Global News

China has released a new video game inviting players to shoot Japanese war criminals – and Beijing is on the verge of establishing two new holidays, one to mark Japan's defeat in the second world war and another, to commemorate the Nanjing Massacre.  It all seems to be in response to a slew of Japanese officials making comments that seem to minimize Japan’s World War II atrocities.

Ukraine’s apparently ousted president Viktor Yanukovich will hold a news conference in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don later on Friday.  He’s expected to tell the world that he still considers himself the president of the nation from which he dropped from sight some six days ago.

Britain’s high-tech spy agency intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions while eavesdropping on people all around the world who were using Yahoo webcam chat.  That’s according to the latest revelation from documents smuggled out of the US by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The World Bank is delaying a US$90 Million loan to Uganda, after that African nation’s president signed a draconian anti-gay law that other governments warned would harm Uganda’s international relations.  It follows at least three European nations yanking their direct support for Uganda.

Jamaica's government created a commission to investigate the 201 killings of at least 76 civilians and one soldier in the hunt for a drug lord in a Kingston slum.  But the group Amnesty International says the three-member commission's mandate “falls short of what is needed to obtain truth, justice and reparation” for survivors.

Tough times ahead at the flying Kangaroo – An Aussie actor is hurt in Thailand – Uganda gets its first taste of the international community’s distaste for its draconian anti-LGBT law – and a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs.

In a tough blow for America’s religious right, the republican governor of the state of Arizona vetoed her own party’s law that would have allowed the owners or operators of businesses to discriminate against any customers deemed offensive to their religious sensibilities. 

The first Latin American Pope made his first comments about the strife in Venezuela, calling for an end to the violence in the country and in support of reconciliation via dialogue.  President Nicolas Maduro tried to ease tensions by inviting opposition, business, and church leaders to a peace summit on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s interim government has got more than a crashing economy and a scarred capital to deal with.  Demonstrations in the pro-Russian east are growing more heated, and Russian president Vladimir Putin put 150,000 troops near the Ukrainian border on alert to test their combat readiness.

The crowd at Kiev’s Independence Square is giving its approval to the interim government that puts America’s preferred candidate in the office of Prime Minister.  Arseniy Yatsenyuk is warning that the new government is prepared to take drastic and painful measures to stabilize an economy that is teetering near bankruptcy.

Chastened by stinging loses in elections over the weekend, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa is asking for his cabinet's resignation and vows to reshape his political party.  But he warns the changes in the landscape could make the country ungovernable.

China’s choking pollution is officially a “crisis” – Terrorists slaughter students in Africa – New fears that people lost a lot of money in a Bitcoin debacle – How not to tow a car in Russia – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs.

A Roman Catholic cleric’s appearance at the Vatican signals a major turning point that Pope Francis had been heading towards for the past year.  The founder of “Liberation Theology” appeared in the forum that had criticized him so often in past years.

A former Provisional IRA member suspected of carrying out a deadly bombing in London in the 1980s walked free from the Old Bailey, after it turned out that the cops had given him a false assurance that he would not be prosecuted.  That and passage of time led the judge to toss the case.

US President Barack Obama is threatening a complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, unless the Hamid Karzai signs a bilateral security agreement.  The phone call from Washington to Kabul was the first time in months that the two leaders were known to have spoken with each other.

Lawmakers in Ukraine are having a hard time reaching a deal to form a new government in the wake of the change in power in Kiev.  They’re delaying until Thursday the naming of an acting prime minister and a provisional government to fill the power vacuum left when President Viktor Yanukovich abandoned the capital.

A North Korean patrol boat violated the sea border with the South several times Monday night and very early this morning, according to officials in Seoul.  It happened as the US and South Korea hold joint military exercises, which Pyongyang opposes and have accused of being a dress rehearsal for war.

The Japanese government is suggesting it will “revise” its historic for its wartime system of sex slavery.  It’s feared that the nationalist cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will weaken the apology and draw fury from South Korea and beyond, worsening tensions in the region.

New questions about what’s going on at Manus Island – From Sydney to Rome – People in India are seeing spots.. and fangs and claws, too – And a lot more in your CareersSpot World News Briefs.

The sense that the other shoe is going to drop increased as Moscow stepped up its rhetoric regarding the massive shift in Ukraine’s political leadership.  The interim government has issued an arrest warrant for Viktor Yanukovich, now apparently the former President of Ukraine.