Hello Australia! - A very long manhunt has ended in NSW - Oz might join the US in challenging Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea - The latest death in Israel highlights the idiocy and futility of Arab-Israeli violence - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Authorities apprehended father and son fugitives Gino and Mark Stocco in Dunedoo, northwest of Sydney in New South Wales.  The pair had been on the lam for eight years, but the manhunt intensified ten days ago after they allegedly fired shots near Wagga Wagga.  Witness spotted the Stuccos in various spots in rural VIC and NSW over the next few days, including Gungadai.  Authorities will charge the men at the Dubbo station. 

Speaking of fugitives, the Dominican Republic is demanding France extradite two pilots convicted of smuggling 680 kilos of cocaine two years ago.  They escaped the Caribbean nation while they were free during their appeal.  Their lawyer in Paris said pilots Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos went back to France "not to flee justice but to seek justice" - claiming the men were railroaded in the DR because they were French.

The United Nations General Assembly has almost unanimously voted to condemn the US embargo on Cuba.  Out of 193 voting nations, 191 rejected the relic of the Cold War, and only Israel voted with the United States.  The non-binding resolution included language that welcomed Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro's efforts to normalize ties.  The problem for the US is that only congress can lift the embargo, and it's controlled by the Republicans - many of whom don't care what the UN thinks.

There are growing indications that Australia could soon join US maritime patrols in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands, but bases on them, and claimed the surrounding waters as its own.  Defense Minister Marise Payne has dropped some pretty obvious hints in a statement to China, quoted by the ABC:  "Australia has a legitimate interest in the maintenance of peace and stability, respect for international law, unimpeded trade and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea," she writes.  "Australia will continue to cooperate with the United States and other regional partners on maritime security."

The US yesterday sent the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen through the South China Sea, within the 12 nautical mile area claimed by China.  Chinese boats shadowed the US vessel, and Chinese officials protested to the US ambassador.  Beijing is flouting the pre-existing claims of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, and Taiwan - all of which are actually adjacent to the disputed waters, whereas China is several hundred kilometers away to the north.  More than US$5 Trillion in trade flows through those waters every year - and 60 percent of Australia's exports - and there is growing resolve that China cannot just show up and put in a toll booth.

The latest fatality of stabbing attacks committed by Palestinians in Jerusalem was a veteran peace activist who believed that Muslims and Jews should live together peacefully.  Educator 76-year old Richard Lakin died two weeks after being stabbed on a bus in Jerusalem.  He marched with Martin Luther King during the US Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and eventually moved to Israel where he taught mixed classes of Arabs and Israelis.  "He was really a peacenik," said Rabbi Richard Plavin, an old friend in Connecticut.  "He believed deeply in a two-state solution and wanted to see Arabs and Jews living together in peace."  In the past five weeks, eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, while while 54 Palestinians have died from Israeli fire.

Meanwhile, talk of a plan to revoke residency rights of as many as 100,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem is sending a chill through Arab neighborhoods and threatens to provoke more violence.  Most analysts believe it can't happen due to legal hurdles - not to mention the opposition it would create domestically and around the world.  But the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered such a review at all - and within days of him being caught blaming Palestinians for the Holocaust during World War II - sends a negative message while the international community is trying to calm the region.