Two are arrested in Aussie anti-terror raids – asd – NO fewer than two stories highlight the developed world’s difficulties in communicating with our most-remote brothers and sisters – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Anti-terror police arrested two men and seized documents that name government sites as possible terrorism targets.  One of the suspects is a 21-year old from Marsfield who has not yet been named; the other is 20-year old Sulayman Khalid of Regent’s Park.  They’re accused of planning “guerilla warfare” out in the Blue Mountains.  Both men were refused bail.  Police say these arrests are linked to the raids in September.

France is deploying 300 soldiers to boost security through the remainder of the holiday period after three attacks left more than 20 people injured.  Investigators say the incidents seem to be unrelated, despite similarities.  Monday in Nantes, a man drove a van through a Christmas market; nine people are recovering from injuries and one has been declared clinically dead.  In Dijon on Sunday, a driver shouting “God is great” in Arabic drove into pedestrians, injuring 13 people.  And in Tours on Saturday, a man using the same phrase was shot dead by police after attacking them.

Troops in Algeria killed the leader of a terrorist group that kidnapped and beheaded a French tourist.  Soldiers caught up with Abdelmalek Gouri of the Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) group and two associates two months after the kidnapping and murder of Herve Gourdel.  The act was apparently in retaliation for France participating in air strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Iraq.

Those US-led airstrikes have killed more 1,171 people, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which opposes both President Bashar al-Assad and the extremist jihadi opposition.  Of those killed, 1,119 were militants and 52 were civilians.  The US says the bombing campaign could take a “minimum of three years” to defeat Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

A rural village chief is Sierra Leone’s first person to be convicted and jailed under the country’s new laws to prevent the spread of Ebola.  Amadu Kargbo secretly buried his daughter who died of Ebola, and failed to report other patients to authorities.  Kargbo lost his wife to Ebola as well.  Six months in the slam seems harsh, but the Sierra Leone government has had a problem keeping score of this terrible scourge.  The government charted almost 9,000 infections, but the number of deaths is officially too low for reality.  The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says the death toll from the West African Ebola Epidemic is now more than 7,518 out of nearly 20,000 infections.  

Lion and Tigers cubs wearing Christmas hats at a zoo in South Korea!

Kiev’s swing to the West is picking up momentum.  Parliament voted to end Ukraine’s non-aligned status and worked towards NATO membership.  President Petro Poroshenko has made it clear that he is seeking a closer relationship with the West because of Russia’s meddling in the east of his country, arming and supporting anti-government rebels (which Moscow denies).  Russia.. doesn’t like it.

Sony Pictures has done a 180 and will release the movie “The Interview” to a few independent theaters on Christmas day.  Major cinema chains didn’t want to show the film, after hackers believed to be from North Korea plundered Sony’s servers, releasing movies, scripts, and embarrassing emails – apparently in retaliation for making “The Interview” which portrays a comical CIA assassination mission against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.  After all that build up, people are going to be disappointed – the few critics who’ve seen it say “The Interview” ain’t that great.

Japan’s Parliament was reelected ruling party leader Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister.  His ruling conservative LDP party won an untouchable majority in last week’s elections.

Scottish investigators are still piecing together the events in Glasgow, when an apparently out-of-control bin lorry ran over Christmas shoppers, killing six people.  The victims include three members of one family from Dumbarton, and an elementary school teacher.

Lemurs eat holiday treats at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo!

Tanzanian authorities arrested the suspected head of an international ivory smuggling ring.  Kenyan businessman Feisal Mohamed Ali is linked to the seizure of three tons of elephant tusks seized in Mombasa.  He had been in hiding for months after being put on an Interpol most-wanted list.  Researchers fear that poachers will wipe out the African Elephant population within 100 years if poaching for ivory tusks – which are in demand among the well off in China – continues unabated.

Authorities in Peru are evacuating a remote Amazon community near the Brazil border after an uncontacted indigenous tribe raided the town, looking for food.  About 200 Mashco-Piro tribal members with bows and arrows killed domestic animals and made off with cooking pots and other goods.  Cops say it’ll just be easier to move the townspeople to another village.  The Mashco-Piro are not only under pressure from loggers and drug gangs, but researchers also fear they haven’t developed immunities to diseases the outsiders might carry.