Good Morning, Australia! – While you were sleeping, Sepp Blatter stepped down from FIFA – The US Senate acts on the spying exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden – Time is running out for hundreds of missing passengers from a capsized Chinese river ship – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The almost universally scorned FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced that he is resigning and shortly after that, US prosecutors confirmed the 79-year old is the focus of a federal corruption investigation.  Blatter said he would call a special FIFA congress “as soon as possible” to elect a new president.  This comes a less than a week after he was reelected to an unprecedented fifth term to the FIFA presidency, which itself came only two days after seven close confidants were arrested in the widening US investigation into FIFA’s corruption. 

All of this closely follows reports that Blatter’s right-hand man Jerome Valcke is in the sites of the US feds.  Prosecutors have reportedly linked Valcke to wire transfers involving bank payments believed to be bribes related to World Cup bids.  This will likely force whoever gets control of the world football organization revisit the awarding of future World Cup Tournaments to Russia and Qatar – both of which deny bribery in securing the games.

Three candidates immediately emerged as possible replacements for Blatter.  One is Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan who said, “I am always there to serve football and I think that's the most important thing and to do so much work to fix this organization in a proper way.”  Michel Platini of Euope’s UEFA had urged Blatter to step down last week, and could be enough of an outsider to step in and battle FIFA’s seemingly flagrant corruption.  The other is French former international player David Ginola, who tried to stand in last week’s election but failed to get the backing of five football associations.  His camp confirms he’ll try, try again for the next FIFA special congress. 

The US Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a reformed surveillance bill that vindicates National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.  The legislation ends the NSA’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records.  US President Barack Obama praised the bill’s passage and said he would “sign it as soon as I get it”.  Jameel Jaffer of the American Civil Liberties Union said, “It’s a testament to the significance of the Snowden disclosures and also to the hard work of many principled legislators on both sides of the aisle.”

Rescue divers managed to pull a 65-year old woman from the hull of the passenger ship that capsized on China’s Yangtze River.  But only 15 people have been found, another five are confirmed dead, and hundreds of people are still missing and believed to be in the ship.  The captain said the ship was struck with incredibly rough weather, and the Chinese weather agency earlier said there was tornado activity in the area at the time.  Most of the 450 people on board were elderly passengers on a cruise up the Yangtze to the southwest.

Four people were seriously hurt when two roller coaster carriages crashed at the Alton Towers theme park between Manchester and Birmingham in the UK.  Three teens and a young adult suffered “significant lower limb injuries” and were airlifted to hospital.  The coaster immediately shut down, and it took hours to rescue the other riders, some of whom were dangling almost 8 meters in the air.

As many as 50 people were killed in a bomb blast in Nigeria’s Maiduguri City, close to the area where the terrorist group Boko Haram has been losing ground.  This happened at a cattle market and apparently among civilians who were helping the Nigerian military battle Boko Haram.  Meanwhile, the militants released a new propaganda in which leader Abubakar Shekau is noticeably missing, leading to speculation about his fate.

A river of lava from the Wolf Volcano lights up the night sky around the Galapagos Islands.