The South Korean ferry disaster prompts major changes – Japan moves to restart the nukes – Malaysia takes a giant step for transgender rights – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

South Korea’s National Assembly on Friday approved a plan to dissolve the nation’s Coast guard, in the wake of criticism over its failure to rescue victims of the Sewol passenger ferry sinking back in April.  More than 300 people died, a large number of them students on a Seoul-area High School on a class trip.  The coast guard’s enforcement responsibilities are being transferred to the National Police Agency and a new broader maritime safety agency will be established.

The governor of Japan’s southern Kagoshima Prefecture approved the restart of two nuclear reactors.  All 48 nukes were shut down in Japan following the 2011 nuclear disaster, and there is still widespread opposition to restarting the reactors.  But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing to restart the nuclear power industry, claiming it’s good for the economy.

US Military aircraft attacked several sites in Syria linked to al Qaeda affiliates and the group Khorasan, marking an expansion of the of the aerial campaign to include other extremist groups perceived as threats against the west.  Reporters indicated that a French militant believed to be a bomb maker was targeted and was killed.  Missiles also struck the compound of a group named Ahrar al-Sham – which is allied neither to al Qaeda nor to Islamic State.

A massive protest of some 100,000 anti-austerity marchers spiraled into chaos on the streets of Brussels, Belgium.  People set fire to cars and threw stones at cops, who responded with tear gas and water cannons, and a good time was had by all.  About 50 people were injured and 30 detained.  Not only is this kind of protest violence exceedingly rare in Belgium, but labor protests in general are rarely this big.

The UN does not have the resources to fight the West African Ebola Epidemic.  Despite stepped-up contributions from the US, UK, Cuba, and China, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) says Ebola is still “persistent and widespread, particularly in the capital cities” of the three main countries – Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (.pdf link).  Officials say that of the planned 4,707 beds in Ebola treatment centers, only 22 percent are operational - blaming delays on insufficient numbers of foreign medical teams.

A three-judge panel in Malaysia overturned a law banning cross-dressing in the conservative Muslim nation, ruling that it “deprives the appellants of the right to live with dignity”.  The three plaintiffs were arrested four years ago, and in 2012 a lower court refused their appeal.  This new ruling overturns that in southern Negeri Sembilan state.  Advocates hope the ruling will help transgender people in other Malaysian states challenge Sharia Law bans.

No damage has been reported after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake off Papua New Guinea’s coast near East New Britain.

The opening of the Berlin Wall was 25 years ago this weekend.  The events of 9 November 1989 led to a collapse of the Soviet system, and eventually to Scorpions’ hit single “Wind of Change” two years later.  And all of those eastern bloc countries that were “Communist” were then totally free to roam around and buy blue jeans and cola, except some later went fascist while others exploded with ethnic/religious violence that the Soviet system had kept a lid on.  And Russia had actually kept its nukes and kept them pointed at us, so.. a lot of things really aren’t all that different.  Oh, and conservative commentators said history was over because the good guys won.  Except things kept happening.  And the countries that were really bad at Soviet Communism weren’t all that much better at western capitalism.