Good Morning Australia!! - A new rift threatens to worsen a Mideast War - German carmakers take responsibility for the monkey tests - A former TV star commits suicide - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga sparked a political crisis, declaring himself the "people's president" and holding a "swearing in" ceremony attended by thousands of supporters.  Authorities shut down TV stations to prevent coverage, and referred to the spectacle as "treason".  Kenya's presidential election in August was thrown into chaos when judges declared it invalid; Odinga boycotted the rerun in October and incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta began his second term in November. 

Southern Yemeni fighters have surrounded the presidential palace in the city of Aden, where the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet were believed to be holed up inside the compound.  Until now, the southern militias have backed the government in its war against Houthi separatists in the north - but have now become separatists themselves, seizing control of military bases and calling for a return to the state of affairs that ended roughly 30 years ago when there was a North and South Yemen.  It opens a new front in a gruesome civil war that has caused a civilian crisis of starvation and disease.

The orange clown Donald Trump delivers his first "State of the Union" address on Tuesday night, and the White House has tipped that it will contained some sort of surprise about North Korea, but it will definitely be laced with lies and vague policy goals that will be revised and denied via twitter within 48 hours.  The Republican-led US government showed its incompetence by issuing misspelled invitations to the event, calling it the "State of the Uniom".  The replacement invites will probably say "Steak and the Onions". 

Volkswagen is taking responsibility for diesel emission tests performed on humans and monkeys.  VW chief executive Matthias Mueller said the tests were "wrong" as well as "unethical and repulsive".  The monkey tests were carried out in a lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and involved sealing an animal into an air-tight chamber and exposing it to exhaust from various cars including a VW Beetle.  A VW lobbyist who knew about the tests before they happened has been sacked.

Former "Glee" actor Mark Salling is dead of suicide at age 35.  Salling, who played the mischievous character Puck, was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography and faced as much as seven years in prison.  He was found hanged in his Los Angeles home.

Jamaica banned a despicable American minister who preaches for the murders of LGBT people, after 38,000 people signed a petition against him.  Steven Anderson was stopped while transferring flights in Atlanta, being informed that Jamaican officials don't want him around.  Anderson gained his tiny bit of celebrity on the far right by praying for the death of US President Barack Obama (god clearly ignored him), and was shocked at being banned in Jamaica - sometimes described as the most homophobic place in the world, where anti-LGBT laws are still on the books and gay people are murdered.  Anderson's evil rhetoric got him banned in the UK, South African, and deported from Botswana.

Chile has officially designated a network of national parks with land donated by with Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia clothing and widow of Northface founder Doug Tompkins.  The area being protected - which will will create five new national parks, and expand three others - is collectively about the size of Switzerland.  The Chilean government wants the string of national parks to span a tourist route of more than 2,400 miles kilometers down the country.