Good Morning, Australia! – Turkey finally accedes to a key role in the war in Islamic State – Iran is setting a disgusting record – Earth has a cousin – Indonesia disappoints Aussie growers – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Turkey late Thursday announced it will finally allow the United States and its coalition allies (that’s us) to use the Incirlik Air Base to launch manned and unmanned airstrikes against Islamic State.  This comes after months of negotiations.  But perhaps more importantly, it comes in the wake of two developments:  Islamic State earlier this week carried out a deadly suicide bombing of a youth activist camp in southern Turkey, killing at least 32 people.

The other development is that Turkish troops have just engaged in the first direct combat with Islamic State forces on the Syrian side of the border.  The Turks struck back after cross-border fire from IS positions killed a soldier.  This is the most serious clash between the Turks and Islamic State since 2013.  Until this, a frequent complaint on the Turkish street is that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been too soft – or even in cahoots – with the terrorists.

The death toll from multiple bombings at a mosque and a bus station in Gombe, Nigeria is at least 37 lives lost.  Boko Haram is suspected. 

Iran has executed almost 700 people from 1 January to 15 July, mostly people convicted of drug offenses.  Amnesty International says the real number is about triple of what the government in Tehran is acknowledging.  And that at this rate, Iran will execute more than 1,000 people before 2015 is over.

At least one person was hurt when a leopard found its way onto a school’s grounds in Chikkamagaluru, India.  The big cat was locked in the Xerox room, until wildlife workers could arrive and figure out how to get it onto a truck.  They released it in a wildlife sanctuary.

As many as 40 Sub-Saharan African immigrants are feared drowned in the Mediterranean off Libya’s coast.  Survivors say 120 people were packed onto a trafficker’s crap boat for the journey north, and there were reportedly a lot of women and children.  90 people survived and were taken to Italy.

A court in Milan handed life sentences to two far-right scumbags who killed eight people in a 1974 bombing.  They targeted an anti-fascist rally in the town of Brescia’s main square, the Piazza dell Loggia.  80-year old Carlo Maria Maggi will likely not go to jail, because of his poor health.  But 63-year old former intelligence agent Maurizio Tramonte will go to prison.  Both were members of a shadowy and outlawed fascist group called Ordine Nuovo (“New Order”, not the band).

Austria is adding to the list of fascist and nazi secret codes banned from automobile license plates.  Combinations such as “BH” and “88” – which nazi scum interpret is meaning “Blood and Honor” and “Heil Hitler” – are among those that will no longer be allowed.  Austria’s Transport Minister says such far-right ideologies have “no place in our society”.

Indonesia is temporarily banning most Australian citrus fruit imports, except for lemons.  Indonesia foreign affairs spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir says “Queensland flies” were found in a shipment of Oranges.  This comes after Jakarta slashed import permits for Aussie cattle from 250,000 to 50,000 this quarter.

The Japanese publisher Nikkei is purchasing The Financial Times newspaper – that’s the pink one – for US$1.3 Billion.  FT’s owners Pearson said it is moving out of advertiser-dependant publishing and focusing on its larger education unit.  In this age of dwindling newspaper subscribers and online content, the price tag is raising eyebrows, and not in a good way.  Two years ago, major newspapers like The Washington Post and The Boston Globe sold for US $250 Million and $70 Million, respectively.

NASA says there’s a planet out there, very much like planet Earth.  Kepler 452b – 1,400 lights years away – is a potentially rocky planet orbiting around its star at about the same distance as Earth.  The trouble is its star is dying, and the additional heat and light might be evaporating its oceans and surface water (if it has any).