Good Morning Australia!! - A powerful Hurricane hits the one country that is least-equipped to deal with it - Russia bolsters its missile defenses in Syria - Big Brother really was watching you - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Hurricane Matthew is pounding Haiti as it moves north in the Caribbean Sea and towards Florida.  Many deaths are feared, but it will take days before officials have an idea of the breadth of the destruction.  Already one of the poorest countries in the world and with no resources to handle widespread storm damage, Haitian officials are already reporting "catastrophic" damage in towns like Les Cayes and Port Salut.  Roofs were ripped off of fragile shacks, waves inundated coastal areas, and there is widespread flooding.  A key bridge on Route 2 which links the northern and southern parts of the country has washed away, which will pose a major problem getting aid to the now-isolated south.

Jamaica appears to have escaped Hurricane Matthew.  At one point, forecasters were warning of a direct hit before the storm turned north.  More than 25 inches of rain fell, causing flooding and landslides.  More rain from the storm's fringes are expected but the government meteorological office has cancelled the last tropical storm warning for Jamaica.  Matthew is now making its way north over eastern Cuba and the Windward Passage, expected to pass directly over the Bahamas on its way to landfall in Florida by Thursday.

Russia has sent a battery of S-300 missiles to its naval base in Syria's port of Tartus.  This comes after the US broke off Syrian war peace talks with Russia, and Russia pulled out of a minor nuclear arms control treaty with Washington.  The S-300 is a highly mobile and lethal air defense system designed to take on incoming aircraft, missiles, and ICBMs - and is a "purely defensive system and poses no threat to anyone," according to Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bomb that killed at least 30 people at a Kurdish wedding in northeastern Syria.

Amnesty International says the world's wealthiest nations are doing the least for refugees.  The rights campaigner says ten countries which account for just 2.5 percent of the global GDP are sheltering more than half the world's 21 million refugees.  Meanwhile, the US and UK are hosting just 12,000 and 8,000 refugees from the Syrian Civil War, respectively.  Jordan is shouldering the world's burden with the most, 2.7 million from Syria and elsewhere. 

Turkey has purged another 13,000 police officers as part of the crackdown against alleged involvement with the religious movement led by an opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  It brings to more than 100,000 the number of public workers fired in the wake of the failed coup attempt.  The announcement came hours after the Turkish government decided it would extend the post-coup state of emergency for three governments, allowing the autocratic Erdogan (who once had his balls kicked in by a horse) and his cabinet to rule by decree, enact new laws without parliament, and suspend rights and freedoms.  Meanwhile, Turkey shut down a pro-Kurdish TV channel.

German prosecutors FINALLY dropped the investigation into a TV comedian accused of insulting the notoriously thin-skinned Erdogan, who filed a complaint when TV comedian Jan Boehmermann recited a poem laced with sexual references to the Turkish leader.  This was in March, and under German law prosecutors had to open a case.  Chancellor Angela Merkel said that authorities would move to repeal the controversial and little-used Article 103 of the penal code, which concerns insults against foreign heads of state, by 2018.

Yahoo secretly scanned its users email accounts on behalf of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI.  The Reuters news agency is reporting the sagging tech company last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information provided by the US spies.  "Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States," the company said it a statement.  What is not clear is the information sought by the US government, and what Yahoo turned over to the Feds.  Nor has Google and Microsoft responded to Reuters' request for comment.