Soldiers take exception to Nigeria’s half-a**ed response to Boko Haram terrorists – A tragedy in the Pope’s family – Several are dead and missing as heavy rains sends mountainsides spilling down on the fringes of Hiroshima – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

At least 18 (new figure) people are dead and potentially dozens are missing in landslides around Hiroshima in western Japan.  Local TV showed torrents of mud and muck that came down the hills on the outskirts of the city, wiping out bamboo forests on the hillsides, sending it crashing into homes and neighborhoods down below.  Boulders plowed through homes and apartment buildings.  Search and rescue crews are picking through the wreckage, trying to find survivors, and the numbers will likely increase, given the scope of the damage.

Nigerians troops that are assigned to fight the fundamentalist Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram are refusing to fight until they get better weapons and enough ammunition to do the job.  It’s believed at least 40 soldiers are refusing to deploy, accusing their superiors of “sacrificing soldiers” who are “dying like fowl” against better-equipped terrorists.  Boko Haram is fighting to create a new country based on draconian Sharia law in Nigeria, much like Islamic State is doing in Syria and Iraq.  Nigeria’s defense ministry denies the allegations and says it will investigate.

Iraqi forces have stalled in their drive to retake Tikrit – hometown of dead dictator Saddam Hussein who all of a sudden doesn’t seem as bad – from Islamic State.  The Sunni militants captured at least two tanks and several armored vehicles from the Iraqis as they repulsed a two-pronged offensive.  Meanwhile, the UN’s refugee agency on Wednesday will launch one of its biggest-ever aid operations to help 500,000 Iraqis who displaced by the violence in Iraq over the last two months.

As many as 50,000 anti-government protesters cut through a barricade and marched near Pakistan’s Parliament in Islamabad.  But they’re holding off actually storming the “Red Zone” containing government buildings and foreign embassies.  The opposition protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign, claiming his landslide win last year was based on electoral fraud.

Police in Greece are looking for the operator of a drone helicopter who tried to deliver a box of mobile telephones, sim cards, and charging cables into a prison near the town of Larissa.  Guards spotted the RC copter and the box it was carrying after it landed on prison grounds.  They called the bomb squad, who discovered the contents of the box.

Three members of Pope Francis’ extended family died in a traffic accident in Argentina.  The wife of the Pope’s nephew and her two children – aged 8 months and 2 years - were killed, while the nephew himself was seriously injured.  Pope Francis said he was “profoundly saddened” by the news and asked “all those who share in his grief join him in prayer.”

Argentina has had enough of American courts.  The government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) will pay its foreign-currency bonds locally at the central bank instead of through Bank of New York-Mellon. Creditors opting to keep their notes will also receive payments locally, CFK said.  This sidesteps a US court ruling that blocked payments last month and caused the nation to default for a second time in 13 years. 

The price of food is starting to rise in parts of Russia, after Moscow banned western food imports in retaliation for economic sanctions related to Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine Crisis.  Food prices in Saint Petersburg are up an average 10 percent, led by chicken and pork prices that are up more than 23 percent.  Moscow is starting to feel it, too.  Earlier this week, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he did not expect the ban on food imports to lead to price hikes, and he hoped it wouldn’t last long.

The heavy-handed police response to protests in Ferguson, Missouri is not going unnoticed in Russia, Iran, and Egypt – all countries that have been criticized by the US for their respective human rights issues.  Each pointed out the US history of racism as white cops launched tear gas and flash-bang grenades at peaceful protesters who were objecting to the killing of an unarmed black teen who was stopped by cops for jaywalking.