Good Morning Australia!! - Russia's UN ambassador suddenly dies - Europe will not pretend that all is normal in Washington, DC - Famine returns to Africa - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

International officials have declared a famine in two counties in South Sudan, with 100,000 people facing starvation and a million more teetering on the brink.  "Our worst fears have been realized," said Serge Tissot of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, "Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive."  The head of the World Food Program in South Sudan Joyce Luma added the famine is "man-made", caused by the countries political turmoil and battling between factions.  This is the first time since 2011 that a famine has been declared by international bodies.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations died suddenly of a heart attack, a day before what would have bene his 65th birthday.  New York City police found Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin in the Russian Consulate at 9:30 in the morning local time, and had him rushed to hospital where he was declared dead.  No foul play is suspected.  Former US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power locked horns with Mr. Churkin several times, and remembers him as a "diplomatic maestro and deeply caring man" who did all he could to bridge differences between the US and Russia.  Last year, Churkin filed a formal complaint at the UN demanding the high commissioner for human rights stop criticizing then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

US Vice President Mike Pence's European mission isn't soothing concerns about Donald Trump's commitment to NATO or continental safety.  Visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels, Pence claims both he and Trump "support a free and independent press", a few days after Trump called the news media the "enemy of the American people".  Pence then accused the media of playing "fast and loose with the facts", two days after the orange clown hallucinated a non-existent terrorist incident in Sweden.  European Council President Donald Tusk put it bluntly:  "Too many new and sometimes surprising opinions have been voiced over this time about our relations - and our common security - for us to pretend that everything is as it used to be."

US Defense Secretary James Mattis is trying to put out other Trump-related dumpster fires:  Before leaving Washington for Baghdad, he insisted the US is "not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil".  Mattis actually has to say this out loud, because Trump has repeatedly said that the US should have taken Iraq's oil as payment for ridding the country of Saddam Hussein, and has used the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils".  Mattis said the previously unannounced trip to Baghdad was "because I need to get current on the situation there, the political situation, the enemy situation and the friendly situation".  Um.. he doesn't already know?  

Ecuador President Rafael Correa is warning of a "dirty campaign" from the conservative opposition if the presidential election goes to a second round, as it appears will happen.  Vice President Lenin Moreno is the leader, but did not clear the 40 percent threshold to win outright.  The conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso is promising tax cuts for the rich and to end the policy of sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the London Embassy.

New Zealand's High Court has ruled that internet upload guy Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the US, where he faces fraud and copyright infringement and copyright infringement charges.

Malaysia recalled its ambassador from Pyongyang after last week's assassination of Kim Jong-nam (now on video!) at the Kuala Lumpur airport, which appears to have been a North Korean intel operation.

Tanzania's health minister is a rabid homophobe who is threatening to publish a list of known LGBT people, putting that at risk of lynching or other attacks.  42-year-old "Doctor" Hamisi Kigwangalla claims science doesn't support the idea of homosexuality, which is completely untrue.  Last week, Kigwangalla suspended the activities of 40 drop-in HIV/Aids clinics, accusing them of promoting gay sex.

Libya's unrecognized government in the east is banning women under 60 from traveling abroad on their own - for "national security reasons" and not because of religious ideology.  The leader of the eastern government General Khalifa Hefter claims.. oh who the hell cares what the jackass claims.  The West has recognized the government in Tripoli, which hasn't done anything this stupid.