Putin is shot and killed – North Korea issues a good, old-fashioned bellicose threat for our entertainment – Everyone loves Bear Cubs! – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Actor Leonard Nimoy is dead at age 83.  He will forever be remembered for his portrayal as the half-Vulcan alien Spock in the original cast of Star Trek, and when I say, “forever”, I mean someone will be talking about it in the year 3000.  Spock was the ultimate outsider trying to find rational logic in a universe of human (and other) emotions over three seasons of a 1960’s TV series and six movies from 1979 to 1991 – two of which, Nimoy directed.  Nimoy battled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and was hospitalized with chest pains earlier in the week.  On Monday, he sent his final message to fans via Twitter:  “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”, the final word being the acronym for Spock’s send off, “Live long and prosper.”

Former Prime Minister John Howard is resting at home after experiencing chest pains on the golf course.  The 75-year old was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital’s Emergency Department on Monday, and transferred to North Shore Private where doctors inserted two stents.  A spokesman insists Howard did not suffer a heart attack, is in good spirits, and will return to work in his office sometime next week.

The experimental Ebola drug ZMapp will soon begin testing in Liberia.  It’s already been used on several Ebola patients who were evacuated from the heart of the West African Ebola Epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and has shown promising results.  Unfortunately, it will be tested in a classic placebo-controlled study – some patients will get it, some will be given a placebo, and the two groups will be compared statistically to determine whether the treatment resulted in fewer deaths.  Let’s be crystal clear, this means that some patients are going to die.  Some researchers and doctors allege this is unethical, but the US Food and Drug Administration insists this approach is the only way researchers can determine whether ZMapp really works.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is denying Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s claim that he is “carefully considering” the case of two Australians sentenced to die for drug smuggling.  Widodo says Indonesia will not cave to foreign pressure and its “laws can’t be interfered with”.  Indonesia was earlier incensed over Abbott’s linking of A$1 Billion in aid provided after the Boxing Day tsunami, to the case of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, interpreting it as a “threat”.  The executions of Chan and Sukumaran could come as early as this week.

A Russian opposition politician was shot to death in a drive-by shooting in Moscow, on a bridge near the Kremlin and Saint Basil’s Cathedral.  The attacker opened fire from a white car, hitting Boris Nemtsov in the back four times – hours after Nemtsov called for support for a march against Russia’s involvement in fighting in eastern Ukraine.  Nemtsov had earlier expressed fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have him killed for his position.  The Kremlin says Putin condemns the murder.

Police in Mexico captured the country’s most wanted drug lord, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez of the Knights Templar, which controls the drug trade in Michoacan state in the country’s west.  After months of intelligence work, investigators determined that La Tuta wasn’t hiding out in a remote region of the state as was assumed, but was living in the state capital Morelia.  To give an idea of how deep corruption is in the poor and violent state, Knights Templar didn’t just make money with Meth – the gang controls the international port, and makes millions off of exporting the results of illegal iron ore mining.

Also in Mexico, the Popocatepetl volcano erupted causing flight delays and cool video.

Spain arrested eight alleged mercenaries and plans to charge them with murder and other offenses, shortly after they arrived home from Ukraine.  Authorities say they went to fight alongside Moscow-backed separatists.

In the heartland of gun-crazy America, a Missouri man discovered his ailing mother dead on the couch in her home in the tiny community of Tyrone.  Police say 36-year old Joseph Jesse Aldridge may have just snapped – he grabbed a large caliber handgun and went door to door killing seven people, at least four of them his own cousins.  Aldridge was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a running pickup truck on the middle of a highway 15 or 20 miles away.

As it does every year, North Korea is vowing a “merciless, sacred” war against the United States, just before the launch of annual joint South Korea-US military exercises.  The editorial in North Korea’s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun warned that “Nuclear weapons are not a monopoly of the US”.  And then, South Korea and the United States conducted a joint naval drill Friday, involving 10 South Korean warships and a US Aegis destroyer, and the world didn’t blow up.

Cute Bear Cub is cute.