10 things you need to know today: June 14, 2013

(Image credit: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. OBAMA APPROVES ARMING REBELS

The U.S. has concluded that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against rebels, something President Obama has called a "red line." As a result, Obama authorized supplying opposition fighters with weapons for the first time. Last year, then-CIA Director David Petraeus recommended arming the rebels, but Obama was reluctant to wade into another Middle East war. Some diplomats say the U.S. is also considering imposing a limited no-fly zone near the Syria-Jordan border. [New York Times, Reuters]

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Firefighters are continuing to battle fast-moving wildfires on Friday, as hot, blustery conditions continue to fuel the blazes, one of which has already become the most destructive in the state's history. The Black Forest fire outside Colorado Springs had killed two people and destroyed at least 360 homes as of Thursday night. That fire had scorched 16,000 acres, but remained just 5 percent contained despite the efforts of 750 firefighters to bring it under control. [CNN]

Millions of Iranians cast ballots Friday to choose a president to replace the outgoing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the country's 50 million eligible voters to turn out in defiance of U.S. critics who say the election will be unfair. Six candidates are running in the country's first vote since a disputed 2009 election that triggered months of unrest, although none pose a challenge to the Islamic Republic's 34-year-old system of clerical rule. [Reuters]

Nicaraguan lawmakers on Thursday approved a $40-billion-dollar plan by a Hong Kong company to dig a shipping passage across the country to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, rivaling the Panama Canal. Supporters hope that the canal, a century-old dream, will lift the impoverished Central American nation's economy. Skeptics say it's not needed, and environmentalists say it will damage Lake Nicaragua, a crucial source of fresh water. [Associated Press]

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that naturally occurring DNA sequences cannot be patented. The decision was considered a victory for cancer patients, as it voided patents that had driven up costs of tests for genes that make women more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers. It also could help scientists and companies developing tests using altered DNA, which they can patent, to spot risks for illnesses from cancer to heart disease. [NBC News]

An explosion and fire at a Louisiana chemical plant killed one person and injured more than 70 others on Thursday. The rest of the plant's 300 workers were all accounted for hours after the early morning incident. The blast sent workers scrambling to escape — some climbing over gates. Authorities could not immediately identify the cause, although they said terrorism was not suspected. [Associated Press]

The British government has warned airlines around the world not to let Edward Snowden, who leaked secret information about U.S. surveillance programs, fly to the U.K. Snowden is currently hiding out in Hong Kong. Any carrier violating the order faces a $3,130 fine. A British diplomat confirmed that the travel advisory had been issued by Britain's Home Office, probably, he said, because it had deemed that Snowden was detrimental to the "public good." [CBS News]

A sharply divided Arizona legislature approved ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion on Thursday, clearing the way to add hundreds of thousands of the state's poor to the federal health-care program. The move marked a high-profile victory for Gov. Jan Brewer (R) over other GOP conservatives, who fiercely opposed the measure. Brewer has battled with President Obama over immigration policies, but said taking $1.6 billion in additional federal money for Medicaid would help the state. [Reuters]

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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