Good Morning Australia!! - Obama tries to reassure the allies he tried to reassure a couple of months ago - A "Stalinesque Purge" removes experienced, cooler heads from Trump's transition team - Russia busts a high-level official for corruption - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

US President Barack Obama is in Europe for his last major international trip of his presidency, which is being spent reassuring nervous allies that president-elect Donald Trump isn't going to screw up everything he touches, including the NATO alliance.  In Athens, Greece, Mr. Obama downplayed Trump's dubious election win as "the view of the American people to just shake things up", but at the same time cautioned nations about a "rise in a crude sort of nationalism" following the Brexit and US presidential votes.  Mr. Obama will later go to Germany and then to Peru.

Meanwhile, Herr Trumpler's transition team is in disarray after the purge of people who were seen as too close to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whom Trump is throwing under the bus over Christie's mounting legal problems related to the closing of a key bridge into New York City to get back at a political rival.  Friends said that former Congressman Mike Rogers - who had been considered for CIA Director - was ousted in a "Stalinesque purge" related to his connection to Christie; Rogers also chaired a congressional committee that cleared Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration of responsibility in the Benghazi attack, and right-wing conspiracy theorists haven't forgiven him for that.  "Two sources close to the situation described an atmosphere of sniping and backbiting as Trump loyalists position themselves for key jobs," reported NBC News.  It clears the way for less experienced, more ideological, and more blindly loyal dumbarses to rise in a Trump administration.  Good luck with that.

One of those loyalists - former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani - is in line for the most prized job of the Trump cabinet, Secretary of State.  He has no foreign policy experience beyond indiscriminate advocacy for the so-called "War on Terror" following the 9/11 terror attacks.  But he does allegedly have a "long history of business ties to enemies of America";  Giuliani took money to advocate on behalf of an Iranian dissident group while it was listed by the state department as a foreign terrorist organization; and he worked for a law firm whose clients included Saddam Hussein and terrorist Abu Nidal.

Russian prosecutors charged the Economy Minister with taking a US$2 Million bribe to endorse a state takeover of an oil company.  60-year old Alexei Ulyukayev denies the charges; he's the highest ranking Russian government official to be arrested since the 1991 coup at the end of the Soviet Union, and he's the first Federal Minister to be charged under the Putin presidency.  The FSB reportedly informed President Vladimir Putin of the investigation daily, and he dismissed Ulyukayev over "lack of confidence".

Russia is denying resuming air attacks on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where at least five people were killed in bombings; but the Kremlin does say it has attacked jihadist groups elsewhere.  It's not going too smoothly for the Russians, as a MiG-29 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea as it tried to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.  The pilot safely ejected.

Iraqi forces say they have liberated more than a third of Mosul from the so-called Islamic State's control. 

South Korean prosecutors are delaying their questioning of President Park Guen-hye in an influence-peddling scandal.  It was to have taken place no later than today.

Those stranded cows in New Zealand were rescued from the one safe patch of grass during the earthquake.

Cuba pardoned 787 convicted criminals and released them from prison, in response to a request from Pope Francis in the Vatican's "Year of Mercy", which is coming to an end.  Those pardoned include women, young, and sick prisoners, and none have been convicted of violent crimes.  Cuba denies holding any political prisoners, so it's not clear how many might have been dissidents who oppose the Castro government. 

South African police arrested two white men who forced a black man into a small coffin and terrorized him, and recorded their crime on video.  The victim is heard yelling and resisting the evil attack, while the attackers - named as Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson - threaten to put a snake in.  The video reopened old wounds of racist abuse committed during the apartheid years.

With hundreds of thousands of Indians standing in long, slow lines to exchange 500 and 1,000 rupee bank notes for lower denominations, banks are having a hard time keeping up and anger is building.  The Narendra Modi government decided to take the larger notes out of circulation to combat "dark money", drug dealing, and counterfeiting.  Nehru University economist Prabhat Patnaik said, "It's absurdity on the part of the government to have announced the de-monetisation overnight, as 85 percent of currency is held in 500 and 1,000 rupee denominations."  Looks like someone didn't think this through.