Good Morning Australia!! - NATO sends a message to Putin - Police move in on water defenders opposing a loathed oil pipeline - Iraqi troops locate a preview of Islamic State's tunnel network - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Riot cops began removing opponents of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline from the "Cannonball Ranch" protest camp they'd built on private land in the upper tier US state of North Dakota.  A group of about 200 people had been occupying the land in the path of the controversial pipeline since Sunday.  An unprecedented alliance of Indigenous North American groups and environmentalist have been trying to stop the massive, cross-country oil pipeline which is planned to cross the important Missouri River just above the place where the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation draws its water.  There are still other protest camps on and around the Rez, and the Obama administration has put a temporary halt to pipeline construction at the controversial river crossing.  More than 260 people have been arrested since demonstrations began in August.

A police officer was shot to death during an anti-government protest in Venezuela, and dozens have been injured across the country.  The conservative opposition has stirred up thousands of people to hit the streets, demanding the ouster of democratically-elected President Nicolas Maduro.  The officer died in Miranda State, whose governor Henrique Capriles is an unsuccessful presidential candidate who has lost to both Maduro and his late, legendary predecessor Hugo Chavez.

The US and Israel both abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution to end the economic boycott on Cuba.  "After 55-plus years of pursuing the path of isolation, we are choosing to take the path of engagement," said US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power.  But as one Cold War ends...

NATO members are pledging to bolster the alliance's eastern front against an increasingly cold wind from the Kremlin.  The US is sending tanks and troops to Poland while the UK is stationing fighter jets in Romania; both are former SSRs that were once aligned with the Kremlin under the old Soviet alliance, the Warsaw Pact.  Germany, Canada, and other NATO allies also pledged forces at the meeting of defense ministers in Brussels.  "It's a major sign of the US commitment to strengthening deterrence here," said US Defense Secretary Ash Carter.  Russia has recently deployed short-range nuclear-capable missiles right next door to Poland and has moved two warships into the Baltic Sea.

Meanwhile, the eight-ship Russian battle group steaming towards Syria's Mediterranean coast is refueling at sea off North Africa.  The ships, led by Russia's only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, had previously tried to refuel at Spain's African exclave Ceuta but backed off the plan following  NATO's objections.  NATO is concerned warplanes from the carrier will be used to attack civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Turkey is aiming at dislodging Kurdish-led forces from the northern Syrian town of Manbij, before turning its tanks and air support towards Islamic state's de facto capital Raqqa.  The Kurds liberated Manbij from Islamic State two months ago - but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who once was kicked in the balls by a horse) sees Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq as allies of Kurdish separatists in southeastern Turkey.  Erdogan is dismayed by US support of the Kurds, and says he made his intentions clear to US President Barack Obama. 

The so-called Islamic State has lost hundreds of militants in the Battle for Mosul.  Iraqi troops have been creeping up on the country's second city from the south while the Kurds have locked up the north, putting the end of two years of IS occupation within sight.  Although IS is believed to have only 5,000 fighters in the city, it has had plenty of time to dig tunnels to move around below the streets and set up booby traps - thus, the battle to retake Mosul could take weeks or even months.  Iraqi troops have already found IS tunnels and bomb factories.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says around 1.5 million people in southern Madagascar are facing hunger because of a severe drought.  Staple crops are dwindling, and people are reportedly down to eating seeds and selling animals to get by.  The drought, worsened by El Nino, has slashed maize production by 80 percent, and rice by about 60 percent.

Yesterday's earthquakes in Italy damaged historic buildings in the hills east of Rome, but no fatalities are reported.

Really.. who SHOULDN'T be more like 50 Cent?