Questions about the mental state of the woman arrested in the murder of eight children in Cairns – Obama says North Korea won’t get away with hacking Sony – Uhmm.. where’s Fidel? – And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

The 37-year old suburban Cairns woman arrested for allegedly stabbing eight children to death reportedly suffered from depression, but refused to seek treatment.  That’s according to a family member quoted by Fairfax news.   The woman was found at the scene of the massacre with wounds to her neck and chest – she is identified as the mother of seven of the eight children, who were aged from 18 months to 14 years old.

US President Barack Obama is vowing a “proportionate response” to North Korea’s hacking attack on Sony Pictures.  The Hollywood end of the multinational corporation pulled the satirical stoner comedy “The Interview” after threats from the hackers.  Mr. Obama said Sony should not have done that and should have consulted with the White House first.  Sony retorted that it had little choice, as most major US cinema chains refused to show the film.  However, it appears Sony isn’t even planning to release it on the Internet, pay-per-view, or on-demand.

Israeli warplanes attacked a Hamas installation in the Gaza Strip, the first such attack since the end of the Gaza war earlier this year.  The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) says this was in retaliation for a rocket that was launched from Gaza and which exploded in an open area in southern Israel.  The head of the local council where the rocket landed criticized the Netanyahu government for squandering the months since the Gaza war and failing to come up with a diplomatic settlement.  “But instead we find ourselves with a ticking clock until the next round of escalation, and the next war,” said Haim Yalin.

The United Nations General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution asking Israel to pay US$850 Million in damages to Lebanon for environmental damaged caused by an oil spill during an Israeli air assault in 2006.  The IDF struck at Hezbollah targets, damaging oil storage tanks that produced an oil slick that covered the entire Lebanese coastline and parts of Syria’s as well.  Australia was one of six countries (including the US and Israel) that voted against it, 170 countries voted for it.

A Turkish court issued an arrest warrant for exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally-turned-rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  The warrant accuses Gulen of creating an “armed terrorist group” to overthrow the Turkish government.  The US, where Gulen lives, is believed to be unlikely to cooperate with the warrant.  This comes amid a national crackdown on journalists seen sympathetic to Gulen.

Australia is among nine western nations criticizing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for signing a controversial security bill to crackdown on terrorists.  It gives authorities sweeping powers to detain terror suspects, eavesdrop, and curtail press freedoms.  Several human rights groups are also alarmed by the legislation, which caused a big fistfight in Parliament this week.

LGBT rights groups are hailing a Beijing court decision that affirms that being Gay is not a mental illness.  It’s a good step forward in a country that’s had a rigid attitude against gays – China officially classified homosexuality as a mental illness until 2001.  The court ordered a psychiatric clinic to pay around A$600 compensation to a man who was given electric shocks in an attempt to make his heterosexual.  Conversion therapy in general is complete bunk, anyway.

A Spanish man who blamed conservative President Minister Mariano Rajoy for his ruined business rammed his car into Spain’s ruling party’s headquarters in Madrid.  The car was rigged with gas cylinders, but they did not explode and amazingly no one was hurt.

Earlier this week, everyone was talking about the startling turn in US-Cuban relations, but one voice has been noticeably silent – former President and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.  The bearded, cigar-toting leader has harangued Washington with his opinion on everything since 1959, but for some reason has not weighed in the most astounding thing that’s happened to his island since he took power.  It’s prompting discussions about the 88-year old’s health and mental prowess.  There’s a school of thought that believes that Tio Fidel’s most recent editorials in the Cuban Communist Party’s official newspaper Granma have been ghost-written.

Brazil’s health agency will investigate the possibility of legalizing Marijuana to treat people suffering from seizures.  It comes just a day after dozens of people protested in Brasilia to demand the legalization of the Marijuana derivative cannabidiol, which is banned in Brazil.  But it’s Brazil for crying out loud, everyone who wants it can get it, they just have to risk getting caught.  The protesters said they rely on a network of caring people who extract cannabidiol and donate it to the patients.

Millions of Monarch Butterflies have descended on the Oyamel Fir Forests in Mexico on their annual migration south.  Conservationists hope that a moratorium on logging in the forests will save the butterfly, whose numbers have plummeted in recent years.

The Vatican switched on the lights on the Christmas Tree in Saint Peter’s Square.