Hello Australia!! - North Korea sends a thermonuclear message to the world - China responds to its exasperating neighbor's provocative weapon test - US Feds join the investigation into how an entire city's water supply could be polluted with lead - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

North Korea announced it has successfully tested a Hydrogen Bomb.  This comes after earthquake monitors detected a magnitude 5.1 tremor close to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the far northeast of the country.  Pyongyang justifies the detonation as past of its "legal right" to defend the country against the United States.  Last month, intelligence sources were skeptical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's boast that his country has a Hydrogen bomb, a significantly more powerful weapon that an atomic bomb.  Previous North Korean nuclear weapons tests took place in 2006, 2009, and 2013.  This serious development is compounded with the earlier report that North Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, a system that significantly cuts the delivery time of a thermonuclear warhead to its intended target.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is promising a tough response to North Korea's test of an apparent hydrogen bomb.  "The nuclear test that was carried out by North Korea is a serious threat to the safety of our nation and we absolutely cannot tolerate this," Mr. Abe told reporters.  South Korean President Park Geun-hye called a special meeting of her national security council.  China's Xinhua state news agency said the test runs counter to the goal of denuclearization and warns that any disruption to stability in northeast Asia is "undesirable and unwise".

25-year old Hassan Asif died of cancer in a Melbourne hospice today.  His family from Pakistan did get to spend a week with him before he died.  The government initially denied entry visas to the Asifs, which resulted in a public outcry both here and internationally.  Labor's immigration spokesman Richard Marles last month described the decision as "disgraceful and heartless"; and soon the Turnbull government changed its mind and allowed Mr. Asif's mother and brother to reapply.  They arrived on 29 December.  Brother Rameez Asif thanked the Australians who had supported Hassan:  "I have no words to describe how happy we were to be with Hassan.  My brother got the best possible care.  Thank you."

Activists are confirming that Islamic State murdered a journalist who was documenting the hardships of women living in the terrorist group's de facto capital Raqqa, Syria.  30-year old Ruqia Hassan at Aleppo University and wrote under the pen name Nissan Ibrahim for the anti-IS Syrian activist group "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" (RBSS).  She supported the Free Syrian Army after the Arab Spring, but refused to leave Raqqa when Islamic State took over.  Ms. Hassan's whereabouts had been speculated about since she went silent in September, which is when activists say IS got her.  IS's most recent propaganda snuff film involves the murders of five men the terrorists claim were spies for Western news agencies.

The governor of the US state of Michigan has declared an emergency in the city of Flint over dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water.  Governor Rick Snyder originally approved switching the water supply from the clean Great Lakes to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure.  But doctors in town started noticing several children coming down with symptoms of lead poisoning.  This comes as federal officials confirm they are investigating the matter.  Flint, Michigan is famous as the former site of several automobile plants during America's production heyday, and its sad decline has been documented in the films of Michael Moore.