Hello, Australia! – A cruel twist of fate led to an immigrant ship to capsize – Japan is at a crossroads after a judge more or less shut down the nuclear industry – Chris Lane’s heartbreaking last moments – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The ship carrying more than 500 immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa capsized in the Mediterranean Sea because people on the boat saw rescuers coming to their aid – and they rushed en masse to one side of the rickety vessel.  It’s believed around 400 people drowned, and only around 140 were rescued.  “When the men on the deck became restless and started moving about because a rescue boat was beginning to approach them, the boat capsized and water flooded the hull,” said Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), “Women and children died immediately.”  The Italian coast guard picked up almost ten thousand immigrants in the waters north of Libya just in the past few days. 

South Koreans mourned more than 300 people killed in the sinking of the Sewol ferry a year ago.

Malawi’s embassy in Pretoria is very busy replacing travel documents for Malawians caught up in xenophobic violence in South Africa, particularly in Durban.  Malawi is the first African nation to evacuate its citizens since the trouble began a few weeks ago.  At least five foreigners have been killed in gruesome violence, including machete attacks and immolation.  It seems to have begun when a Zulu chief accused outsiders to go home because they were “stealing” South African jobs – he later claimed to have been misquoted.  South African’s official unemployment rate is 24 percent, but many believe it to be much higher.

Japan’s nuclear energy watchdog is criticizing a court decision that seems to have stopped the conservative government’s plans to restart reactors shut down after the 2011 triple meltdown at Fukushima.  A district court this week granted a temporary stop order to restart a plant north of Kyoto, because of opposition by regional residents.  The judge ruled that the Nuclear Regulation Authority safety guidelines are “too loose” and “lacking in rationality”.  The authority’s chairman says the judge’s decision is “based on misunderstandings”.

The family of murdered Australian baseball hopeful Chris Lane heard an audio recording of the emergency call made after he was shot in the back in Duncan, Oklahoma in 2013.  A 17-year old boy who was out playing gangsta with two friends is charged with the killing.  Chris’s parents wept during the playback, in which the local resident who saw him stagger and fall called for an ambulance, describing his last moments.

The pastor of a Christian church in Texas is charged with the starvation death of a toddler deemed possessed by demons.  Araceli Meza is being held on US$100,000 bond.  Police say she instructed the parents to withhold food for 25 days.  And after the kid died, she tried to resurrect him – and when that failed, she helped the parents take the body to Mexico for burial.  The parents have yet to return.

A US judge in Florida ordered a former Chilean military officer to stand trial for the torture and murder of Victor Jara, the folksinger killed in the early days of the fascist junta of Augusto Pinochet.  Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez acquired American citizenship in the 1990s after Pinochet stepped down, but advocates for the thousands murdered by the fascists have never given up the quest for justice. 

Baby Gorillas make their debut at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. 

Too much America news today!  Oh well, an anti-corruption protester is in a lot of trouble after flying his zany little homemade helicopter onto the lawn of the US Capitol.  No, law enforcement and the entire security apparatus of the most powerful nation on earth are definitely not pleased, since no air traffic is allowed over the sensitive area.