Good Morning Australia!! - The UK's Iraq war report is out and is destroys former PM Tony Blair - Pistorius goes to jail, Messi probably won't - The US right-wing TV outlet Fox "News" is hit with a bombshell sex harassment suit - The US finally recalls the Christmas gift that burned several homes to the ground - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The UK's long-awaited Chilcot report is out, and it lambasts former Prime Minister Tony Blair's incredibly flawed reasoning for agreeing to go along with the US into war in Iraq.  In the polite but damning report, Chairman Sir John Chilcot said the 2003 invasion was not the "last resort" as presented to MPs and the public; There was no "imminent threat" from Saddam Hussein; and the intelligence to go to war was "not justified".  Without declaring the UK's involvement illegal - it was not set up to do that - the report says:  "We have, however, concluded that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action were far from satisfactory."

After being accused of going to war for little reason other than to preserve the alliance with the United States, Tony Blair stood by his decision; but he also apologized to the families of those killed in the 2003 Iraq War, accepting that they will never "forget or forgive him".  Voice cracking as he gave his response, Blair said the decision to go to war "was the hardest, most momentous, most agonizing decision I took in my 10 years as British prime minister.  For that decision today, I accept full responsibility without exception and without excuse".  Blair accepts that the Chilcot report makes clear the pre-war intelligence was wrong, but he insisted that it was not the product of deceit. 

The UK lost 179 military members during the campaign that lasted from 2003 through 2009 (Australia lost two).  Many families of fallen troops are extremely angry:  Roger Bacon, the father of Major Matthew Bacon who was killed by a roadside bomb, said the rules must be changed to ensure the UK never again goes to war for such flawed reasoning.  Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, was 20 years old when he was killed in Iraq in 2003, added that his son had "died in vain".  Ronnie Barker, the mother of 23-year-old Private Lee Ellis who died in 2006, has said she "would like to see Tony Blair in court". 

Meanwhile in the Middle East, which hasn't yet been "liberated" from madmen with weapons:  The Iraqi government now says 250 people were killed in the truck bombing in Baghdad on Sunday, making it the deadliest such attack since the 2003 US-led invasion; Islamic State claimed that one.  Twin suicide bombers attacked a military base outside Aden in Yemen, killing at least ten soldiers; it could have been Al Qaeda or Islamic State.  The Syrian Military is declaring a three-day truce for the Muslim Eid at-Fitr holiday, although fighting is still reported around Damascus; you can't tell the players without a scorecard in that one.  Good going, Tony and George.

Moving along..

A South African judge sentenced former Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius to six years in prison for the murder of his partner Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day, 2013.  He'll be able to apply for parole somewhere between halfway and two-thirds into the sentence.  Prosecutors are not happy, and may appeal the sentence to the country's supreme court, just as they had earlier appealed the judge's initials involuntary manslaughter finding which was overturned.

A court in Barcelona found football star Lionel Messi guilty of three counts of tax fraud, and sentenced him to 21 months in prison.  The same sentence was handed down to Messi's father and co-defendant.  But it's unlikely that the Messi boys will serve a day in prison: They are appealing the verdict; And in Spain's justice system, prison sentences of less than two years are usually served on parole, anyway.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Brazilian Bishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto who was accused of covering up actions of pedophile priests in his Paraiba diocese.  Pagotto welcomed priests in his realm who were rejected elsewhere because of suspicions of pedophila, which he says was "naive". 

The US Justice Department, FBI, and State authorities are investigating the pretty flagrant police murder of a black man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Mobile videos have emerged showing two white cops holding down 37-year old Alton Sterling; one cop draws his weapon and fires straight down into Sterling's body with only centimeters between the victim and the barrel of the gun.  Mr Sterling's 15-year-old son cried uncontrollably at a news conference during which his mother Quinyetta McMillon said, "He had to watch this as this was put all over the outlets."

Trouble in Murdochland:  Former Fox news anchor Gretchen Carlson is suing her former boss and right-wing operative Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.  She claims he repeatedly pressured her for a sexual relationship to "solve" newsroom disagreements, and fired her when she refused to slide on under that vile, liver-spotted, Jabba-the-Hut-like pile of crap.  The suit also claims her wimpy, chinless male co-anchors on "Fox and Friends" regarded Carson - a Stanford University graduate - as a "blond female prop", and that Ailes referred to her as a "man hater" who needed to "get along with the boys".  Maybe Ailes thought the name of the show was "Fox and Friends (with benefits)"?

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling more than half a million so-called "hoverboards", because of battery issues that have burned down people's homes.  Once the biggest Christmas gift fad of the 2015 holiday season.  But it wasn't long after the wrapping paper was on its way to the landfill that the lithium-ion batteries inside the things started bursting into flames.  Australia already banned and recalled the damned things after at least two house fires.