Hello, Australia! – Australia could be soon rid of the “Tampon Tax” – 38 are killed in a nursing home fire – Nigeria pulls back from the brink – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Treasurer Joe Hockey from July will lobby states and territories to remove the GST tax on women’s sanitary products.  This comes a few weeks after some 90,000 people signed a petition demanding action – noting that condoms, sunscreen, and nicotine patches are already exempt as “important health goods”.  Good on Sydney University student Subeta Vimalarajah for starting that petition. 

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has a plan to defuse the tension in the South China Sea, where China is building islands with runways and docks on reefs well beyond its territorial boundaries and claiming the waters as its own.  Ma’s plan is to set aside claims of sovereignty in favor of jointly exploring for resources – oil and gas, fisheries, and who knows what kind of minerals are down there.  China has enflamed regional tensions with the Philippines, Vietnam, and the United States – filing a complaint with the latter over spy plane flyovers near the fake islands last week.

Chinese state media says at least 38 people died when a fire chewed through a rest home in Pingdingshan, 750 kilometers southwest of Beijing.  High death tolls from building fires aren’t uncommon in China, because of poor safety enforcement and a corrupt system where officials turn a blind eye to breaches in return for bribes.  It also foreshadows a potential problem in China, which has a rapidly aging population and faces increasing pressure to provide safe and affordable elderly care.

Mexico is denying accusations that police effectively executed 42 suspected gang members in a purported gunfight on a ranch in Michoacan state.  “All of them fell in the clash,” said National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido.  “The violence of this criminal group provoked this outcome.”  Since March, the Jalisco New Generation cartel has killed at least 20 police, six military personnel, and downed one army helicopter.

The Wolf Volcano in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands erupted for the first time in more than three decades, sending streams of bright orange lava down its slopes.  But naturalists are worried because the eruption is threatening the world’s only colony of the Galapagos Pink Iguana, a critically endangered species.

A fuel strike that was on the verge of plunging Nigeria into economic chaos has been solved, and not a moment too soon.  The main unions and oil producing grops reached a deal.  The country was just about at a standstill, days before Muhammadu Buhari is to be sworn in as president.  Businesses were shutting down, flights were grounded, and long queues of desperate Nigerians formed at petrol stations.  Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, but lacks its own refineries meaning most of its fuel has to be imported.  Businesses are dependant on diesel to run generators because the electric power grid can’t be counted on.

Blues legend BB King’s death will be investigated as a possible homicide, after the guitarist’s daughters reportedly accused his aides of poisoning him.  “I believe my father was poisoned and that he was administrated foreign substances to induce his premature death,” Karen Williams and Patty King wrote in separate but identical affidavits.  A lawyer for BB’s estate labels the claims as “ridiculous”.  The autopsy will happen in Las Vegas where BB King lived, and will postpone a planned funeral in Memphis where King first gained acclaim.