Global News

Russia is on high alert after two suicide bombings in Volgograd killed more than 30 people.  One Russian news outlet says there is a massive antiterrorism sweep going on in the southern city involving everyone from top-level federal agents from Moscow to members of the local police academy.

The Aussie icebreaker “Aurora Australis” was forced to give up its effort to cut through the Antarctic ice to rescue a ship with 74 people on board, because of a nasty blizzard.  The storm effectively grounds any plans to use helicopters to rescue the passengers, the last back-up following three failed rescue attempts.

Another deadly bombing in Volgograd:  At least 10 people have been killed and 10 others injured in an explosion Monday morning on a trolleybus in the southern Russian city.  It came a day after at least 16 people were killed in a suicide bombing at the city’s main train station.

Saudi Arabia is giving Lebanon’s army a grant equivalent to A$3.4 Billion, to fight terrorism.  It comes after a car bomb attack that killed a senior Lebanese politician who opposed Syrian meddling in Lebanese affairs, an attack that is suspected to have originated in Damascus.

Thousands of people in El Salvador coffee-producing region are on the run from their homes after the eruption of the Chaparrastique volcano, which nearby residents and prompting authorities to order evacuations in the area. 

The brutal beating of a prominent journalist gave fresh energy to anti-government protests in Ukraine, bringing tens of thousands of demonstrators back to Kiev’s Independence Square.

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher is in critical condition after a skiing accident in the French Alps.  The 44-year old German was skiing off-piste and although he was wearing a helmet, his head hit a rock and he suffered a serious brain injury.

A suicide bomber attacked Volgograd Railway Station in southern Russia, killing at least 16 people and injured dozens more.  It’s the second deadly attack in three days as Russia counts down towards the 2014 Winter Olympics.  It happened 700 kilometers from the site of the Olympics.

Colin Russell is coming back home from Russia – It’s up to Australia, two other icebreakers couldn’t get to a stranded ship in the Antarctic – A New York Times investigation refutes the accusations of US President Obama’s political foes.

Unpredictable Antarctic weather is hampering efforts to rescue a stranded ship – A judge almost succeeds in forcing a 14-year old rape victim to bear her step-father’s baby – The journalist closest to Edward Snowden promises more leaks – China changes its one-child policy.  That and more in today’s CareerSpot World News Briefs:

An artist in Madrid, Spain is taking the country’s tragic legacy of the reign of right-wing dictator Francisco Franco and placing it at the people’s hands.. Or more precisely, at their fists.  He’s stirring up controversy for making an incredibly real image of Franco’s face and putting it on a punching bag.

There’s a serious Bush Fire risk in Victoria this weekend – Mexican drug cartels are making deliveries to the other side of the Pacific Ocean – Don’t go swimming with piranhas – And who wouldn’t want to punch a fascist dictator in the face?

African leaders are trying to jump start peace talks in South Sudan, where more than one thousand have been killed in almost two weeks of fighting between government troops and forces loyal to the former vice president.  Regional leaders from the IGAD group will meet later today in Nairobi, Kenya.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine brought swift condemnation from China and South Korea.  But the indignation from its neighbors may actually fuel the nationalist conservative domestic agenda that Abe has craved.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana says the 2 February snap elections will go on as scheduled, rejecting a request from the country’s election commission to postpone it, because of the precarious and volatile situation in the capital.

Anti-government protests in Ukraine were starting to lose some steam.  But the brutal Christmas Eve assault of a muckraking journalist has put the passion back in the demonstrations, as Ukrainians demand the resignation of the interior minister they believe responsible for the beating.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today visited the controversial Yasukuni War Memorial Shrine, the first visit by a serving prime minister in more than seven years.  Yasukuni venerates all of Japan’s war dead including Class-A Workd War II war criminals.

Eight people in the Northeastern United States and southern Canada are dead because of poison Carbon Monoxide gas from the petrol-powered generators they were using to cope with widespread power outages from last weekend’s ice storms.

Police in Kiev say they’ve made arrests after a group of men viciously attacked a Ukrainian journalist known for her anti-government views, leaving her looking like she came out on the losing side of a MMA fight.  Fair warning, the pictures and video are pretty disturbing.

A boat overloaded with migrants from impoverished Haiti has capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, killing at least 18 people.  It happened as authorities were towing the lame vessel to port to the island of Providenciales.