Howdy Australia! - Australia keeps a controversial tax - Cops fire tear gas a stun grenades at refugees - Malala gets her report card - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

This is just stupid: Australia is keeping the Tampon Tax.  Although blatantly sexist and unfair, state and territorial treasurers on Friday failed to agree to scrap the tax on sanitary items that even Joe Hockey considers to be essentials.  The tax brings in A$30 Million annually, which is apparently more important than reason. 

A day after Macedonia declared an emergency on its southern border, security forces fired tear gas a stun grenades at migrants who tried to rush across from Greece.  Police eventually let small groups cross the border, mostly to reunite famlies separated in the melee.  The UN is urging both countries - two of the poorest in Europe - to get control of a chaotic situation, caused by refugees from the Middle East trying to get to wealthier countries in northern Europe.  Before Macedonia's get-tough policy, some 44,000 migrants wandered through the country without hinderance.

Greece's ruling Leftist Syriza is splitting, with 25 members leaving to form a new, anti-austerity and anti-European bailout party called Popular Unity.  The party will be led by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who points out the 61 percent of those voting in a national referendum in July rejected the terms of the bailout to which Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras eventually capitulated.  It was that reversal that caused the the rift in Syriza.  Tsipras handed in his resignation and called for a snap election next month that - now that he's managed to divide the Left - will likely see the formation of a more centrist coalition.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called snap elections in November, after his prime minister failed to form a coalition government.  June's elections saw Erdogan's AK party losing its twelve-years of majority, mostly because of gains by Kurdish parties.  Since then, Erdogan broke a cease-fire and ramped up mlitary action against Kurdish militant groups in Turkey and northern Syria.

The African Union apologized for the deaths of seven civilians at a wedding party in Somalia, and charged three soldiers in the killings.  The AU previously denied it even happened.  The soldiers last month came under fire from militants near Mogadishu, and apparently killed the innocents in their search for the perpetrators. 

Mexico, Volcano, Smoke and Ash, Cool Video.

Tel Aviv, Israel, bridge blown up in controlled demolition, Cool Video.

With more than 20 nations issuing travel warnings regarding Thailand, the country's tourism sector is bracing for a downturn. This is especially true in regards to tourists from China, which has been a growing market.  Many of the dead and injured in Monday's bombing at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok were Chinese or of Chinese descent - something firmly established in Chinese media accounts.  Australia isn't pulling the plug just yet, but recommends Aussies "exercise a high degree of caution" in Thailand.

Islamic State moved more than 200 Christian captives from the central Syrian town of al-Qaryatain to the terrorist group's stronghold of Raqqa.  This includes Fr. Jacques Mourad, the abbott of the ancient Christian monastery of Mar Elian, which the militants then destroyed.  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says the fate of the captives is not clear. 

This probably shouldn't be a surprise; Teenage education campaigner Malala Yousafzai aced her General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination at her Birmingham, UK High School.  The 18-year old Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's proud Dad announced she got the highest marks called A* or "A stars" in maths andsciences - straight A grades in English and History and the like.  Malala survived an assassination attempt in 2012 by the Pakistani Taliban to become a tireless campaigner for human rights and education for children.