Good Morning, Australia! – Terrorists attack a hotel housing several international diplomats in Mogadishu – Turkey is calling NATO to discuss its bombing raids against the Kurds – Zimbabwe is looking for the world’s biggest jerk – A naughty Lord, hookers, and drugs – And in Perth, and Orangutan turns the tables on her visitors – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

At least thirteen people were killed in the bombing of the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia.  Al Shabaab militants hit the target with a car bomb that sent a huge mushroom cloud over the city.  It appears to have ripped one facade off of the building, exposing the concrete skeleton.  The Jazeera is a popular hotel with foreign diplomats and dignitaries, and actually houses the diplomatic missions of China, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.  But it appears most of the dead were security guards.

Turkey is calling a special NATO meeting to discuss operations against Islamic State and the Kurdish PKK, viewed as terrorists by Turkey.  The cease-fire with the Kurds appears to be collapsing after authorities blamed the PKK for a car bomb attack in Ankara that killed two soldiers, and Turkey’s bombing of Kurdish positions in Syria a day earlier.  Critics – unfortunately, mostly outside of officialdom – are blasting Turkey for reawakening old grudges against the Kurds, when it was Islamic State that set this whole thing off a week ago by suicide bombing a Kurdish youth camp in southern Turkey.

Bashar al-Assad is admitting his Syrian army is suffering a manpower shortage.  The areas controlled by his troops are home to most of the Syrian population, but this has come at a price.  “Sometimes, in some circumstances, we are forced to give up areas to move those forces to the areas that we want to hold onto,” Assad said in a televised speech.  “We must define the important regions that the armed forces hold onto so it doesn't allow the collapse of the rest of the areas.”  In a broadview, Syria is contested by forces loyal to Assad; western-backed rebels; Islamic State; and Kurdish factions in the north who’d prefer to have their own nation.

Yanis Varoufakis and another former Greek government minister are denying reports they planned extra-legal methods to return the country to the Drachma.  Greek right-wing newspapers and the London Financial Times on Sunday made claims the more radical former members of the Syriza plotted everything from hacking taxpayer bank accounts to detaining the Bank of Greece governor.  Former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis called the report a mixture of “lies, fantasy, fear-mongering, speculation and old-fashioned anti-communism”.  Former economy minister Yanis tweeted, “So, I was going to ‘hijack’ Greek citizens’ tax file numbers?  Impressed by my defamers’ imagination.”

Three people are dead and five are hurt after a small plane crashed into a residential district in crowded Tokyo.  The five-seater had just taken off from Chofu Airport.  But it never really gained the right altitude according to witnesses and crashed 700 meters off the runway.  In fact, because practically everyone in Japan has a mobile with video, there’s footage of the plane flying too low over a football game and the crash is heard moments later.  At least three houses and two cars burned.

A hunter is now the hunted in Zimbabwe.  Authorities want to arrest the Spaniard who paid guides the equivalent of A$75,000 to kill Cecil, one of Africa’s most famous lions.  They lured the Cecil out of the legal protection of Hwange national park with a freshly killed animal.  “Cecil’s death is a tragedy, not only because he was a symbol of Zimbabwe but because now we have to give up for dead his six cubs, as a new male won’t allow them to live so as to encourage Cecil’s three females to mate,” said Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.  The local guides are under arrest, the Spanish hunter is still on the loose.

A key member of the UK House of Lords has stepped down as deputy speaker after the Murdoch tabloid The Sun published images of him snorting cocaine off the breasts of prostitutes.  Lord John Buttifant Sewell had recently written about how the Lords had taken “major steps” to “protect its reputation and punish misconduct by its members”.  The crossbench peer was the chair of the privileges and conduct committee, and was responsible for enforcing standards in the House of Lords. 

Zoo-goers in Perth had the tables turned on them yesterday when Teliti the Orangutan escaped from her enclosure, apparently to get a better look at all of those hairless primates roaming around.  Some folks had the good sense to calmly turn around and leave, others had to get closer.  Luckily, the five-year old female ape didn’t get frightened or aggressive, and zookeepers quickly escorted her back to safety.