Hello, Australia! – Search and Rescue teams are refusing to give up in Nepal – A deadly gunfight in America had encouragement from Australia – The Parkes Telescope receives a message, but it turns out it’s not from beyond the stars – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

A magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck south of the Papua New Guinea island of New Britain today, prompting tsunami warnings in PNG, Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and surrounding nations.  So far there are no reports of significant damage, and there’s no tsunami threat to Australia.   A series of strong earthquakes have struck the region for the past week. 

Nepal’s government has reportedly asked several international search-and-rescue teams to leave the country, because it’s highly unlikely any more survivors of the 25 April earthquake will be pulled from the rubble at this late date.  Still, many are refusing to go and are hoping for better coordination of the teams so they don’t search the same buildings over and over again.  The death toll has risen to 7,365, with more than 14,000 injured.

An Australian twitter user encouraged the gunmen who attacked and were shot dead at a controversial conference in Texas.  Fairfax news reports that a private group that monitors racist and jihadi internet traffic says the account named “Australi Witness”, likely from Melbourne, who is “part of the hard core of a group of individuals who constantly look for targets for other people to attack”.  The two gunmen had internet ties to the Middle East as well.  They attacked a conference that celebrated cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with AK47s, before being promptly dropped by a traffic cop with a handgun.

Peru is sending a cultural special to a remote area of the Amazon after a man was killed in a bow and arrow attack from a largely uncontacted indigenous tribe.  The Mashco Piro people were probably looking for tools and food when they attacked the Shipetiari fishing village.  Peru’s government bans contact with the Mashco Piro and other remote tribes, because it is believed they they have little immunity or resistance to illnesses that other humans carry.

Police shot and killed three protesters in Burundi, which is having a political crisis over the President’s plans to run for a third term.  Opponents say that violates a peace deal that ended the civil war in 2005.  Thousands protest in the capital daily, despite a ban on such gatherings.

Italy, which has had something like three billion governments since the end of World War II, has approved a reform package aimed at bringing political stability to the boot-shaped nation.  It will guarantee a majority of seats to the party that wins the most votes in an election, and end the horse trading and deal making that thwarts direct democracy.  Critics said the law gives too much power to single parties.

Transport in Germany is all fouled up this week, as freight and passenger train drivers walked off the job.  Their union is demanding a five percent pay hike and two hours lopped off of the workweek.  Deutsche Bahn moves about 5.5 million people in Germany every day.

Scientists at the Parkes telescope in central west New South Wales have tracked down the source of mysterious “fast radio bursts”.  That would be a big deal for the facility that played vital communication and tracking roles in man’s voyages into space, as well as making discoveries in far off solar systems.  They wondered if the signals might be from far and beyond, possibly intergalactic messages.  And in fact, the signals did sort-of send a message:  “Your burrito is ready.”  PhD student Emily Petroff was one of those investigating and says, “We were actually able to trace them back to the microwave at the Parkes radio telescope site.”