Good Morning Australia! - Brussels calls off the Auld Lang Syne - Why did the ice cap at the North Pole MELT in December? - Cosby goes to court - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

A freak storm pushed the temperature at the North Pole above the freezing point from Tuesday evening to early Wednesday morning.  I'll spare you the millibars and meteorological pressure drops (but these versions of the Ska classic Pressure Drop are all yours), but basically it's the result of the warm weather system that caused killer tornados in Texas and the southern US and torrential rain up on the Mississippi River, resulting in killer floods.  But the corporate media still doesn't want to link it to won't link it to global warming, because that's for commies.

Brussels is terrorized.  The Belgian capital is cancelling tonight's New Year's fireworks and other festivities because of a terror alert.  "Together with the interior minister, we've decided to not have the celebrations on Thursday evening," says Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur.  The city has been on a neightened terror alert since the 13 November attacks in Paris, which involved militants who lived in Brussels' Molenbeek neighborhood.

A British court sentenced a husband and ex-wife to 27 and 25 years respectively, for plotting a series of bombings to mark the anniversary of the London Terrorist Attacks.  25-year old Mohammed Rehman called himself the "Silent Bomber" on social media.  His former wife 24-year old Sana Ahmed Khan told the court that she divorced him to distance herself since their arrest, but the court wasn't buying.

American comedian Bill Cosby appeared in court in Pennsylvania after being charged with sexual assault.  Former college basketball star Andrea Constand says Cosby drugged then assaulted her in his Philadelphia mansion in 2004.  A conviction could get Cosby a prison sentence of five to ten years, and a US$25,000 fine.  Constand was the first of what became dozens of women to come forward and accuse Cosby of similar assaults, and was largely ignored by the media until very recently.  Cosby denied these allegations, but in a court deposition obtained by the New York Times admitted that he gave women Quaaludes before having sex with them.  He's free on US$1,000,000 bail.

Argentina's new president Mauricio Macri scrapped a media watchdog aimed at preventing monopolies, disregarding large-scale protests on the matter earlier this month.  The move, by presidential decree, effectively gives the right-leaning Clarin media group a free hand to control most of what Argentinians see in the media.  Macri is promising to boost the economy with a series of pro-business "reforms"; but so far he has managed to hand media into the hands of the wealthiest, devalue the national currency, and scrap export taxes.

The original line-up of Guns and Roses (or 4/5s of it) will reportedly get back together after a 23-year split, and play the Coachella music festival in Southern California in 2016 as well as go out on tour.  The band's official website features an updated logo, and recent interviews indicate that Axel Rose and lead guitarist Slash have buried the hatchet.  Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagen are expected to be on board, but it's not clear if Steven Adler or Matt Sorum will be on drums.  One would assume that keyboard player Dizzy Reed would be involved somehow as well, but we'll see.