Good Morning Australia!! - South Africa legalizes it - Germany's domestic spy chief is held accountable, sort of - Russia and Israel clash over a downed military plane - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

South Africa's Constitutional Court has ruled that Marijuana can be grown at home and used in private, which is a landmark change even for the country with Africa's most-liberal constitution.  It came in the case of decriminalisation advocate Gareth Prince, who maintains cannabis should be regulated in the same way as alcohol and tobacco.  The ruling still is still vague on a couple of important points:  It leaves it up to individual police officers to determine how much of a person's weed is for personal use and how much is 'for sale'; it also says that privacy extends beyond the boundaries of a home, but doesn't specify where or how far.

Germany's domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen got kicked upstairs for his abysmal handling of far right violence in the eastern city of Chemnitz.  Stripping Maassen of his law enforcement responsibilities and giving him a gig in the bureaucracy is a compromise with Social Democrats, which wanted him gone altogether; however, the governing Christian Democrats didn't want the stain on its record just before next month's state elections in Bavaria.  Not only did Maassen wrongly deny the reliability of videos that clearly showed nazi mobs chasing and beating people they perceived to be immigrants; but he also passed information to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which sought to gain politically from the ugly social upheaval. 

Doctors say the member of the Pussy Riot who fell ill was likely poisoned:  Dr. Kai-Uwe Eckardt from Berlin's Charite hospital said it was "highly plausible that it was a case of poisoning".  Pyotr Verzilov was flown to Berlin after her lost his sight as well as his ability to walk and talk.  He's a member of the punk protest group Pussy Riot, and he was one of the activists arrested for running onto the field at the World Cup final.

Russia and Israel are trying to defuse tension after the deadly downing of a Russian plane in Syria, with a phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to President Vladimir Putin.  Russian media reported that Putin urged Netanyahu "not to let such a situation happen in the future" and told him Israeli air operations breached Syrian sovereignty.  Syria accidentally shot down the Russian Ilyushin Il-20M turboprop, killing 15 crew members.  But Moscow said that was because Israeli F-16 fighter jets came in behind, using it for cover it to launch an air strike on Syria.  The Kremlin is seeking better relations with Israel while still backing Syria's Bashar al-Assad in the seven-year old civil war. 

The leaders of South and North Korea met in Pyongyang for another round of good will talks.

Still lots of flooding in the Carolinas because Storm Florence.

Donald Trump escalated the US trade war with China by announcing another US$200 Billion on Chinese imports.  Beijing retaliated with tax increases on US$60 Billion worth of imports from the United States, including coffee, honey, and industrial chemicals.  The two countries have already imposed import taxes on $50 Billion worth of each other's goods.  US business groups are warning the White House that is is underestimating China's will and ability to fight a trade war and win.

Pope Francis' role in Argentina's most famous case of clergy sex abuse is getting a second, very critical look.  Before he became Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 2010 commissioned a 2,000-page report that claimed a pedophile priest was innocent and branded the accusers as liars.  But courts all the way up to Argentina's Supreme Court have upheld the conviction and 15-year prison sentence against Fr. Julio Grassi, a celebrity priest who ran homes for street children.  The report was never meant for public consumption and was for church eyes only - but copies made their way out into the light.  Francis wasn't directly Grassi's boss; but this comes amid growing criticism over Francis' handling of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, in which church officials in have repeatedly been caught covering up for pedophile priests in country after country.