Good Morning Australia! - The Rainbow Warrior bomber apologizes - Europe's open door for refugees might be narrowing pretty soon - Mexico's government is castigated for its investigation into the deaths of 43 student teachers - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
A French former special forces diver has apologized for bombing the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in 1985. The French government targeted the activist ship to prevent an anti-nuclear protest in the south seas, but the explosion killed photographer Fernando Pereira. No one has ever been jailed for the crime. Tracked down by New Zealand's TVNZ, Jean-Luc Kister said his mission was not intended to kill anyone. "Thirty years after the event, now that emotions have subsided and also with the distance I now have from my professional life, I thought it was the right time for me to express both my deepest regret and my apologies," Kister said to the Pereira's family, to Greenpeace and to the people of New Zealand.
Thousands of refugees poured into Austria for another day, amid signals that the emergency measures that allow them to pass are coming to an end. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said, "We have helped more than 12,000 people in an acute situation. Now we have to move step-by-step away from emergency measures toward normality, in conformity with the law and dignity." Germany accepted around 11,000 refugees from the Middle east, South Asia, and Africa on Saturday and expected to take in another 10,000 on Sunday.
Many of the refugees were helped along by a convoy of some 140 Austrians in cars, an effort organized through social media. Between cars, trains, buses, and the will to walk, the main train station at Budapest is practically empty compared to the most recent peak of the emergency last week when the place was a de facto refugee camp. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban tried to halt the flow, but was forced to waive the people through after being humiliated by the scene of thousands of refugees on the march along the main highways as well as its own inability to to register such a vast number of people.
Pope Francis says the Vatican will host at least two refugee families, and said Catholic institutions should do the same: "May every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary in Europe host a family," said the Pope of the "refugees who are fleeing death by war and by hunger". The Catholic church has more than 27,000 parishes - should each parish host a family of four, it would relieve more than 108,000 people would have shelter.
A South Korean fishing boat capsized off the southern island of Jeju, killing at least eleven people. Rescue boats combed the waters for survivors. This is the latest in a series of marine mishaps for South Korea in the Jeju - at least 50 sailors drowned there in December alone.
A medical evacuation plane with seven people on board, including a French patient, disappeared off Africa's western coast near Senegal during a flight from Burkina Faso to Dakar. The plane was carrying three crew members, three medical staff, and a patient of French origin.
An independent report repudiates the Mexican government's claims about the disappearances of 43 student teachers in Iguala town last year. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission says the government's chief assertion, that the bodies of the students were burned in a giant funeral pyre by gang members, never happened - there was no mass cremation. The government says the 43 were killed because of a case of mistaken identity. But the report speculates the students were killed because they inadvertantly interfered with heroin trafficking to the US.
A rally car spun out of control in a race in La Coruna, Spain over the weekend, plowing into a crowd and killing six spectators, including a nine-months pregnant woman. Ten people, including at least three children, were injured.