Australia swaps India for Russia – Obama orders more troops to Iraq – Two men are freed from prison after decades on death row when DNA tests absolve them of a heinous crime – And much, much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is traveling to India to sign a deal on uranium experts.  India is not a signatory to the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.  However, the former Labor government overturned the Uranium ban in 2011, and Abbott says Australia should be able to sell uranium to a “fully functioning democracy” as long as there “suitable safeguards”.  It’s Abbott’s first visit to India as Prime Minister, and the first since the election of PM Narendra Modi a couple of weeks ago.

The India deal more or less replaces any and all uranium sales to Russia, which Abbott confirmed are banned until further notice.  Under questioning from Greens MP Adam Bandt from Melbourne, Abbott said, “Australia has no intention of selling uranium to a country which is so obviously in breach of international law as Russia currently is.”

US President Barack Obama arrived in Estonia early on Wednesday to reaffirm NATO’s commitment to alliance members that were once part of the Warsaw Pact, and are feeling a little nervous over Russian’s aggressive moves in Ukraine.  Mr. Obama will make a major address on the situation later on Wednesday, in advance of the NATO meeting in Wales later in the week.

President Obama ordered another 350 US troops to Baghdad to protect the US Embassy in the Iraqi capital.  He’s also sending top officials to the Middle East to “build a stronger regional partnership” against Islamic State (IS) militants who have captured vast territories in northern Iraq and eastern Syria.  It comes after IS released a video showing the beheading of a second American journalist.

The US says yesterday’s airstrikes in Somalia targeted the leader of the militant group al-Shabaab, but it’s not clear if Ahmed Abdi Godane was hit or killed.  There’s a US$7 Million bounty out on Godane, considered one of the most-wanted men by the United States.  Al Shabaab says only that six of its members were killed in the attack.

Boko Haram militants have seized Bama, a major town of more than a quarter million people in northeastern Nigeria – where the terrorists have declared a Sharia Law Islamic caliphate.  Thousands of civilians have fled the town, apparently alongside soldiers.  Nigeria’s military had earlier claimed it had inflicted heavy casualties and beat Boko Haram, but the militants came back with armored vehicles and greater numbers. 

A fourth American has contracted Ebola in West Africa.  The unnamed doctor is working for a missionary charity in Monrovia, Liberia, but not on the Ebola outbreak.  He isolated himself immediately upon developing symptoms and has been transferred to the Ebola isolation unit.  Two other American aid workers were treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and flown back to America after contracting Ebola, both survived.  The third was the Liberian-American businessman who collapsed after arrival at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria and died a short time later, spreading the virus to at least 17 more people with five fatalities.  Almost 300 people are considered under observation.  Ebola has killed more than 1,550 people in West Africa this year.

American Justice:  Two developmentally disabled half-brothers are free spending decades in prison on death row for a murder they did not commit.  DNA tests confirm that 50-year old Henry McCollum and 46-year old Leon Brown did not rape and murder an 11-year old girl in North Carolina in 1984, and the DNA matched a known sex offender who lived just a few meters from where the victim’s body was found.  The brothers – one of whom was a teen charged as an adult – were convicted based on false confessions signed after lengthy police interrogations.  Neither of the men was intellectually capable of reading or writing the confessions. 

Authorities in Mexico arrested two serving mayors and one former mayor in the western state of Michoacan, and will charge them over links to the Knights Templar drugs cartel, which controls the region’s marijuana and methamphetamines trade.  The charges follow the release of videos on social media showing the current and former officials meeting with cartel leader Servando Gomez.

Japan is battling its first outbreak of Dengue Fever in 70 years.  The mosquito-borne illness was eradicated after World War II.  But it has appeared in Tokyo’s popular Yoyogi Park – that’s the one across from the youth capital of Harujuku, with the dancing Tokyo Rockabilly Club, impromptu live bands, et cetera.  And so far, 22 people have been infected, including two TV hostesses who were sent to the park to do a live shot.  Dengue fever causes painful joints and high fever.