Doubts over the purported impending release of a Sudanese woman sentence to die to religious apostasy – A reporter is arrested on air – Australia backs away from Thailand – America’s only Afghan War prisoner is freed – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Most flights in and out of Darwin are expected to resume today after Indonesia’s Sangeang Api Volcano smoky, sooty eruptions on Friday and Saturday.  The Bureau of Meteorology’s VAAC in Darwin said the ash should begin to clear today, so Qantas, Jetstar, and Virgin Australia will get moving.  The eruptions also messed with travel to Bali.

There are reports that Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to die because she married a Christian, will instead be released from prison.  But her lawyer suspects this is the ploy by the government to try to quell the international outrage against the Sharia law judgment.  “It’s a statement to silence the international media,” said her attorney Elshareef Ali Mohammed.  “This is what the government does.  We will not believe that she is being freed until she walks out of the prison.”

Boko Haram fighters attacked four villages in northeastern Nigeria and killed several people.  The death toll is still being assessed, but given Boko Haram’s macabre history and modus operandi, there could be a high death toll.  In the past, the Islamists kill as many civilians as possible and burn every structure to the ground.

A CNN reporter was detained by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s cops on live TV as he and his crew tried to cover the protests marking the year since the Gezi Park and Taksim Square demonstrations.  Even though Ivan Watson had a valid press pass, Erdogan’s goons demanded to see his passport and led him away.  Watson and crew were eventually released.  Not so lucky were 80 people detained by cops and 13 who were injured in clashes, according to Turkey’s Human Rights Association.  Thousands defied orders not to protest. 

The first-ever Gay Parade on Cyprus attracted thousands of people to Nicosia, proving that the Island is a lot more inclusive and advanced than its conservative politicians had claimed, according to organizers.  A thankful “ACCEPT-LGBT Cyprus” President Costas Gavrielides said he expected only a few hundred, not thousands. A small group of Orthodox Christians protested, some attempting to cloak their bigotry behind crucifixes, but no one gave a crap about them. 

The son of Brazilian football legend Pele has been sentenced to 33 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.  Edhino is a goalkeeping coach at Pele’s old club, Santos, where he was a goalkeeper in the 1990s. 

Australia is in the process of cooling ties with Thailand because of the coup d’etat.  The leaders of the junta are now banned from traveling to Oz, and defense cooperation is getting cut back.  Canberra is demanding a return to democracy as soon as possible, but coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha said last week that elections may not come for at least 15 months – time he said that was needed for “reform”, which most believe means wiping out pro-democratic policies that benefited the poor north.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea are “destabilizing” southeast Asia and the US will not look the other way as Beijing runs down international law.  Hagel made his comments at the Shangri-La international security in Singapore.  It comes less than two weeks after the US charged several Chinese military officials in absentia for allegedly hacking into American companies to steal military secrets.

The only American prisoner of war from the Afghan War is free.  Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, for whatever reason, walked off of base in 2009, and was captured by Taliban fighters.  The Obama administration refused to allow the circumstances interfere with securing Bergdahl’s release, and worked for five years to gain his freedom.  Eventually, Qatar brokered a deal in which five Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay would be swapped for Bergdahl.

Six people missing on Mount Rainier near Seattle are presumed dead.  Camping and mountaineering gear were found scattered at about 2,900 meters up the 4,400-meter mountain.  The two guides and four climbers were last heard from on Wednesday.  It’s unclear what happened to the group.  Searchers yesterday homed in on weak signals from their emergency beacons which were found buried in the snow.

The Bilderberg group is meeting in Copenhagen.  I’d love to tell you what they’re up to, but it’s a secret and they’d cancel my gold membership card which entitles the holder to free roadside service, upgrades on airline seating, and a yearly military coup d’etats in the third world country of the holder’s choice.

Hey, how about the world’s highest cable railway in La Paz, Bolivia?  That’s something.