Money: Citigroup agreed to pay $7 billion to settle federal claims that the bank sold junk mortgage securities that fed the international financial crisis. Two and a half billion is supposed to go to help people struggling with their mortgages. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said, “Despite the fact that Citigroup learned of serious and widespread defects among the increasingly risky loans they were securitizing, the bank and its employees concealed these defects.’’ Citigroup said settling was in the best interest of their shareholders, which was the same motive for selling rotten mortgages.

Cruise Industry: The derelict Costa Concordia cruise ship has been re-floated, just barely, on the coast of Italy. The ship hit the rocks and rolled to its side back in 2012. Engineers are moving slowly, raising the ship deck by deck to be careful of hazardous materials. The hull is rotting and they are worried it could break up. When the ship is ready, it will be towed away and dismantled at a cost of $2 billion.

Military Music: Former POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is being sent back to active duty just six weeks after his release from five years as a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The army says he has finished his therapy and will do clerical work at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. Bergdahl at times was kept in a metal box and was barely able to speak English when he was turned over to Special Forces. But the Army says he’s good to go.

China News: China’s star television anchor was arrested Friday night, minutes before he was to go in the air, in a widening investigation into official corruption. Rui Chenggang’s name came up as a possible target after the head of CCTV’s financial channel and several other network officials were detained on suspicion of taking bribes. CCTV is owned by the government. Rui has posed himself as a snarky nationalist, leading a campaign to remove a Starbucks coffee shop from Beijing’s Forbidden City. He appears to have been caught in an anti-corruption campaign that has also netted a former army general and several political figures.

Israel: Israel says it used a Patriot anti-aircraft missile to shoot down a drone that came from Gaza. The military did not give a description of the drone or say whether it was armed. The introduction of drones would be a serious escalation of military power for Palestinian militants. Their primary weapon is rockets. They’ve fire about 1,000 of them into Israel in seven days of fighting.

The Obit Page: Nadine Gordimer, the South African novelist who took on apartheid and was awarded the Nobel Prize, has died at age 90. The daughter of a watchmaker, Gordimer said she found that she could not write about her country without writing about the oppression of its racial separation. “I am not a political person by nature,” she once said. “I don’t suppose if I had lived elsewhere, my writing would have reflected politics much, if at all.”

Don’t Cry for Argentina: Germany’s Mario Götze came off the bench to score a stunning goal in overtime to win the World Cup 1-0 for Germany over Argentina. Excuse us, that’s 1-Nil. Götze chested the ball to the ground then fell to his right, firing a left-footer across the mouth of the goal. They call him “Super Mario.” After the loss, Argentina’s star Lionel Messi looked glum as he was named MVP of the tournament. Messi and several other Argies removed their silver medals moments after they were awarded. It made you kind of glad Germany won.

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