Hello Australia!! - The US brings it to Beijing's South China Sea claims - A UN aid convoy apparently has not stopped the starvation and squalor in a besieged Syrian town - France delivers an ultimatum to Israel - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

A US warship sailed within twelve nautical miles of an island claimed by China in the South China Sea, in a direct challenge to Beijing's attempt to exercise sovereignty over waters far from its shores.  "No claimants were notified prior to the transit, which is consistent with our normal process and international law," said Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.  China's Foreign Ministry responded with a statement claiming the guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur "violated relevant Chinese laws by entering Chinese territorial waters without prior permission".  This is the second time the US sent a warship by islands claimed by China - Australia sent air patrols over the same islands in defiance of Beijing.  More than US$5 Trillion in world trade is shipped through the South China Sea annually.

Colombian health officials have more than doubled the number of pregnant women known to be infected with the Zika virus to around 2,000.  Zika symptoms are mild, causing a low fever, joint pain, headaches, a rash and conjunctivitis.  But doctors are working to prove a causal relationship after 4,000 Brazilian babies were born with the birth defect called microcephaly - abnormally small skulls - since October.  The UN World Health Organization predicted a Zika explosion of as many as four million cases, and holds and emergency meeting on Monday to plan a response.

The Turkish Coast Guard has recovered several bodies from yet another immigrant ship sinking, and it appears five children are among at least 39 people drowned in their attempts to escape war and poverty.  Another 60 have been rescued from the sea near the Turkish resort of Ayvacik.  This happens just days after 28 people drowned in a similar attempt to cross the Aegean from Turkey to Greece and the European Union.  These deaths are on top of the at least 244 drowned in the first four weeks of 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Despite the United Nations aid convoy that arrived earlier this month, another 16 people starved to death in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya.  And another 33 people are in danger, according to charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.  MSF's operations director Brice de la Vingne says the situation was "totally unacceptable" when people "should have been evacuated weeks ago".  Government troops have the rebel-controlled city surrounded and no not allow anyone in or out.  The most recent aid delivery which didn't go far enough was the result of months of negotiation - the only aid convoy prior to that was in October.

Meanwhile, in the lands that many Middle Eastern refugees would love to escape to:  As many as a hundred masked neo-nazis ran amok in central Stockholm, Sweden, roughing up people they perceived to immigrants and passing out fliers promising to "punish" the children of asylum seekers.  Police arrested several, but they were released the following morning.  And in Germany, a fringe party lawmaker is trying to stir up the rabble by calling on police to shoot migrants trying to cross into the country illegally.  Left-wing parties and the German Police Union immediately condemned the inflammatory crap from Frauke Petry, head of the Eurosceptic Alternativ fuer Deutschland (AfD) party.

Britain's first woman to be convicted of joining Islamic State was the "perfect daughter", according to her father who said she "made a mistake".  26-year old Tareena Shakil of Birmingham was also convicted of encouraging terrorist acts through her social media accounts.  In October 2014, Ms. Shakil told her family she was going to a beach resort in Turkey, but instead took her toddler son and crossed into Syria to live under IS's whack version of Sharia law.  When posing for photos with the IS flag and an AK47 didn't work out quite as well as planned, she high-tailed it back to the UK to face charges.  She'll be sentenced on Monday.

France plans to recognize Palestine as an independent state if negotiations with Israel on the two-state solution remain bogged down.  "Unfortunately, Israeli settlement construction continues," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.  "We must not let the two-state solution unravel.  It is our responsibility as a permanent member of the UN security council," he added.  The Palestinians have welcomed France’s renewed efforts to negotiate a two-state solution at talks that are expected to include leaders from the US, Europe and Arab nations - Israel rejects it.

Elephant poachers in Tanzania shot and killed a British helicopter pilot working for a conservation charity.  Roger Gower was tracking poachers in the Maswa Preserve for the Friedkin Conservation Fund on Friday when the gunmen turned and fired on his aircraft.  A Tanzanian official called the poachers "cowards, evil, and sad people".