World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Good Morning Australia!! - Nine killed in a van attack in Canada - Nashville's naked gunman is captured - Armenia's PM bows to public pressure - Nicaragua's boiling over even though social security reforms have been scrapped - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Toronto, Canada now say that nine people were killed and at least 16 people are recovering from various injuries after a white rented van jumped a sidewalk and plowed into a crowd near the North York Civic Centre. 
Witnesses told reporters that it appeared to be intentional, with the driver weaving back and forth, attempting to kill pedestrians.  Canadian journalist Jeremy Cohn was at the scene described the aftermath as "bodies all over Yonge Street," adding, "some have been pronounced dead on scene."  This sort of carnage is rare in Canada, which has a lower violent crime rate than its neighbor the US.
The heavily-damaged van came to a stop about a mile away, and police arrested the driver:  A witness' mobile video from the scene shows a man pointing something at police before dropping it and surrendering.  From another angle, it appears to be a cellphone that the man is holding in the manner of a handgun, as if to bait police into shooting him in mistaken self-defense.  They did not take the bait - no suicide by cop today. 
Toronto officials believe this was a deliberate act; if the motivation was terrorism, it seems to mirror jihadist attacks in Nice, Munich, Barcelona, London and other European cities. 

Nashville Police arrested 29-year old Travis Reinking and plan to charge him with the shooting murders of four people at a Waffle House fast food restaurant on Sunday.  Apparently, he found some clothing since then:
They tracked Reinking to a wooded area not too far away from the tast food place where a naked man got out of a truck registered to Reinking and shot six people with an AR-15 assault weapon.  The shooting stopped when an unarmed hero, 29-year old James Shaw, Jr., rushed forward and grabbed the assault weapon away from Reinking's punk ass.  Reinking still possessed a Kimber semi-automatic handgun when he was arrested, an expensive weapon that would retail for more than $1,000 if it were sold in Oz.

Reinking's father Jeff Reinking faces potential legal problems of his own.  Growing up in the family's hometown of Morton, Illinois, a far-flung bedroom community of unusual affluence, Travis Reinking kept police busy with incidents including traffic infractions, exposing himself, an obsession with singer Taylor Swift, and suicide threats.  After police confiscated four weapons when Travis trespassed at the White House seeking a meeting with Donald Trump, they gave the weapons to Jeff Reinking - but father Jeff returned the weapons to his obviously troubled son Travis, including the AR-15 used in the Waffle House massacre.

The US has pulled some of its diplomatic staff out of Nicaragua after rioting and looting intensified in and around the capital Managua.  This has happened, even though President Daniel Ortega has scrapped social security "reforms" that have angered the nation.  The junked plan would have had workers and companies contributing more to Social Security, while seniors pull out less on the other end.  Ortega, the one-time Sandinista Leftist darling of the 1980s, came back into power as slightly more moderate in 2007 with only 38 percent of the vote.  People have been suspicious of his overwhelming election victories ever since, and accuse him and his vice-president/wife of consolidating power.

Armenia's prime minister has stepped down and opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan is calling for snap elections.  It comes after several days of raucous demonstrations in Yerevan over Serzh Sargsyan's appointment as PM after two terms as president - protesters say that was too much authority for one man to have.  "Nikol Pashinyan was right.  I was wrong.  This situation requires solutions, but I won't participate in them.  I leave the post of this country's prime minister," read the statement on Sargsyan's website.  Sargsyan is a former Communist-turned-ethnic nationalist and is pro-Kremlin; Pashinyan is a former newspaper editor and pro-Europe.

At least 78 homeless people died in the freezing winter in the UK, both on the streets and in shelters.  These included a former soldier, a quantum physicist, and a 31-year-old man mourning the loss of his mother and brother.  Recorded deaths of homeless people has more than doubled over the last five years of Tory austerity.

In royal stuff, William and Kate showed off their new son just seven hours after he was born at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital in London. 
Weighing in at eight lbs, seven oz (which the ABC says is about 3.8 kilos), the yet-to-be named little fellow is the fifth-in-line to the throne.  William and Kate have two children. 
The latest addition to the royal family was born pretty much at the same time as the new bundle of joy welcomed by "Fast and Furious" franchise star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and girlfriend Lauren Hashian, a baby girl named Tiana Gia.  Hey, I'm no matchmaker, but what do you think about if in about 20 years...?