Good Morning, Australia! – Islamic State murders a Jordanian pilot in the most heinous fashion yet, but when did it actually happen? – French soldiers are attacked with a machete – The Pope steps up for a social justice hero whom his predecessors feared – Fidel Castro is still not dead – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The terrorists of Islamic State (IS) released a video purporting to show captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive.  It’s pretty awful. It shows al-Kasasbeh in the usual orange t-shirt and loose pants, being put in a cage and set alight, while several masked gunmen in desert-camouflage military outfits stand at attention and watch.  It also has subtitles in Arabic, English, French, and Russian, indicating which governments the group is addressing.

The highly-produced video has a lot of graphics and effects that might have taken a good length of time to produce, putting into question when this actually happened.  Amman is accusing IS of killing Lieutenant al-Kasasbeh a month ago on 3 January, which is before the terrorists demanded the release of an Iraqi failed suicide on Jordan’s death row in exchange for the pilot.  That explains why Jordan continually demanded ‘proof of life’ before committing to anything.  And it bolsters the view that IS isn’t serious when it offers deals to release hostages, and is merely prolonging the ordeals for propaganda value.  So why release it now?  It might have been because Jordan's King Abdullah was on a visit to the US, and now has to scramble to get back to Amman.

Peter Greste’s Al Jazeera colleague Mohamed Fahmy has reportedly renounced his Egyptian citizenship, clearing the way for him to be released from prison and deported.  Fahmy was a dual citizen of Egypt and Canada.  Greste is already free, leaving only Egyptian Baher Mohammed in prison to serve a 10-year sentence – three years more than those given to Fahmy and Greste for charges they somehow aided the banned Muslim Brotherhood by reporting the news.

Two people are under arrest after a man with a knife attacked French soldiers guarding a Jewish community center in Nice.  The attacker’s identity card with the name Moussa Coulibaly – a common name among Malian immigrants, but also the family name of the gunman who killed a policewoman at a gas station and four hostages at a kosher supermarket during last month’s terror attacks in Paris.  Although the motive isn’t established, the attacker shares other characteristics with the earlier terrorists: He has a criminal record of theft and violence.

Chadian troops crossed a bridge into Nigeria to secure the village of Gamboru from the Boko Haram terrorist group.  This comes days after Chad’s Air Force pounded Boko Haram positions to clear the way for ground troops.  In addition to Chad’s deepening involvement against Boko Haram, the African Union is establishing a 7,500-member force to take on the militants.

A South Korean military court sentenced a 23-year old conscript to death for last June’s attack on other soldiers at a border post, killing five of them.  After detonating a grenade and shooting his colleagues, he fled the scene and wasn’t captured for two days.  The investigation found that the defendant acted in revenge for bullying in the army and at school. 

Pope Francis has ruled that the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador died as a martyr and will be beatified, the final step before sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.  The Pontiff noted that Romero had been killed “in hatred of the faith” by a right-wing death squad in 1980.  Francis’ rabidly anti-Communist predecessors had balked at beatifying Romero because of fears he harbored Marxist ideas.  A miracle will need to be attributed to Romero before he can be declared a saint.

Cuba released new photos of 88-year old former President Fidel Castro, perhaps to tamp down claims his health was failing.  Appearing in the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party Granma, the photos show Castro in his home talking with a student leader.  A Brazilian theologian who met with Castro last month said he found the ex-leader thin, but in good health and lucid.

American author Harper Lee is set to release her first novel since “To Kill a Mockingbird” more than 50 years ago.  It was written in the 1950s, but her publisher told her to rework some flashback sequences into their own tome, which became “Mockingbird”, which became an instant classic, won a Pulitzer prize, and was adapted into a Hollywood movie starring Gregory Peck.  The book to be release on 14 July is called “Go Set a Watchman” revisits the character Scout Finch as an adult visiting her father Atticus in the fictional southern town of Maycomb.