10 things you need to know today: August 26, 2012

Astronaut Neil Armstrong poses for a portrait July 1969. Armstrong, who was the Commander of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, died Saturday at 82.

(Image credit: NASA/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. THE NATION REMEMBERS NEIL ARMSTRONG

Neil Armstrong, the first human being ever to set foot on the moon, has died at age 82, his family said in a statement. The commander of the famed Apollo 11 mission stepped onto the moon on July 20, 1969, uttering a phrase that immediately became immortal: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Roughly half a billion people, which amounted to one-sixth of the world's population, tuned in to watch the "ghostly black-and-white television image" as Armstrong stepped onto the moon. President Richard Nixon called the eight-day moon mission "the greatest week in the history of the world since Creation." The moon mission was Armstrong's last space flight. He soon left NASA to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Armstrong underwent heart-bypass surgery earlier this month to relieve blocked coronary arteries. [Reuters]

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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus announced Saturday that scheduled activities on the first day, Monday, of the Republican National Convention, have been canceled because of the possibility of "severe transportation difficulties due to sustained wind and rain" brought by Tropical Storm Isaac, which meteorologists predict will become a hurricane by Monday. The RNC will quickly convene on Monday, but then immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon. Monday's speaking lineup will be squeezed into the remaining three days of the convention. [ABC News]

The British group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that 32 bodies of civilians — some of them women and children — were found in the streets of the Syrian town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus. President Bashar al-Assad's army has been waging a "fierce assault" against rebels in the town. The latest killings bring the total number of deaths in Daraya this past week to more than 120. The civilians appeared to have been killed by "gunfire and summary executions." [Associated Press]

Chicago saw another bloody weekend after seven people, including one teenager, were killed, and 24 were wounded in separate shootings since Friday night. The city has seen a dramatic rise in the number of homicides in the past several months, as gang violence has taken over large swaths of Chicago. "We're not winning, we're not losing. We're basically treading water," said Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, citing "retaliatory shootings" as a major problem. [NBC Chicago]

On Saturday, an explosion, apparently caused by a gas leak, ripped through Venezuela's biggest oil refinery, killing 39 and wounding dozens more. Operations were halted at the facility, in what is being called the worst accident to hit the nation's oil industry. According to Reuters, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said no production units at the Amuay refinery were affected, and there are no plans to halt exports, "a sign that the incident will likely have little impact on fuel prices." [Telegraph]

The U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by a lower court that blocked the federal government from requiring tobacco companies to have large, graphic health warnings on cigarette packets. Some of the nation's largest tobacco companies had argued that the mandate would go beyond factual information and into anti-smoking advocacy, which the federal court agreed would run "afoul of the First Amendment's free speech protections." [Associated Press]

Iran opened a week-long summit of self-described non-aligned nations on Sunday, with an appeal to rid the world of nuclear weapons even as Tehran "faces Western suspicions that it is seeking its own atomic arms." Iran denies that it is seeking nuclear capabilities. Among those expected to attend: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the gathering by mentioning a commitment to a previous goal set by the group to remove the world's nuclear arms within 13 years. "We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025... will only be realized if we follow it up decisively," he told delegates. [Associated Press]

A third victim of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has filed a civil lawsuit against the university for covering up and misrepresenting Sandusky's sexual abuse of boys. The plaintiff, who is identified in court documents as Victim 1, and is now 18, alleges that Penn State officials knew that Sandusky was a "dangerous, sociopathic, sexual predator," but did nothing to stop him. Sandusky was convicted in June of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys over 15 years and faces a prison term of up to 373 years when he is sentenced probably sometime in September. [Reuters]

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