Good Morning Australia!! - Climate change is real, it didn't pause, and the proof is yet another "warmest year on record" - The world economy casts a cloud on markets - Terrorists attack a University - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Global temperatures in 2015 were the warmest on record, shattering previous records.  Data published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), space agency (NASA), and the UK Met Office show that 2015 was 0.75 C degrees warmer than the long-term average between 1961-1990.  That puts last year ahead of the previous warmest year, 2014 - as well as past El Nino years of 2010, 2005 and 1998.  Dr. Thomas Karl of the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information says the current conditions indicate that 2016 could be as warm, if not warmer, than 2015.

Wall Street took a 500 point hit earlier today because of plunging oil prices and fears over global economic growth, especially in China.  That later evened out to a 300 point loss, and the Dow Jones closed about 248 points lower.  London closed 3.46 percent down; Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 shed 2.82 percent and 3.45 percent respectively.

Islamist militants killed at least 19 people at a university in Pakistan; some reports put the death toll at worse than 21 lives lost.  Survivors of the carnage at Bacha Khan University in the northwestern city Charsadda credit security forces for quickly moving against the terrorists.  The Pakistani Taliban initially took credit for the attack, but later denied it and branded it as "un-Islamic".  The victims are mostly male students, instructors, and at leat one security guard.

A suicide bomber rammed a minibus in Kabul, killing seven staffers from the popular Tolo-TV broadcaster.  The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility.  Tolo reacted with defiance:  "The enemy of humanity, peace and Islam martyred our colleagues because they were exposing their crimes," said news reader Kawoon Khamoosh, "They martyred you to silence us, but they will never achieve this evil goal."

At least three workers were killed and more than 50 are hurt after an explosion in a fireworks factory in Shangrao in southern China.

Austria is sharply reducing the number of asylum applications it will accept this year, slashing it to a little more than 40 percent of the 90,000 accepted in 2015.  Serbia quickly responded by announcing it would limit the number of migrants seeking to pass north to Austria and Germany.  Europe is buckling under the burden of more than a million refugees and migrants.  Leaders and the EU are desperately seeking ways to accommodate the hoards, but nations are increasingly turning to exasperation and xenophobia.

Brazil for the first time publicly stated its reasons for opposing Israel's proposed Ambassador to Brasilia, hawkish West Bank settler Danni Dayan.   "I think it was a false step made by the Israeli government," said Marco Aurelio Garcia, foreign affairs adviser to President Dilma Rousseff, who spelled out that Mr. Dayan holds opinions contrary to Brazil's foreign policy: its opposition to West Bank settlements and support of a future Palestinian state.  Despite the standoff over Dayan - and the occasional childish insult from the Netanyahu government - Brazil and Israel enjoy strong and active trade ties.