Heads are rolling in Tokyo – Germany’s spies contradict Tony’s accusations about MH17 – The Nepal rescue operation is switching to recovery mode – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Japanese Justice Minister Midori Matsushima resigned, just hours after Trade and Industry Minister Yuku Obuchi quit under pressure.  Both were accused of violating campaign laws.  Just two months ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promoted the two in a field of five women brought into his cabinet.  Both ministers followed the Japanese custom and profusely apologized, while Abe accepted responsibility and promised to quickly replace them.

PM Tony Abbott was among the foreign dignitaries on hand as Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was sworn in as Indonesia’s new President and first modern leader without connections to the old Suharto and Sukarno dictatorships.  Nearly 25,000 military and police personnel were deployed across the capital, including the parliament building and its surroundings, to prevent any activity that could have marred the official transfer of power – but overall, the mood in Jakarta is pretty positive.

Pro-democracy protesters are denying the Hong Kong government’s claims of “external forces” within their ranks, calling the accusations “irresponsible”.  The demonstrators have paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for the past three weeks, calling for fully democratic elections in Hong Kong.  But Hong Kong’s government and Beijing maintain they will not reconsider the decision to vet candidates for the leadership polls in 2017.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that Germany’s intelligence agencies believe that Russian-backed rebels shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17 in eastern Ukraine, but using a missile taken from a Ukrainian airbase. PM Tony Abbott and US Secretary of State John Kerry have alleged that Russia provided the missile to the rebels, something that Russia has consistently denied.  In fact, Abbott two months ago said it was “almost indubitable that the weapon used to commit this atrocity was Russian-supplied”.

Nepal is wrapping up rescue operations in the Mustang, Manang, and Dolpa districts of the northern mountains.  It’s believed that all the hikers believed to have been stranded on a trekking route by a series of deadly blizzards are now safe.  At least 38 people, including trekkers from Canada, India, Israel, Slovakia, Poland and Japan, died in the blizzards and avalanches that swept the Himalayas last week, battering the popular Annapurna trekking circuit.