Preparations for the World Cup grind to a halt because of serious worker safety issues – A best-selling author dies at one of America’s best cancer hospitals – And Silvio Berlusconi is humbled.

The suspected drug gang members who threw a bag containing US$1 Million out of a low-flying plane over Bolivia might want to work on their aim.  It was intended for collection by other drug gang members on the ground, but missed its mark; Cops collected it instead.  Investigators then picked up several gang members, when they believe were going to use the money to start a cocaine production operation.  Bolivia allows people to grow small amounts of coca leaves for tradition uses, but cocaine production is outlawed.

A court in Brazil ordered work halted at a soccer stadium going under renovation for next year’s World Cup over safety concerns.  The judge says workers at Arena da Baixada stadium in the city of Curitiba are in serious jeopardy of “being buried, run over and of collision, falling from heights and being hit by construction material, among other serious risks.”  It comes just after reports that workers at another World Cup stadium project in Brazil are living and working in slave-like conditions.

In a major defeat at what appears to be the end of his political career, Italy’s conservative former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has backed down and gave a vote of confidence in the current government led by Enrico Letta.  Berlusconi had attempted to pull his party’s ministers out, after parliament appeared ready to expel him because of his criminal convictions for tax evasion and using a child prostitute.  An expulsion now seems even more likely.  Don’t feel too bad for him, he’s still a billionaire, still leads a media empire, and will probably serve house arrest instead of prison time because of his age.

Russian security agents returned gunfire and repelled a mob advancing on the Russian Embassy in Libya.  People in the crowd tore at a Russian flag, after stories of a Russian woman killing a Libyan girl had circulated.  This attack is just one example of volatility in Libya two years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, and there have been a number of attacks on foreign diplomats by militant groups.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has ordered the arrest of a Kenyan journalist for allegedly offering bribes to prosecution witnesses in the trial of Deputy President William Ruto.  Walter Barasa says he is ready to prove his innocence.  He works for a newspaper owned mostly by the family of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who like Ruto is facing charges of stirring up deadly violence after disputed elections in 2007.

A court in Athens ordered one neo-nazi Golden Dawn party member detained but freed three others on bail before their trial on charges linked to numerous attacks on immigrants, LGBT, and Leftists, and the murder of a popular anti-racist musician.  Party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris and fellow lawmakers Ilias Panagiotaros and Nikos Michos stormed out of the court, punching, kicking and shoving journalists, and vowing they will only be stopped by bullets. 

Author Tom Clancy is dead at age 66.  The hawkish author wrote best-selling military and spy novels portraying unwaveringly decent and dedicated Anglo- American protagonists battling terrorists and Communism, such as “The Hunt for Red October”, “Patriot Games”, and “Clear and Present Danger”, all made into blockbuster movies.  The cause of death has not been disclosed.  However, Clancy was a patient a Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, one of America’s premiere cancer hospitals.