A cable television star talks himself out of a job, at least temporarily – A pedophile rock star is sentenced to prison – One of the “Great ATrain Robbers” is dead – And a lot more.

One of the stars of the cable television show “Duck Dynasty” has been put on “indefinite hiatus” after making homophobic comments to GQ magazine.  Phil Robertson said homosexuality is “sinful”, made highly precise anatomical references that a supposedly-straight guy shouldn’t obsess about, and claimed African-Americans people were happier before the American Civil Rights Movement.  Yeah, I know, who’d have ever thought that a guy who lives deep in the bayou and grows his beard to his knees would ever harbor such opinions.  Oh, and Phil married his wife when she was just 16 years old, so there’s that.  Said the A&E Television Network, “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community.”

The pedophile lead singer of the band Lostprophets is going to prison for a very long time.  A London court sentenced 36-year old Ian Watkins to 35-years in prison for 13 child sex offenses including attempted rape of a baby.  Police do not believe they have found all of Watkins’ victims, and are continuing investigations.  The band broke up after Watkins was arrested in October.

Tokyo governor Naoki Inose has resigned after admitting taking more than A$544,000 from a wealthy hospital tycoon and failing to report it in campaign finance forms.  Inose isn’t making excuses, he blames his “lack of virtue”.  In office for only about a year, Inose is credited with helping to land the 2020 Summer Olympics for Tokyo.  He’s resigning so that the scandal doesn’t taint the games.

“Great Train Robber” Ronnie Biggs has died at age 84.  In 1963, Biggs and 14 other professional criminals robbed a UK Royal Mail train of made off with 2.6 Million Pounds in bank notes – an amount that would equal 46 Million Pounds today.  Sentenced to 30 years in prison, he escaped and spent decades on the lam, living for a time in Australia.  After a few more years fighting extradition from South America, his cash running short and his health on the wane, Biggs returned to the UK in 2001 to face the music.  He was jailed and finally released in 2009.

The UK and US have flown their citizens out of South Sudan, as fighting there spread.  As many as 500 people have been killed since a failed coup attempt over the weekend.  President Salva Kiir is offering to hold talks with his arch-rival whom he accuses of leading the coup.

Amnesty International says former Seleka rebels in the Central African Republic killed almost 1,000 people in a two-day rampage this month.  That’s double an earlier UN estimate.  The predominantly Muslim Seleka fighters ousted the President in March – majority Christians formed their own brigades and attacked Muslims communities in revenge, sparking the two-day rampage.  Amnesty is calling for more nations to step up and send peacekeepers to help the French and African Union troops restore order.

India has transferred a diplomat to its United Nations Mission, to give her full diplomatic immunity going forward.  US Diplomatic Security Service agents arrested Devyani Khobragade for paying her maid far less than the minimum wage, forcing her to work long hours, and lying about it on immigration forms.  It’s sparked a major diplomatic row between New Dehli and Washington.  US Secretary of State John Kerry “expressed his regret” over the incident – the State Department has denied this was an apology.

Sweden’s Saab has won a A$5 Billion contract to build 36 fighter jets to Brazil.  President Dilma Rousseff was reportedly ready to award the contract to Boeing, until revelations surfaced that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been monitoring her phone and email communications.  That information came from reporter Glenn Greenwald and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.