Good Morning Australia!! - Farewell to a peace maker - The US and UK ratchet up security on incoming flights - The price of saying the wrong thing - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Martin McGuinness, who went from Provisional IRA commander to peacemaker to politician, is dead at age 66.  It came just weeks after leaving politics and days after it was reported that his health had taken a serious turn and he was in hospital.  He had a rare genetic disease caused by deposits of abnormal protein called amyloid in tissues and organs.  His comrade and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams helped carry the flag-draped coffin through the streets of Derry, another tri-color hanging at half-staff in the Bogside community where decades earlier McGuinness took part in many Civil Rights marches - including that notorious Sunday in 1972 when one demonstration ended with the slaughter of 14 civilians by British paratroopers. 

Martin's role in ending The Troubles cannot be overstated.  Through the 1960s to the 1980s, Northern Ireland was soaked in sectarian violence between Catholic Nationalists who wanted to join the Ireland Republic and Protestant Loyalists who wished to remain with the UK.  About 3,500 people were killed during that time.  The peace talks of the 1990s were marked with false starts and attempts at derailment by splinter cells and dissident groups - but by Good Friday, 10 April 1998, an agreement to end Northern Ireland's sectarian wars was in place.

Former US President Bill Clinton, who facilitated the 1990s Good Friday Accord that brought peace to Northern Ireland, said McGuinness was "calm, courageous, and direct"; his wife former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "When he gave his word, that was as good as gold.  As Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, his integrity and willingness to engage in principled compromise were invaluable in reaching the Good Friday Agreement."  Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "I will remember him therefore with immense gratitude for the part he played in the peace process and with genuine affection for the man I came to know and admire for his contribution to peace."  UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbin said Martin had "played an absolutely crucial role in bringing about the Good Friday agreement and a peace process which, despite difficulties, remains an example throughout the world of what can be achieved when the will is there."

Irish President Michael Higgins said in a statement that McGuinness's passing "left a gap that would be "difficult to fill", and the Taoiseach Enda Kenny said McGuinness's death marked "a significant loss".  Martin's exit from politics may very well be as pivotal as his entrance:  His resignation from Stormont in January triggered a snap election in which Unionists for the first time lost their ability to instantly veto legislation and could wind up as the opposition to a Republican majority.  McGuinness' death may have come just a stone's throw away from his goal of uniting the six counties of the north with the rest of the island, because the impending Brexit is about as unpopular with Unionists as it is with Republicans.  The next few weeks will be important.

"I measc laochra na nGael go raibh a anam dilis."

The UK is following the lead of the US and banning certain electronic devices from the passenger cabins of inbound flights from six predominantly Muslim countries.  Anything larger than a mobile phone is to be packed into checked luggage on direct flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.  It's supposed to be an anti-terrorism precaution, although one can't help but wonder what's going to happen to all of those lithium batteries buried in the cargo hold.

Hong Kong has joined China in banning meat imports from Brazil, after police in the South American country closed several meatpackers for allegedly selling rotten meat.  Several executives have been arrested.  The European Union is banning meat important from the packers implicated in the widening scandal.

South Korean prosecutors interviewed former president Park Guen-hye for three hours.  She was impeached and lost his immunity from prosecution because of the influence-peddling investigation involving her close friend.

The UN refugee agency is accusing Cameroon of illegally turning back refugees fleeing Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria.  Cameroon denies it and claims the 2,600 refugees voluntarily returned to live in squalid refugee camps in Borno state, where Boko Haram is strongest.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will skip next month's planned meeting of NATO foreign ministers, will instead travel to a G7 meeting in Sicily, Italy, and then to Moscow to meet Russian leaders.  Not even trying to hide it anymore.

Conservative follies:  Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has pulled retired Judge Andrew Napolitano off the air, after he claimed to have proof of Donald Trump's IDIOTIC claim that President Obama directed british spies into bugging Trump Tower last year.  He didn't, there is no evidence, it didn't happen.  And Tomi Lahren was yanked off of the conservative op-ed site The Blaze.  She made the mistake of revealing that she's pro-choice, which is about as big a sacrilege as one can commit on that part of the right-wing.