Brazil moves closer to full transparency in its legislature – Egypt’s interim leader insists the military ouster of Mohammed Morsi was to protect democracy – One of Hollywood’s biggest names may have quietly slipped into retirement.

Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour is defending the eviction and detention of his predecessor Mohammed Morsi, saying the Islamist Morsi had “betrayed the ballot box”.  Millions filled the streets demanding Morsi’s ouster, citing anti-Democratic insertions into the constitution by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.  Mansour says democracy is 24/7 and does not stop after an election.  He also denied the military is taking permanent control of Egypt and he is sticking to the timetable to fully restore democracy after Morsi’s ouster.

Chinese Communist Party investigators allegedly drowned a man during the course of an investigation, according to a state-run newspaper.  It’s a rare admission of tactics used during “shuanggui”, a party disciplinary procedure unaccountable to the legal system.  The Beijing Times says the chief engineer of a state-owned company was being interrogated about a corrupt land deal; an interrogation that had him in a tub of ice cold water in which he was held under several times. The investigators will be tried for intentional assault.

Hey, Edward Snowden!  What else is going on in the world?  Well..  Senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials knew of and possibly ordered a broad campaign of extra-judicial killings of militants and other adversaries.  That’s according to the latest revelations from Snowden’s trove of US intelligence goodies.  But, if it comes from US intel, that means the US knew about it, too.  Oh, what a tangled web.

The group “Doctors Without Borders” says there’s an alarming rise in the number of Malaria cases in the African nation Chad.  New cases went from 1,228 in the first week of August to 14,021 by the end of the month.  Cases usually go up during the rainy season, which still has three months to go, but this year’s spike is unusual.  Malaria is already the most common cause of death in children in Chad. 

Brazil’s lower house voted to end the system of secret voting, one of the main complaints of protesters who filled the streets by the millions in June.  It’s one of the five specific reform items that President Dilma Rousseff told lawmakers to pass to meet the demonstrators’ demands.  The measure goes to the senate where it is expected to pass.

Venezuelans does not appear to believe President Nic Maduro’s tweet that this week’s massive power outage was caused by his conservative opposition.  Despite having the world’s largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela has invested little in its crumbling electrical grid.  70 percent of the country lost power for hours on Tuesday.

Jack Nicholson has apparently made his last movie.  The 76-year old has no plans to act on screen ever again, apparently due to memory issues – The website “Radar Online” says Nicholson can’t remember the lines being asked of him.  He recently turned down a starring role that was passed on to Bruce Dern.  The report says the three-time Oscar winner and star of “The Shining”, “Terms of Endearment”, “One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest”, and more will still be a fixture on the Hollywood party circuit, award shows, and of course L.A. Lakers games.