Hello Australia! - A warning that rising temperatures could render entire cities uninhabitable - The US moves to confront China at sea - Malaysia is blasted for targeting dissent - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Global warming could push temperatures so high as to make cities around the Persian Gulf uninhabitable by the end of the century.  A new report from published the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change says that - at current rates of warming - cities like Doha, Abu Dhabi, Mecca, Dubari, and others could experience a combination of heat and humidity so high that the human body is no longer capable of shedding the excess heat through perspiration.  Earlier this year, the heat index - temperature and humidity - topped 72 C degrees in Bandar Mahshahr, Iran.  There would be massive ramifications:  All of that multi-billion dollar coastal development in the oil kingdoms would be rendered moot, not to mention migration of populations.

The United States is sending a guided missile destroyer into the South China Sea within a few miles of where China has built up some reefs into artificial islands and claimed them as Beijing's exclusive zone.  The Chinese claim is recognized nowhere in the world but Beijing, is unsupported by international law, and the US insists the waters must remain open to shipping traffic.  US officials did not alert Chinese officials about the imminent arrival of the USS Lassen.  Earlier this year, Chinese Navy radio operators warned an American surveillance airplane to leave the area.

Russia might be developing plans to severe transoceanic Internet communications, according to a report in the New York Times.  Russian submarines have stepped up activity at some of the most remote points at which the cables sit on the ocean floors.  Western economies, especially the banking sector, have grown dependent on the instant international provided by the Internet.  If the past is prologue, consider that Ukrainian telecoms companies reported Internet disruptions during last year's Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula.

Human Rights Watch is calling on Malaysia to "Stop Treating Criticism as a Crime".  The rights group's latest report accuses Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of unleashing a "wave of repression" against dissenters, "binging" on prosecutions of critics under vague and clearly misused criminal laws.  The group is particularly concerned over the arrests of journalists following expose on a state investment firm that lost a billion dollars at just about the time Najib deposited a similar amount in his personal accounts. 

Lebanese authorities arrested a Saudi prince and four others in an alleged plot to smuggle amphetamines and cocaine from Beirut to Saudi Arabia.  Authorities say two tones of drugs were confiscated before they could be loaded onto the private aircraft of Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz.  Last year, UN anti-drug officials warned that amphetamine use was rising in the Middle East.

The government says an Australian is missing in the sinking of a whale watching boat off of British Columbia, Canada.  Five British nationals drowned in the tragedy.  DFAT says consular assistance is being provided to the missing person's family.

At least 263 people are dead in Monday's magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck northern Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The region is largely impoverished, and construction standards were pretty much non-existent before the disaster.  The mountainous region is beset with landslides, broken roads, and collapsed buildings.

The University of Mississippi in the deep southern United States will no longer fly the state flag, because the banner contains confederate battle flag in its upper left corner.  Governments across the south have stopped flying the symbol because of its undeniable links to vile racists and white supremacy. 

Leftist ELN rebels killed twelve members of the security force in Colombia.  The government says six people are still missing after the attack at an indigenous reservation in the northern Guican province.  The government and the Marxist FARC rebels have been in peace talks and are inching towards a deal to end their five decade war - the ELN has not joined those talks, despite urging from the FARC.