Hello Australia!! - Canada's Trudeau denies politics in the arrest of a top Chinese executive - France fears the worst violence in decades this weekend - South Africa's biggest changes since apartheid ended are approved - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Beijing is demanding that Canada release Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, who has a hearing on Friday.  She could be deported to the US where authorities suspected her of trying to go around international sanctions on Iran.  The Chinese government says she did nothing wrong and urged Canada to "immediately correct the mistake" and release her; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says, "I can assure everyone that we are a country of an independent judiciary and the appropriate authorities took the decisions in this case without any political involvement or interference."  Huawei is the world's biggest supplier of network gear used by phone and internet companies, but is widely suspected by Western intelligence agencies of riddling its kit with surveillance devices.

The Chinese scientist who claimed to have edited the genetic make up of twin baby girls has dropped out of public view, and it happened after a scathing round of criticism from the Chinese government.  Last week, Dr. He Jiankui announced he used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique to make the girls immune to the HIV virus, to the alarm of ethicists and researchers who really don't want the world to turn into a real life version of "Gattaca" or "Sorry To Bother You".  Several government medical and scientific agencies labelled the Frankenstein research "extremely abominable" and He is reportedly "under house arrest".

France may have cancelled the gas tax hike that set off weeks of rowdy protests, but the government is concerned that the violence that led to four deaths will return with more "yellow vest" demonstrations this weekend.  Several football matches are cancelled; the Eiffel Tower as well as shops and tourist attractions will be closed; and 89,000 cops will on duty, along with armored vehicles deployed in Paris for the first time since 1968.  At least parts of the protests have shifted to the schools, where teens are concerned that President Emmanuel macron's "reforms" to the end-of-year exams that determine university admissions will limit opportunity and increase inequality.  Police arrested around 140 people at a school protest about 50 kilometers outside Paris.

Ireland's parliament, the Dail, has passed a bill to legalize women's reproductive rights after voters overwhelmingly decided to scrap the abortion ban in a May referendum.  The Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill will now goes to the Irish senate, the Seanad.  Services could become available as soon as January.

An explosion at a plastics plant in the Dominican Republic killed at least five workers, and authorities are looking fora sixth who is missing.  Among the 66 people injured - five in a critical condition - are 13 kids from a school located near the Polyplas plant in Santo Domingo.

Peace talks got underway in Sweden to try to halt what the UN calls the "the worst humanitarian disaster in the world", the Yemen Civil War.  In four years, thousands have died, thousands ore want to flee, and undernourishment is rampant as half of Yemen's 28 million inhabitants face famine.  Oh, and there are landmines all over the place.

South Africa's National Assembly has given the green light to change the constitution on the issue of land redistribution.  This could pave the way for massive (or mild) land expropriation without compensation from the previous owners - usually whites - to indigenous individuals and groups - usually black.  Two decades after the end of apartheid, more than 70 percent of agricultural land is still owned by the white minority, compared to four percent in the hands of black farmers. 

What's black and white and red all over?  A penguin in a Santa suit.  Or several of them, at the Matsue Vogel Park in Shimane Prefecture.