An unthinkable moment is coming in Pakistan-India relations – Elections in Ukraine and Colombia today – Gunmen attack the Jewish Museum in Brussels – America’s gun culture shatters a college town – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Two women and a man are dead and one more person is in hospital in critical condition after a shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgium.  The Interior Minister believes it was an “anti-Semitic attack”.  Witnesses reported saw two men drive up in an Audi, who got out and opened fire indiscriminately, and who got back in and drove off.  A Jewish community leader said it happened in “a climate of hate” being stirred up by far-right parties before Belgium’s local and European Parliament elections, taking place today.

And now, a quick trip to America’s shooting gallery:

America’s National Rifle Association (NRA) and its sycophant politicians are under heavy criticism after yet another mentally ill young person got a gun and went on a killing spree.  This happened in the idyllic coastal college town of Santa Barbara, California.  22-year old Elliot Rodger recorded a rambling, self-serving video in which he outlined his resentment over not having a girlfriend (seriously).  Police say he murdered three roommates, and then cruised down a popular street in his BMW firing out the window, killing three more people.  He then crashed his car and died of a gunshot wound to the head, which may have been self-inflicted. 

The Santa Barbara Sheriff didn’t identify the victims, but one understandably angry father refused to be silent.  Richard Martinez’ son Christopher is among the dead.  The elder Martinez went to the spot where cops were debriefing reporters and – on live, national TV – said, “Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA.  They talk about gun rights, what about Chris’s right to live?  When will this insanity stop?”  America’s gun control debate has pitted advocates for public safety against the well-funded political machine of the NRA which wants no restrictions of any sort on gun sales.  That funding comes from the corporations and hedge funds that own the gun manufacturers.  Rednecks in pickup trucks with NRA stickers who send in meager membership fees are a small fraction of the gun lobby’s funding – it’s all big business.  The shooter had three handguns in his car and hundreds of rounds of ammo – all legally purchased.

Elliot Rodger had posted a few disturbing videos to the internet before the Santa Barbara murders, and his family tried to warn authorities several weeks ago, according to the family attorney.  “The Rodger family offers their deepest compassion and sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain, and our hearts go out to everybody involved,” said attorney Shifman, who added the family is opposed to guns.  Elliot Rodger is the son of Peter Rodger, a 2nd Unit Assistant Director on the “Hunger Games” film franchise. 

Well that was depressing.  Moving along now..

Pope Francis is visiting the Middle East.  No bulletproof vehicles, no burly bodyguards, the pontiff walked along the crowd shaking hands and exchanging greetings.  On the East Bank of the Jordan River, he called for a “just solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  He also repeatedly praised Jordan for hosting 600,000 refugees of the Syrian crisis, calling for an end to the Syrian civil war, and went off-script – demanding to know, “Who is selling these weapons that are feeding war?”

South American Foreign Ministers are rejecting an effort in the US congress to apply economic sanctions on Venezuela because of the political crisis.  At the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meeting on the Galapagos Islands, they passed a motion saying US sanctions are “an obstacle for the Venezuelan people can overcome their difficulties with independence, and in democratic peace.”  US congressional conservatives have been pushing for the sanctions to bolster their anti-Socialist bona fides in an election year.  Conservative protesters, who haven’t won an election since 1999, have been staging protests and roadblocks since February, trying to get the elected Socialist government to step down.

Let’s hope this is a breakthrough moment:  Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accepted an invitation to attend the inauguration of India’s incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  It’s a first for the often-hostile, nuclear-armed neighbors, which have fought three wars since 1947.  Sharif wants to build stronger trading ties with India, but is getting interference from military officers over the disputed Kashmir region.

The leaders of Thailand’s military coup have dissolved the Senate.  The junta already suspended the constitution and dissolved the lower house of Parliament last week, and took political leaders into custody.  That includes ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.  The military is arresting her supporters in the north and northeast.  The detained politicians can’t even get along as prisoners, demanding separate living quarters. 

Meanwhile, the US has cancelled ongoing military exercises with the Thai military because of the coup.  “'While we have enjoyed a long and productive military-to-military relationship with Thailand, our own democratic principles and US law require us to reconsider US military assistance and engagements,” said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.  The Pentagon is urging the Junta to end the coup and restore democracy.

South African President Jacob Zuma has been sworn in for a second 5-year term.  The African National Congress (ANC) won a commending lead in the general election on 7 May.  Several African heads of state attended.

Colombia’s presidential election is today.  It’s the first elections with a country “completely at peace”.  The country’s two oldest guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, declared a ceasefire for voting.  President Juan Manuel Santos wants another term to complete peace negotiations to end the FARC and ELN’s insurgencies.  Right-wing opposition candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga is defending himself in light of an incriminating wiretapping video that shows him trying to sabotage those talks.

Ukraine’s presidential election today could be the beginning of the end of its crisis.  Russian president Vladimir Putin last week indicated that he would respect the outcome of the poll.  Or, like everything else that’s happened there, instigators and militants will throw spanners in the works and make everything worse.  The frontrunner in opinion polls is billionaire chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko.