Hello Australia!! - Australia works to make nice with its biggest neighbor - Trump sidesteps his intel community, stupidly - Cops finally act after an uproar over New Year Eve's sex attacks - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Baby Orangutan Alert!  Baby Orangutan Alert  At Chicago's Brookfield Zoo.  Wait - ANOTHER Baby Orangutan Alert?!?!  Yes, in the Czech republic somewhere.  And how about some more BABY PANDAS at he Vienna Zoo in Austria. 

Indonesia and Australia are working to resume military cooperation after Jakarta cut it off yesterday.  Defense Minister Marise Payne confirmed that the Indonesian government had raised concerns about some Australian "teaching materials and remarks" at the Perth base; Fairfax media reports some of it refers to East Timor, other parts are downright insulting and mocked Indonesia's founding principles.  Senator Payne says an investigation is underway, and Indonesia's military spokesman Major-General Wuryanto said the two countries "will resolve this technical matter and then the co-operation will continue".

In today's insanity in the post-truth world, US pretender-elect Donald Trump has tweeted that he is backing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over his own intelligence agencies, which say that Russian hackers meddled in the US presidential election.  After whining over the Intelligence Community delaying its briefing to him over the hacking issue - suggesting a conspiracy theory in the process - the orange clown referred to an interview with Fox News in which Assange repeated his claim that Russia was not behind the (boring and information-free) hacked emails that were put out on the once-vibrant Wikileaks. 

This foreshadows contentious relations between the incoming White House and the intelligence community.  Leading congressional Republicans broke with Trump and condemned Julian Assange:  House Speaker Paul Ryan called Assange "a sycophant for Russia"; Influential Senator Tom Cotton told MSNBC that he had "a lot more faith in our intelligence officers serving around the world" than he did "in people like Julian Assange."  The Wikileaks founder remains holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, avoiding extradition to Sweden to face sex assault charges and to the US where he remains under criminal investigation for the publication of large numbers of classified US documents.

An Israeli military court-martial convicted a young soldier of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian man who had already been wounded and detained on the ground by fellow Israeli defense Force troops and was being worked on by medics.  Sergeant Elor Azaria will be sentenced next Sunday for the killing of 21-year old Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, who was stopped for allegedly stabbing another soldier.  "We found there was no room to accept his arguments," said the chief judge, Colonel Maya Heller: "His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die."  Later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw gasoline onto what had become a divisive issue by siding with hard right-wing politicians demanding Azaria be pardoned by President Reuven Rivlin.

A peaceful transfer of power in The Gambia now seems even further away after the country's military chief General Ousman Badjie pledged the "unflinching loyalty and support of the Gambia Armed Forces" to President Yahya Jammeh, who refuses to leave office despite losing last month's election.  That sets up a confrontation with neighboring countries, which had threatened military action if Mr. Jammeh doesn't step down by 19 January.

Turkey's Foreign Minister says officials know the identity of a gunman who killed 39 people in the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year's Eve.  However, FM Mevlut Cavusoglu has stopped short of naming the suspect, apparently seen in an ultra-creepy homemade video in which he glares at a camera on a selfie-stick.  The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the shooting.

One guard was killed and more than 150 prisoners were freed when Islamic militants stormed a prison in the southern Philippines.  Most of the North Cotabato District Jail's 1500 or so inmates didn't get out.  Officials say eight prisoners had since been caught, two had surrendered, while six were killed.

Germany arrested a man who dined with the suspect in the Berlin Christmas Market Attack.  The Tunisian man dined with Anis Amri the night before Amri plowed a stolen big-rig truck through the market, killing twelve people.

India arrested six suspects in the groping and sexual molestation of women during New Year's Eve celebrations in the Tech city of Bangalore.  The issue has chafed women and rights activists in India after police initially tried to play down the accusations of women; and then made infinitely worse when the local home minister blamed the young women for "copying the Westerners, not only in their mindset, but even in their dressing".  India's National Commission for Women chief is demanding the local home minister apologize and resign.

France pulled a popular pediatric Vitamin D supplement off the shelves after the death of a ten day old baby.  Uvesterol D is widely given to French children under the age of five to prevent Vitamin D deficiency, thus it is likely in the medicine cabinet of many homes.  Officials caution that only the version of the product containing a pipette is suspected, as the infant immediately suffocated after being administered a dose with the gadget.