Good Morning Australia!! - Iraq claims a big victory over Islamic state - No charges against a white US cop who needlessly gunned down an African American boy - A german man discovers the stupidest way to die - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Iraq's military is declaring Ramadi "liberated" from occupation by Islamic State.  Government troops raised the national flag over a government complex while other reports indicated there are still pockets of resistance in the badly war-scarred city.  Just as losing Ramadi was a terrible embarrassment for the government in May, the end of the occupation is a blow to Islamic State and to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who had just issued a major call to arms to his followers in defense of Ramadi - in the end, he couldn't rally the troops.

A grand jury failed to recommend charges against the white Cleveland, Ohio police officer who fatally shot 12-year old Tamir Rice, the African-American boy with a toy gun who died within three seconds of cops showing up to check out a complaint of a man with a gun.  Local prosecutor Tim McGinty still claims the officers feared for their lives, even though the person calling it in warned cops that the gun could be a toy and that young Mr. Rice was clearly a child.  This comes at the end of a year in which American police shot and killed around 1,000 people, with a disproportionate number being African America or other minority. 

Japan and South Korea have reached a deal on compensating so-called "comfort women", mostly Korean women forced into service in Japan's World War II brothels for its troops.  Tokyo will again apologize to the victims of the despicable practice and establish a fund of One Billion Yen - about A$11.5 Million.  Only 46 out of some 200,000 former "comfort women" are still alive in South Korea, but the issue has been a major sticking point in relations between the northeast Asian neighbors.  "Japan and South Korea are now entering a new era," said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "We should not drag this problem into the next generation."  South Korean President Park Geun-hye said, "I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased."

France is opening up its police and ministerial archives of the World War II Vichy regime that collaborated with the nazis.  More than 200,000 declassified documents are being made public.  The Vichy regime deported 76,000 Jews, including many children, from France to nazi death camps.  It wasn't until 1995 that then-President Jacques Chirac officially recognized the Vichy regime's responsibility in the deportation of Jews.

Saudi Arabia is raising its domestic petrol prices to deal with the kingdom's record budget deficit of US$98 billion in 2015.  Water and electricity prices are also going up.  The Saudi government has subsidized these prices for decades as social welfare for low income residents.  In October, the International Monetary Fund said that Saudi Arabia could face bankruptcy within five years if it doesn't diversify its income sources.

Old bridge, no bridge.

Japan's hot tub monkeys are back!  The macaques learned to beat the snowy chill of the mountains in Nagano Prefecture by taking it easy in the hot springs.

A German man is dead after he tried to blow up a condom dispensing machine to get the money inside.  The 29-year-old and two accomplices attached the explosive, but failed to take cover and he was hit in the head with a piece of metal shrapnel.  The other men brought him to hospital in the town of Schoppingen claiming he fell down some stairs, but that alibi rapidly fell apart.