This commit consists of:
1) Fixing the core tests
2) Fix an error in the logger where the runtime stack trace behaved
differently in go 1.10 vs go 1.9.
3) Minor other fixes

Change-Id: I1263df38ffcd733174f776a0901583cfb59c616e
diff --git a/kafka/kafka_inter_container_library.go b/kafka/kafka_inter_container_library.go
index c00fb60..619bd17 100644
--- a/kafka/kafka_inter_container_library.go
+++ b/kafka/kafka_inter_container_library.go
@@ -772,6 +772,10 @@
 	}
 
 	for _, arg := range kvArgs {
+		if arg == nil {
+			// In case the caller sends an array with empty args
+			continue
+		}
 		var marshalledArg *any.Any
 		var err error
 		// ascertain the value interface type is a proto.Message