Malcolm calls it quits – The US takes out Islamic State’s income generators – Nigeria claims to have killed Boko Haram’s leader – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

After 41 years, Malcolm Young is retiring from AC/DC for health reasons.  The band he founded with his brother Angus will press ahead with a new album “Rock or Bust” due out before Christmas and a world tour next year.  Malcolm gave the band its trademark sound by keeping his rhythm guitar playing steady and simple, building the solid foundation from which brother Angus and vocalists Bon Scott and Brian Johnson would launch at the listener.  AC/DC is keeping it in the family, with nephew Stevie Young stepping into the role on the next album and tour.

The latest round of US airstrikes on Islamic State (IS) sites in Syria killed at least 14 militants.  But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian civil war, says at least five civilians were killed as well.  The targets were oil refineries in areas of Syria controlled by IS that generated as much as US$2 Million per day for the terrorists. 

Nigeria’s military makes a lot of claims about successes against the Boko Haram terrorist group.  Sometimes they turn out to be true; other times, not so much.  This time, Nigeria claims that more than 260 Boko Haram fighters surrendered after a series of attacks by government forces.  The military also claims to have killed the group’s leader, the smirking, taunting man seen in the videos going by the name Abubakar Shekau.  We’ll see.

A court in Venezuela has sentenced three men to lengthy jail sentences for the killing of Venezuelan beauty queen Monica Spear in January.  Even with the world’s second-worst murder rate, the brutality of the murders of Spear and her British partner Thomas Berry in front of their five-year old daughter was shocking.  The three received jail terms of 24 to 26 years – seven more defendants are still on trial for their alleged roles in the killings.

Air France-KLM is making a major concession to striking pilots:  It’s offering to scrap its plan to transfer routes to its low-cost Transavia Airline, in order to get pilots to end their ten day strike and get back to work.  The pilots hated the Transavia plan, because it took work away from them and gave it to lower-paid counterparts.  The strike has cost the carrier more than A$27 Million and forced hundreds of flight cancellations.

Japan’s legendary Shinkansen, or “Bullet Train”, is about to turn 50-years old.  Japan Rail unveiled the first engine, the Hikari, on 1 October 1964, ushering in a high-speed rail revolution in developed nations around the world (except Australia and America, but hey, there’s still time).  The Shinkansen at first connected the two main cities of Tokyo and Osaka, but now set off every few minutes to run the length of the main island Honshu and the southern island Kyushu, with plans to expand north to Hokkaido.