Hello, Australia! – Hundreds remain missing in that capsized Chinese ship – Australia’s lowest-paid workers are getting a modest raise – Smokers will Canada’s biggest class action suit – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

China’s state media claims some passengers are still alive, tapping on the hull from within a crowded passenger ship that capsized on the Yangtze River in Hubei Province on Monday night.  The four-deck Dongfangzhixing – or Eastern Star – was carrying 405 passengers and 47 crewmembers.  Many of those on board are elderly members of a tour group.  Media reports say at least some of the passengers were able to swim to shore, but others say only ten were rescued.  The captain says the 70-meter boat was met by some sort of catastrophic weather, like a cyclone or tornado.

The Fair Work Commission is raising Australia’s minimum wage by 2.5 percent to A$656.90 per week.  It’s a raise of $16 per week.  The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) wanted $27, business groups low-balled at $5.70- $10.25, and so 2.5 is on the low side of in-between.  This will cover 1.86 million Australians who are paid the national minimum wage or an award minimum wage.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is apparently very worried about leaks coming from the party room meeting, reportedly “reading the riot act” to party MPs.  This follows a leak from that exposed a split over stripping sole nationals of their citizenship, which soon enough appeared in Fairfax media.  There’s no disagreement over a proposal to strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship, and the legislation is expected to appear in parliament soon.

The family of former UK Lib-Dem Party leader Charles Kennedy say he is dead at age 55.  He was found in his home in Port William, Scotland, and no cause of death was given.  Charles Kennedy lost his parliament seat of 32 years in last month’s UK election, in which the Lib-Dems and Labour were mauled by the surging Scottish National Party.  It was almost a decade ago that Kennedy acknowledged years of rumors of a drinking problem and announced that he had sought help for a drinking problem.

A judge in Canada has awarded C$15 Billion (with a “B”) to Quebec smokers who sued three giant tobacco companies.  The case is believed to be the biggest class-action lawsuit ever seen in Canada.  The judge ruled that the three – JTI-Macdonald, Imperial Tobacco and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges – covered up what they know about the harm caused by smoking in order to maintain their profits.  The tobacco companies will appeal.

Nicaragua announced that an environmental study concludes that a planned canal to bridge the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is “viable” – but then, the government didn’t release any details of the study.  The proposed US$50 Billion waterway is opposed by Environmentalists, Nicaraguans to be displaced once all that digging starts, and political opponents of President Daniel Ortega.  Should the canal come to fruition, it will allow Nicaragua to compete directly with Panama for shipping traffic.

South Korea is reporting its first two deaths from an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a 58-year old woman and a 71-year old man.  After arriving in South Korea only a couple of weeks ago, MERS has infected 25 people according to the health ministry.  That puts South Korea behind only Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates on the list of countries with MERS.