The Muslim Brotherhood continues to lose leaders to Egypt’s crackdown – The man who helped America get bin Laden gets out of jail, perhaps only temporarily – And Aussies might be shocked to learn how poorly some American counterparts are paid.  Seriously mate, stay in Australia and get a job with CareerSpot.  But read the World News Briefs first:

 

Egypt says authorities have arrested two major Muslim Brotherhood figures and charged them with inciting violence.  Mohammed al-Beltagi appeared almost daily at one of the sit-ins that followed the ouster of Mohammed Morsi, despite an arrest warrant issued almost two months ago. Former labor minister Khaled al-Azhari was also held.  More pro-Morsi protests are expected on Friday, but they’re fizzled out in recent days.

A militant who helped found one of India’s most infamous Islamist terrorist groups was apprehended on the border with Nepal.  30-year old Yasin Bhatkal was at the top of India’s most-wanted list.  He had been hiding out in Nepal, but Katmandu ordered his arrest and sent him back south.  Police are interrogating Bhatkal in a series of bombings that killed more than 40 people.

Pakistan overturned the conviction of the doctor who helped the CIA in its search for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.  The judiciary ruled that the tribal judge who convicted Dr. Shakil Afridi and sentenced him to 33 years in prison had exceeded his authority.  A new trial has been ordered.  Afridi’s conviction had been seen as the previous regime’s indirect revenge for helping the Americans track bin Laden to a house in Abbottabad, where US Navy SEALS killed the bum in May, 2011.

Pulling no punches, a high court in Italy released its reasoning for denying former Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi’s appear on his tax evasion conviction. Berlusconi was “directly responsible for the masterminding, creation and development” of a system set up “with the aim of evading Italian taxes,” said a statement from the Court of Cassation.  The conviction could have Berlusconi expelled from Parliament, and if his allies walk out in protest, thus collapses another Italian government.

Portugal's highest court has ruled that the government's plan to make it easier to sack public servants would undermine the state’s promise of job safety for those workers, and is therefore unconstitutional.  It’s a blow to austerity lovers in Lisbon, who've been trying to reduce government spending in the wake of an international bailout. 

Fast food workers in dozens of US cities went on strike demanding US$15 (A$16.77) per hour for one of the lousiest, dirtiest, and least-respected jobs in America.  It wasn’t just the big labor town, but also southern cities like Raleigh, Atlanta, and Saint Louis that had walkouts.  These folks make around $7.25 an hour, well below the US poverty threshold and what they’d need to rent a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in America.

After months of court-ordered mediation, the American National Football League (NFL) is agreeing to pay US$765 Million to settle claims related to concussion and brain-related injuries from 18,000 former players.  The settlement “cannot be considered an admission by the NFL of liability, or an admission that plaintiffs' injuries were caused by football” which involves paying behemoths to smash into each other, head-first, at full force, over and over and over again until they become senior citizens who can’t do math or remember their wives’ names.

The US does not have marriage equality from coast-to-coast yet, but is taking a big step towards it.  The tax collector, the International Revenue Service (IRS), will recognize same-sex marriages in all 50 states plus the territories.  That means any same-sex couple from anywhere in the US can travel to one of the thirteen states or the District of Columbia where Gay Marriage is legal, get hitched, and go back home to file their Federal taxes and enjoy the same money-saving benefits as every other married couple.