Tony’s macho mouth versus Pravda’s pugilism – Mexico confronts unrest over the disappearances of several university students – Japanese nationalists kick up some unnecessary dust – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

When Prime Minister Tony Abbott threatened to “shirtfront” Russian president Vladimir Putin over the investigation into Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, you just knew there was going to be a reaction.  Pravda’s English Language edition published a letter described Abbott as a “disturbed mind crying out for therapy”; said the threat was “most crass example of stupidity the world has seen since the USA, the UK and Australia murdered Iraqi civilians in an illegal and criminal series of war crimes”; and warned Tony that “Like any bully there comes a day when you pick on the wrong person, get your teeth smashed in and go running home to mummy blabbering like a ninny”.  Both leaders like to go shirtless; but one likes to compete in triathlons, and the other used to kill people for the KGB.  Soooooo.. let’s dial it back a notch before the G20 meets in Brisbane next month.

Nor does Tony get any sympathy from the literary world.  Australian novelist Richard Flanagan won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his historical novel “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”.  Flanagan said Abbott’s divisive environmental policies made him “ashamed to be Australian”.  The Tasmanian writer explained he’s “very saddened because Australia has the most extraordinary environment” and he doesn’t “understand why our government seems committed to destroying what we have that's unique in the world.”

A British man – reportedly once held in Australia – will be extradited from Malta to the UK for questioning in the case of Madeline McCann, the three year old who went missing while on vacation with her family in Portugal in 2007.  Britain’s Daily Mirror said that Roderick McDonald was once accused of sexual assault of an eight year old in Australia.  The 76-year old has been a fugitive from the UK since 2012 when he skipped out after being convicted of abusing two girls.

China has sentence 12 more people to death in connection with terrorist attacks in Xinjiang province that killed some 100 people.  Some ethnic Uighur Muslims want to break off from China and form a new state called “East Turkestan”.  The government has been handing down numerous death sentences in a massive, coordinated crackdown on the separatists.

Hong Kong police have busted up several protesters’ barricades, and cleared an underpass, dragging off about 45 protesters. Police said they had to disperse the protesters because they were disrupting public order and gathering illegally.  A scathing article in the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Dily warns the protesters are “doomed to fail”.

Dozens of Japanese politicians, including cabinet members, are preparing to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo for its Autumn Festival on Friday, which will anger Japan’s East Asian neighbors in the process.  Yasukuni honors Japan’s war dead including several class-A war criminals.  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be at a summit in Milan at the time, reportedly trying to improve Tokyo’s relationship with Beijing.  But it’s not going to work because his cabinet will be honoring people who killed hundreds of thousands of Chinese during War World II.