Good Morning Australia!! - A massive civilian death toll in Syria's attack on rebels in a capital suburb - Russia admits it is losing people in the Syrian war - The US Prosecutor indicts a lawyer for Trump's ally - Thailand says a Japanese billionaire can grow a crop of kids - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

While Syrian forces entered Afrin province - not to battle Kurds but to firing warning shots at invading Turks who were attacking the Kurds - Syrian Government forces backed by Russia unleashed a pitiless bombing campaign on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of East Ghouta.  It's yet another episode in this multi-sided "civil" war in which alliances depend on the territory being fought over.  At least 210 civilians died in the East Ghouta Carnage, according to observers, and of course children made up a big part of that 48 hour death toll.  But the explosions kept coming.  "Warplanes have not stopped soaring over the city," said a woman to Al Jazeera while she desperately tried to shelter her young sons.  "When the shelling temporarily stops, they start firing missiles at us."  Unicef sent a largely blank tweet to tell the world it is running out of words to describe this war.

In Afrin, Syrian troops responded to a call for assistance from one of the Kurdish groups to help repel invading Turks, who consider Kurdish militias in Syria to be part and parcel of Kurdish separatist groups north of the border (the Kurds deny any direct links).  Turks responded by shelling the area and claiming they forces the Syrians to retreat, but there's been no word of that from Damascus.  The Syrian government also wouldn't confirm a new, ad hoc alliance with the Kurdish YPG, the Socialist fighting force that has proven to be the most-effective against the so-called "Islamic State" - but a government spokesman acknowledged that "dirty and secret negotiations were being held".

And Russia is admitting that "several dozen" of its people were killed in a US bombing run in Syria on 7 February.  But the Kremlin insists these were civilians, not soldiers, from Russia and several former Soviet states.  This is leading to speculation that Russia is helping Damascus by sending in soldiers in plain clothes to they can't be directly linked back to Moscow.  A similar tactic was allegedly used during Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.  Officially, Russia is assisting Syria with advice and airstrikes.

Anyway..

A lawyer with family ties to Russia's oligarchs is copping a plea in US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign.  Alex van der Zwaan was charged with making false statements to the FBI in connection to work he did in Ukraine in conjunction with Donald Trump's ally Paul Manafort.  Van der Zwaan is married to the daughter of a prominent Russian oligarch, and has surrendered his passport - meaning he will not be there at their home on London while she goes through what is reportedly a difficult pregnancy. 

Van der Zwaan's guilty plea adds to the pile of evidence that Mueller is building.  The fact that few have heard of this guy before shows that Mueller knows more about the meddling (and its US toadies) than most people realize.  And a new guilty plea this week shows that last week's charges filed against several Russian individuals and companies were merely the tip of the iceberg.  Seems like as good of a time as any to point out that one year ago, US intelligence source were saying that the orange clown Donald Trump "will die in jail".  Just saying.

Moving along..

The head of Queensland's Liberal National Party says he wants the Barnaby Joyce situation "resolved" before the party room meeting at Parliament next Monday.  Gary Spence did not go as far as WA Nats leader Mia Davies, who says Mr. Joyce ought to quit over his scandalous affair with a former staffer, leaving the woman really, really pregnant and Joyce's marriage in tatters.

Searchers in Iran located wreckage believed to be from the Aseman Airlines passenger plane that crashed in the Zagroz Mountains.  They do not expect to find survivors.

Boko Haram raided a school and a town in northern Nigerian, but schoolgirls and teachers fled before the terrorist group could carry out any kidnappings.  In 2014, Boko Haram provoked global disgust with the mass kidnapping of 270 girls from Chibok School - many of them are still being held by the group.  This latest raid took place further north than Boko Haram's usual stomping grounds around Maiduguri, suggesting that Nigeria's army is at least pushing it further and further back.

A court in Peru is ordering former fascist dictator Alberto Fujimori and 23 others to stand trial for a series of death squad murders during his awful and bloody 1990s rule.  The current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardon Fujimori in December for crimes against humanity, but the the National Criminal Court ruled that the pardon didn't cover the group of crimes for which Fujimori is now charged.  Critics viewed the pardon as quid pro quo for the Fujimori family helping Kuczynski avoid impeachment on another matter.

Thailand granted custody of 13 surrogate children to the shadowy son of a Japanese billionaire.  Authorities investigated 28-year-old businessman Mitsutoki Shigeta, the presumably opulent living conditions the kids would have in Japan, and the law, determining there was nothing technically wrong.  Although it's really, really weird.  Shigeta had his sperm fertilise donor eggs - sources unspecified - and had them implanted in nine women in Thailand.  Why?  His Thai lawyer would only say, "He has personal and business reasons."  Shigeta apparently also has surrogate babies in Cambodia, all eventually heading to Japan