Good Morning Australia!! - Maduro pleas to the Pope - More flooding is expected for inundated Queensland - Iraq rebukes Trump - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Tropical Queensland doesn't need any more rain, but that is what's coming according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).  Thousands of homes are flooded around Townsville, and another 50 to 100 millimeters of rain are expected as weather patterns conspire to keep the rain clouds over the area for several days.  The Ross River Dam is at more than 200 percent capacity, and the only way to deal with it is to open the spillway gates to their full capacity, causing more flooding downstream.  Oh, and do watch out for dangerous creatures:  "Crocodiles may be seen crossing roads, and when flooding recedes, crocodiles can turn up in unusual places such as farm dams or waterholes where they have not been seen before," said QLD Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch in a statement, "Similarly, snakes are very good swimmers and they too may turn up unexpectedly."

At least 28 would-be immigrants from impoverished Haiti died in a shipwreck off the coast of the Bahamas.  The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) rescued 17 survivors.  They fled the poorest economy in the Western Hemisphere where people live on less than US$2 per day, and died off the island of Fowl Cay where a luxury villa rents for up to US$4,328 per night. 

Stalemate Venezuela:  President Nicolas Maduro is hitting back at the European governments that now recognize his US-educated, un-elected rival Juan Guaido as president of the oil-rich South American country.  France, the UK, Germany, Spain and others did this on Sunday.  Maduro said the decision to support the Trump administration's push for a coup in Venezuela is "cowardly" and "disastrous".  On Sunday night, Donald Trump gave a TV interview in which he said US military intervention is still "on the table", to which Maduro replied on Monday, "We will never, ever hand over our country.. The people will never surrender."  Maduro has been giving interviews to several European news outlets, and told Italy's SkyTG24 television that he had written to the pope asking for him to mediate.  "I told him that I serve Christ's cause and in this spirit I asked for his help, in a process of facilitating and strengthening dialogue," Maduro said, "I ask the Pope to put in his best effort, his will, to help on the path of dialogue.  I hope to receive a positive response."

Also in Trump's Sunday night interview, the White House occupant says he wants to keep a military presence in Iraq so that it could keep an eye on Iran.  Which came as a surprise to Iraq's president, because Trump hasn't asked for permission.  "Don't overburden Iraq with your own issues," said President Barham Saleh a forum in Baghdad, "The US is a major power, but do not pursue your own policy priorities.  We live here."  The US has a force of about 5,000 people in Iraq which is authorized to train, advise, and assist Iraqi security forces in their fight against the so-called Islamic State.

Searchers have located the aircraft that was carrying footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson who went missing two weeks ago.  A body has been observed inside the Piper Malibu plane which is situated 67 meters below the surface on the seabed off Guernsey in the English Channel.  The Argentine striker was en route to Cardiff where he was to play with Cardiff City.

It has been a deadly few days in the Italian Alps where eight people were killed in avalanches.  Four people - two British, two French - were killed in one spot near the Italian resort of Courmayeurr.