Hello Australia!! - Japan takes drastic action to force banks to loan money and get the economy moving - A new ship could make a big different in the search for MH370 - Malcolm promises the government will approve Gay Marriage if the people do - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

PM Malcolm Turnbull says the government would respect the public will and legalize gay marriage if a majority of Australians choose marriage equality in a popular vote.  "So that's our position.  It's perfectly democratic.  There will be a plebiscite" Malcolm said on Friday.  "That's our policy.  If the majority of people voting in the plebiscite vote in favor of it, then same-sex marriage will be legalized."  Mr. Turnbull reiterated his promise to hold a plebiscite if the government is reelected later this year.

Former treasurer Joe Hockey presented his credentials to US President Barack Obama at the White House and has been sworn in as Australia's Ambassador to the US.  The two posed for pictures with Hockey's wife wife Melissa Babbage and three young children, Adelaide, Xavier, and Ignatius.  Mr. Hockey said the two men had a "long chat" about common goals and interests.  Hockey goes to Washington at a time when the US is looking for more cooperation on the fight against IS in Syria and Iraq, and passing the TPP trade deal.

In a surprise emergency move, the Bank of Japan is adopting a "negative interest" policy in a move to encourage commercial banks to lend more and stimulate investment and growth.  It means the central bank will in fact charge teh country's commercial a fee for holding their deposits, therefore making it cheaper for the banks to lend that money to consumers and businesses.  The BOJ issued a statement saying it will "cut interest rates further into negative territory if judged as necessary" to achieve a target of two percent inflation.

The turmoil in Tokyo comes after the abrupt resignation of Economy Minister Akira Amari, who stepped down in a bribery scandal.  Amari admitted he took money from a construction company executive, but said he told his staff to log it as campaign donations.  Amari was Prime Minister Shinzo Abe point man in the TPP negotiations, and some have doubts that his replacement Nobutaro Ishihara is as capable.  Ishihara is the son of former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, the virulent nationalist who ratcheted up tensions with China in 2012 by announcing the metropolitan government planned to buy a group of islands disputed between the two countries and build on them. 

A Chinese naval ship equipped with advanced sonar will join the search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean.  Deputy PM Warren Truss says the ship will leave Singapore on Sunday and join the search by late February.  The Chinese ship's state-of-the-art Synthetic Aperture Sonar is believed to be much more effective than the old type used thus far.  MH370 went missing on 8 March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew including six Aussies, after deviating from its planned course from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing.  The only piece of the missing plane to be found so far is a wing flap found on the far side of the Indian Ocean on Reunion Island.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is asking the US to remove the Marxist FARC insurgent group from its list of terrorist organizations, and suspend drug warrants against guerrilla commanders.  Mr. Santos needs this to help seal a peace deal with Latin America's oldest leftist insurgency and to end more than five decades of civil war.  Santos meets with President Obama on 4 February and hopes to have a final peace deal with the FARC signed by the end of March.