Good Morning Australia!! - A journalist fakes his death to catch a hit-man - An airline counter worker grills passengers about their baby's race - The US makes a boastful claim in Afghanistan - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Not only is Russian journalist and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko not dead, but he faked his death with Ukraine police as part of a sting to catch a Russian assassination team.  Even Mr. Babchenko's wife was unaware of the sting, which was revealed when the totally not-dead journalist appeared at a surprise news conference in Kiev, as his colleagues cheered.  A month ago Ukraine security chief Vasyl Hrytsak told Babchenko that Russian Security Forces had found a Ukrainian citizen to recruit a hit-man, offering US$30,000 to silence Babchenko.  Instead, one of the recruits contacted authorities, who set up the sting to flush out the scheme.  Police say they've made one arrest.

Babchenko fled his home country for Kiev last year, after being threatened for his Facebook post in which he referred to Russia as an "aggressor" in the Syrian Civil War.  After the big reveal, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the country would offer protection to Babchenko.  But back in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry was apoplectic, calling the staged assassination "anti-Russian provocation", "a masquerade", done for "propagandistic effect".  At least three Kremlin critics have been assassinated in Kiev in recent years, often by car bomb.

Alrighty!

The US claims to have killed 50 Taliban leaders in a volley of GPS-guided rocket strikes in Afghanistan's Helmand province.  "Enemy leaders are now being pulled out of the rubble" of the site where the Taliban commanders were meeting, said General John Nicholson in a teleconference from Afghanistan.  This is the first time that the US has claimed casualties in the attack; the Taliban dismissed the report and claimed the rockets hit a hit a private home and killed five civilians.  The Afghan news site Khaama Press earlier reported a missile strike killed seven Taliban and three Afghan police officers.

Trade Unions are blasting South Africa's proposed minimum wage as "legitimizing poverty".  Lower house lawmakers approved a bill to set the minimum wage at 20 Rand per hour, which works out to $2.11 Australian.  Based on a 40-hour work week, that's a monthly salary of $337.60.  For everything life throws at about 75 percent of South African workers.  The Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) said it is outraged and disgusted - but not surprised.  The proposal must be passed by the upper house before it can be signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Japan killed 122 pregnant minke whales as part of its Antarctic summer "field survey", the euphemism it uses for hunting.  The New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A) sent a report to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) reveals that overall, the hunters killed 333 minkes.  Japan claims the hunt is for scientific reasons, but doesn't bother to deny the meat is sold for human consumption - even though it is increasingly unpopular, and most of it stays in freezers in Tokyo.

The US carrier Southwest Airlines is apologizing to a woman after an airline employee took it upon herself to interrogate her about her mixed-race baby's parentage.  Mom is Lindsay Gottlieb, who is white, and Dad is her fiance Patrick Martin, who is African American, and none of that is any of Southwest's business.  But even after they showed their son's passport, they were asked for further evidence through a Facebook post or birth certificate.  WTF.  WTF.  WT actual F.  "I'm appalled that after approx 50 times flying with my one year old son, ticket counter personnel told me I had to 'prove' that he was my son, despite having his passport," Ms. Gottlieb said, "She said because we have different last name.  My guess is because he has a different skin color."  The airline said it would use the incident to "coach" employees.  Yesterday, Starbucks closed thousands of its stores in the US to conduct a mass training sessions after one of its managers called police on two black guys who sat down before ordering coffee.

That volcano in Hawaii is still providing awesome and frightening video.