Good Morning, Australia! – El Nino’s coming and it’s going to be bad – She thought she had made it to safety – A US court says NSA spying is illegal – Japan is told to face up to its wartime atrocities – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The Bureau of Meteorology next week is expected to confirm that the world is heading into a major El Nino weather event, according to Fairfax News.  It’s all but certain to bring more drought, water shortages, and bushfires to eastern Australia, and it will be especially evident during Winter and Spring.  This will be devastating news to areas of VIC, NSW, and QLD that are already struggling after 30 months of drought.

A swath of tornadoes marched across the American plains from Nebraska to Oklahoma on Wednesday.  At least 20 people were injured, and one 42-year old woman was killed after she made it safely into her underground tornado shelter in Oklahoma City – but torrential rain fell and flooded the basement, and she drowned. 

A Federal court in New York ruled that the National Security Agency’s (NSA) mass telephone surveillance – as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden – is illegal.  The decision clears the way for a full legal challenge against the agency.  This comes as a fight looms in the US Congress is to end, extend, or replace the metadata collection program.

Some of the world’s brightest academics is calling on Japan to face its World War II responsibilities once and for all, amid growing unease with Prime Minister Shinzo tendency to whitewash the past.  Scholars from top institutions including Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics sign an open letter to Abe.  This year marks the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, and Japan’s ruling party is lousy with members who deny the abuse of foreign captives forced to work as “comfort women” in military brothels, and the systematic slaughter of civilians in Nanjing.

Thailand has transferred some 50 police officers with suspected links to human trafficking networks.  This comes after the grisly discovery of more than 30 bodies in shallow graves at trafficking camps in the densely forested south.  The dead are suspected to be Rohinghya Muslim migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, escaping persecution and poverty to seek work abroad.  Human Rights Watch is hinting that Thailand isn’t doing enough – the investigation seems to cover politicians and police, but not military personnel or forestry officials.

Mexican police rescued around 100 migrants rescued from a trafficking gang near the capital Mexico City.  Most were from even poorer countries in Central America, although a few appear to have originated from India and Sri Lanka.  They were apparently journeying north to attempt to enter the US illegally, when the trafficking gang kidnapped them and tried to extort money from the families.

Thousands of travelers were stranded when a fire gutted Terminal 3 at Rome’s main Fiumicino Airport, forcing it to shut down on Thursday morning.  A few workers suffered smoke inhalation, but none were seriously injured.  Investigators believe an electrical short caused the blaze.

Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza is pledging not to run for a fourth term, but that was not enough to stop the growing and often deadly protests by people upset that he’s running for a third term.  The third term, they say, violates a peace agreement that ended Burundi’s civil war in 2005.  Burundi’s courts have ruled that because Nkurunziza was appointed to his first term, he is legally entitled to stand for office twice more, hence the current trouble.

Did I mention that the UK Election is tight and contentious?  Labour and the Tories are tied at around 34 percent approval, and that could lead to minor parties achieving kingmaker status – or to gridlock.  Or, the outcome might be a boring ol’ affirmation of the status quo and the UK could disappoint the fans even worse than Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.  Seriously, how’s David Cameron’s shoulder?  Oh, the unpredictableness of it all.

A Japanese Zoo is apologizing for something that’s really not its fault.  The Takasakiyama Zoo in southern Oita Prefecture has a new baby Monkey, and asked the public to name her.  The public chose “Charlotte”.  Yep, the same name as the new daughter of Prince William and Princess Kate.  Horrified people called in and asked zookeepers how Japan would like it if a British named a monkey after a Japanese royal.  A compromise is on the horizon and the little monkey will likely be renamed after another princess – Elsa from the Disney flick “Frozen”.