Hello, Australia! – Democracy delayed in Thailand, yet again – Marriage Equality could become reality in Ireland, if the polls are to be believed – Calls to impeach two judges who suggested a molester’s six-year-old victim somehow invited the unthinkable – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Thailand’s junta has “postponed” democratic elections by at least six months, opting instead to hold a referendum on the post-coup constitution.  Once the junta approves it as expected in August, some 47 million copies of the document will have to be printed and distributed.  And that will push leadership election back until the last half of 2016 at the earliest.  Meanwhile, ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is on trial on charges of dereliction of duty over her role in a controversial rice subsidy scheme.  She says she is innocent.

As ministers from Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia meet near Kuala Lumpur to discuss the migrant boat crisis off of Southeast Asia, fishers are rescuing Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants from their death trap boats and bringing them to shore in Aceh province.  Thousands are believed to be stranded on the sea with little to no fresh water or food.  The US and others are urging Southeast Asian nations to do something about the humanitarian crisis.  But the source of these troubles – Myanmar – refuses to take part in the conference.

New polling shows the two sides are narrowing, but a clear majority of Irish voters favor approval of this Friday’s referendum on allowing same-sex couples to marry with the same constitutional rights as couples of the opposite sex.  The latest poll by the Irish Times Newspaper puts the “Yes” vote at 58 percent and the “No” vote on 25 percent – with 17 per cent undecided.  That’s still good news for marriage equality in Ireland, but a significant drop from January when the approval rate was 80 percent.  The pro-bigotry side insists the pollsters are undercounting immigrants from Africa and other Christian communities.

Ebola cases came roaring back with 27 new infections reported in Guinea and eight more Sierra Leone.  Health officials are blaming unsafe burial practices for the spike – most of the new cases are reported in an area in which people have rejected the government’s pleas to give up traditional funerals in which mourners touch the deceased.  “It doesn’t surprise us that within the tail of the epidemic there are peaks and valleys,” said Brice de la Vigne of the group Doctors Without Borders, which has been fighting the West African Ebola Epidemic for more than 14 months.

There is disgust and revulsion in Argentina for two judges who reduced the sentence of a convicted child molester because the six-year old victim had been abused before, and showed “transvestite conduct”.  The government’s cabinet chief said the two judges – Horacio Piombo and Benjamin Sal Llargues – should be “hauled before an impeachment hearing” for committing “one of the biggest disgraces we’ve ever seen in this country”.  The six-year old boy’s family plans to appeal the idiotic and hateful decision to the Supreme Court.

Likewise in South Africa, victims’ families are angry over the decision to grant bail to Australian-borne former star Bob Hewitt as he appeals his convictions and six year sentence for raping underage girls during the 1980s and ‘90s.  The 75-year old will be held under house arrest. 

A cruise ship with more than 3,700 people on board lost power and ran aground off Bermuda.  It took more than six hours and the arrival of high tide for tugs to free it from the reef.  Norwegian Cruises insists no one was hurt and no fuel was spilled.

A ruptured oil pipeline near Santa Barbara, California spilled some 21,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, causing a four-mile oil slick on the beach of the picturesque seaside community.  Federal, state, and local authorities are now coordinating cleanup efforts. 

The Los Angeles city council approved a measure to raise the city’s minimum wage to US$15 per hour by the year 2020, up from $9/hour.  It comes amid a growing movement to raise the wage, with constant pressure coming from brave workers at low-wage hellholes like Walmart and corporate fast food restaurants who have staged high-profile strikes in American cities.  Credit where credit is due, Seattle was the first to get on this bandwagon – but only after the nation’s only Socialist government official Kshama Sawant was elected to the city council, reminding the mainstream party officials that they could lose their phony-baloney jobs if they keep ignoring the people.