10 things you need to know today: November 4, 2013

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Amr Nabil))

last updated 8 January 2015

1. Morsi goes on trial in Egypt

Egyptian security forces were placed on high alert on Monday as ousted President Mohamed Morsi and 14 Muslim Brotherhood leaders went on trial for inciting violence that led to the killing of protesters last December. The judge promptly adjourned until January 8 and ordered Morsi, who wore civilian clothes and insisted he was still the country's duly elected president, to appear in prison garb. [Bloomberg, Reuters]

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German authorities investigating a suspected tax cheat found 1,500 paintings, including works by Matisse, Picasso, and Chagall, that were confiscated by the Nazis during World War II, according to media reports on Sunday. The art was found in a 2011 search of the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of a Munich art dealer, the news magazine Focus reported. The find, if confirmed, is one of the largest discoveries of looted art. [Forbes]

The government is expected to announce Monday that SAC Capital Advisors has agreed to a deal calling for it to plead guilty to insider trading charges and pay a whopping $1.2 billion fine. Six of the hedge fund's former traders have pleaded guilty to insider trading. Federal regulators are also suing the firm's owner, billionaire money manager Steven A. Cohen, saying he failed to supervise his employees. [New York Times]

The White House and leading senators from both parties rejected a plea for clemency from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who fled to Russia in June to avoid espionage charges for leaking secret documents on NSA surveillance programs. White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday that Snowden broke the law and must face justice. In a letter he gave to a German politician, Snowden said, "Speaking the truth is not a crime." [BBC News]

Los Angeles International Airport shooting suspect Paul Ciancia told authorities that he acted alone. Ciancia, 23, was shot four times in the Friday attack, which left a Transportation Security Administration officer dead and three other victims wounded. He is under sedation and armed guard at a hospital, but at the scene he told authorities that a friend who dropped him off at the airport had no idea what he planned to do. [Associated Press]

Two Kenyan runners won the New York City Marathon on Sunday as the race returned after being canceled last year because of Hurricane Sandy. Geoffrey Mutai took the men's crown in 2:08:24. Priscah Jeptoo, 29, won the women's title, overtaking Bronx resident Buzunesh Deba with a late kick that left Deba in second place for the second time in a row. With memories of the Boston Marathon bombing fresh, police were "everywhere," spectators said. [New York Daily News]

A top Syrian rebel leader, Col. Abdul Jabbar Akaidi of the Free Syrian Army, resigned Sunday to protest infighting among opposition groups. He said the squabbling allowed government forces to retake a strategic northern town on Friday, restoring a supply line between Damascus and Aleppo. Civilian opposition leaders cast doubt on planned peace talks, saying Sunday they would only go if President Bashar al-Assad said when he would step down. [Voice of America, Reuters]

A Kenyan court on Monday charged four Somali men with terrorism for allegedly helping al Qaeda-linked militants execute a September attack on an upscale shopping mall that left 67 people dead. Investigators say the men — Mohamed Ahmed Abdi, Liban Abdullah Omar, Hussein Hassan, and Adan Mohamed Ibrahim — sheltered the assailants and provided them with false documents. The Somali Islamist group al Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack. [Reuters]

YouTube held its first music awards ceremony on Sunday, streaming the event live online. Eminem took Artist of the Year, Taylor Swift took the YouTube Phenomenon prize for I Knew You Were Trouble, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won YouTube Breakthrough Artist. The New York Times described the jumble of award presentations, performances, and comedy sketches as "often inexplicable but surprisingly easy-to-watch." [New York Times]

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles tied a National Football League record on Sunday by throwing seven touchdown passes in a single game. Foles completed 22 of his 28 passes for 406 yards to help his team trounce the Oakland Raiders, 49-20. Five other players have equaled the feat. The latest was the Denver Broncos' Peyton Manning, who threw for seven TDs in his team's season opener against the Baltimore Ravens this year. [USA Today]

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.

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