A Uni professor wants his racist, misogynist emails back – Abbott’s short-sighted energy policies are causing unemployment – Does a Japan cabinet member have a spanky secret? – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Suspended University of Sydney professor Barry Spurr has dropped his bid to force the website New Matilda to reveal the source of emails containing his racist and derogatory commentary.  The emails reveal Spurr to be a bigot and misogynist who used the lowest of slurs and insults to refer to human beings – doubly surprising, since he’s supposed to be a poet.  In Federal Court, Spurr sought to have the emails returned to him (I guess that’s a tacit admission of authorship, eh?), and New Matilda agreed not to publish any more.  The next hearing on this is in December.

The Abbott government’s plan to slash the renewable energy target by as much as 40 percent is costing jobs.  Keppel Prince Engineering in Portland, VIC – which was building wind tower turbines – will now have to cut about a third of its workforce, going from 360 on staff to a target of 250.  Keppel Prince's general manager Stephen Garner says the Abbott government’s retreat “will effectively kill the wind farm industry” in the region and beyond.  Australia earlier reached a bipartisan accord to generate 41,000 gigawatt-hours of clean energy by the end of the decade – but the Abbott government wants to cut that to only 27,000 gigawatt-hours.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists marched to the home to territorial chief executive C.Y. Leung, angered by his comments that free elections would give poor people too much political influence.  Leung said that if the city allowed direct elections, “you’d be talking to the half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than $1,800 a month.”  The marchers carried signs reading “Bloodsucking Capitalists!” and said Hong Kong’s system is rigged to favor business interests.

(Let that sink in for a moment:  The guy who works for supposedly Communist Beijing fears having to answer to poor people, and those who favor western-style democracy are condemning capitalists.  Do you suppose anyone in Hong Kong is aware of the role-reversal?)

The protests continue, the demonstrators want free elections for Hong Kong’s next chief executive in 2017.  Beijing will only allow those who are approved by the government to run.

Sweden is threatening to use weapons in its search for a suspected foreign submarine that has breached its territorial waters.  Sweden has been searching for it for about a week.  The Kremlin denies it’s a Russian sub, although several distress signals were intercepted, leading to speculation that it is a Russian naval vessel.

Ebola’s death toll is now more than 4,877, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.  That’s more than 300 deaths added since the last update a few days ago.  PM Tony Abbott has revealed that the US and UK are asking Australia to get off the fence and contribute personnel to the fight on the killer virus, although Abbott has been reluctant citing the lack of treatment facilities in the West African region should Aussie medical teams get infected.

Japan’s new trade minister is admitting that his political support group spent money in a sadomasochism-theme bar, but insists he did not go there himself.  64-year old Yoichi Miyazawa says the political group put it on the political finances report as an “entertainment expense”.  Oh, my!  Looks like someone might have to be.. punished.  Miyazawa was tapped to replace Yuko Obuchi, daughter of a past Prime Minister, who was forced to resign after it was revealed she spent campaign funds on banned personal items including cosmetics.  The justice minister resigned the same day over election law irregularities.