A record settlement is announced in the 2009 wildfires – Tony Abbott’s “entitled” office renovation – Malala secures an important pledge – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Survivors of the 2009 wildfires in Victoria will share in a record A$500 Million settlement.  More than 5,000 people took part in a class-action lawsuit against SP AusNet, a subcontractor, and the Victorian government arguing that the company was responsible because it allegedly failed to maintain its power lines, which sparked the fire.  The fire killed 119 people and was the biggest of a series of blazes that tore through Victoria in 2009.  Those fires left 173 people dead and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in just over a single day.

The Abbott government has said much about a “budget crisis” and how Australians have to do with less – Tony Abbott’s office, however, is another story.  The ABC is reporting Abbott has spent A$50,000 on redecorating his private office at Parliament House, adding a lounge, reupholstering his dining set, and hanging jaunty new curtains.  Labor frontbencher Penny Wong wryly notes that the office was in perfectly fine condition when Labor occupied a short time ago, and that it is clear the “age of entitlement isn’t over for some”.

A surprise shake-up in London – UK Foreign Minister William Hague is stepping down.  A former Tory child prodigy, Hague never got to live in 10 Downing Street, but was highly visible on the current international crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.  He’s moving to the post of leader of the House of Commons and will quit national politics next year.  PM David Cameron will announce more changes in his Conservative administration on Tuesday.

Bolivian President Evo Morales is running for a third term, seeking more time in office to expand social reforms to help the poor. The Leftist leader and president of the Coca Growers’ Union is heavily favored to win.  His opponent will likely be perennial candidate Samuel Doria Medina, a wealthy cement magnate who got less than 10 percent of the votes in the last three presidential elections. Previously unstable, Bolivia has enjoyed relative prosperity and calm since Morales was first elected.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has given his word to teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai that Nigerian forces will find the more than 200 girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok town by Boko Haram terrorists. “The president promised me.. that the abducted girls will return to their homes soon,” said Malala, who has called the 219 missing students her “sisters”.  Malala famously survived being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban because she wanted to go to school, to become an international symbol for education. 

Paralympic athlete and accused killer Oscar Pistorius got into a fight with a man who approached him in the VIP section of a Johannesburg nightclub.  The details are somewhat sketchy, but the man – who claimed it was Pistorius who was “drunk and very aggressive” – pushed the double amputee into a table.  A Pistorius spokesman says the other man was the aggressor.  Pistorius faces life in prison for shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, which he was an accident based on mistaken identity.

US comedian Tracy Morgan has spoken out for the first time since the terrible traffic collision last month.  The 45-year old former “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live” star told paparazzi outside his home in New Jersey that he “felt strong,” adding “Love you, thank you very much.”  Morgan is suing the retail giant Walmart, which owned the big rig truck that plowed into his limousine bus.  The collision left him with a broken femur, a broken nose and several broken ribs, among other injuries, and his friend and fellow comedian James McNair was killed.