Good Morning, Australia! – Oz’s “extinction calamity” – The high price of watching Julian – You won’t believe the reason that two 21-year old French women are each about a half million dollars richer – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Australia is in an “extinction calamity”, according to conservationists.  Scientists at Charles Darwin University say Oz has lost one in ten of its native mammals species over the last 200 years – mainly because feral cats and the red fox, both carnivores that were introduced from Europe.  The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says it’s the highest rate of land mammals over a time period in any part of the world, ever.  “A further 56 Australian land mammals are now threatened, indicating that this extremely high rate of biodiversity loss is likely to continue unless substantial changes are made,” said conservation biologist John Woinarski, who led the research.

Niger’s Parliament voted to send troops to neighboring Nigeria to join the fight against the terrorist group Boko Haram.  This comes after militants sent a young female suicide bomber into a market town, and attacked a prison in the Niger side of the border.  Meanwhile in Cameroon, suspected Boko Haram guerillas hijacked a bus carrying as many as 30 people and drove it towards the group’s stronghold in Nigeria.

London Metro Police are confirming reports of a very cost to constantly watching the Ecuadorian Embassy to be there just in case Wikileaks founder Julian Assange peaks his nose out – almost A$20 Million, so far.  Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe says the ongoing operation is “sucking our resources”.  Julian is holed up in there because he faces arrest on allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.  Assange denies it and supporters say the charges were trumped up in revenge for Wikileaks revealing the nasty and embarrassing things governments do for profit and control.

Two French families will split a judgment of almost A$2.75 Million, the penalty for a clinic having switched their babies at birth in 1994.  The two girls get about half-a-million each, the rest is split between the parents and family members.  Only the private clinic is paying, as the court threw out a suit against the individual doctors and obstetricians.  The girls were born at clinic in Cannes on July 4, 1994.  But ten years later, the families couldn’t help but notice their daughters looked nothing like the patents who raised them.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe greeted Thailand’s coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, who traded his military drag for a suit and made himself Prime Minister.  Abe told Prayuth, “Japan expresses its strong expectations for Thailand’s national reconciliation and a return of civilian rule as early as possible.”  It’s the first time a G7 nation has welcomed a member of the junta that toppled Thailand’s democratically-elected government since the coup.

Meanwhile, Australia could fall out of the Group of 20 largest economies in the world as the mining boom winds down.  The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) sized up the world and projected ahead to the year 2050, when Oz will be overtaken by Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Nigeria.  PWC's consulting economics and policy leader, Jeremy Thorpe, suggest Australia move away from mining and invest in science, technology, engineering, and maths.  BTW, doing that is going to take fewer tax cuts for really, really rich people and more money spent in education.  Just sayin’.