Howdy Australia!! - Jokowi wins Wednesday's election - Trump picks another fight with allies - America held hostage by its gun culture - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The former president of Peru Alan Garcia was pronounced dead in hospital after shooting himself when police came to arrest him on corruption charges.  Garcia served as president from 1985 to 1990, and again from 2006 to 2011, but was accused of taking bribes from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which has been implicated in pay-to-play scandals the world over.  Four of Peru's most recent presidents are being investigated for alleged corruption; a fifth, dictator Alberto Fujimori, is in prison after being convicted of corruption and human rights abuses.

There has been a bus crash on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and 28 people have reportedly been killed.  Local media reports it was a tour bus ferrying German tourists that went off a road.

India's Jet Airways has gone belly-up:  The once-mighty carrier suspended all flights after failing to secure emergency funding from banks in its home country. "This has been a very difficult decision but without interim funding, the airline is simply unable to conduct flight operations," Jet Airways said in statement.  The collapse puts 20,000 jobs at risk at a time when the opposition is criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to prioritize employment.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo appears on track to a second term in office.  Polling from the world's biggest one-day election shows Jokowi beating ex-general Prabowo Subianto by about nine or ten points.  Both men ran on similar platforms, both men portrayed themselves as more conservative Muslims; they diverged over Chinese investment, with Jokowi favoring it more than Prabawo.

France is inviting architects from around the world to submit their designs for a new spire to sit atop a renovated Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.  The spire, part of an earlier renovation two centuries ago, was destroyed in this week's devastating fire at the 850-year old building.  Prime Minister Edouard Philippe hoped for "a new spire that is adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era".  French's wealthiest individuals and some corporations have pledged more than a billion Euros towards reconstruction, which could take decades.

And now...

The Trump administration is ripping open 58 year old scabs from the Cold War, and allowing lawsuits against foreign companies that do business in Cuba on property seized from American colonials during the 1959 revolution.  This ridiculous policy change to the extreme-right is a long-time tick on the US far-right's wish list.  Walrus-mustached National Security Adviser John Bolton announced it during a speech to the Miami Cuban exile community to mark the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, which was such a poorly-executed disaster that you'd think they wouldn't want to remember it. 

The new US policy is opposed by Canada and European countries - US allies - which have significant investments in Cuba.  "The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law," read a joint statement from the EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.  Earlier, Mogherini and Malmstrom warned the US that they "will be obliged to use all means at its disposal, including in cooperation with other international partners, to protect its interests".

SMDH..

Half of the schools in Colorado were closed and more than a million students stayed home on Wednesday because a teenager from Florida who was reportedly obsessed with the 1999 Columbine High School Shooting disappeared from her home to travel across the country to the school on the 20th anniversary of the massacre.  At 18-years old, Sol Pais wasn't even born when two teenage gunmen attacked their school, killing 15 people including themselves; nor was she old enough to buy herself a beer or rent a car.  But she was perfectly able to walk into a gun store in the Littleton, Colorado area and purchase a brand new shotgun.  Over two days, local cops and the FBI warned students to stay home as they called a manhunt for the girl.  Sol Pais was found dead of a self-inflicted wound at the base of Mount Evans, in the front range of the Rocky Mountains.