10 things you need to know today: January 13, 2013

(Image credit: REUTERS/Egypt TV via Reuters TV)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. EGYPTIAN COURT OVERTURNS MUBARAK'S CONVICTION, ORDERS RETRIAL

An Egyptian appeals court on Sunday overturned the life sentence of former President Hosni Mubarak, who had been convicted of directing the killing of protesters. More than 800 civilians were killed during the uprising that ended Mubarak's 30-year rule two years ago. The court has reportedly ordered a new trial. The decision may bolster the prospects of the Islamist party of President Mohamed Morsi, who campaigned for president last year on a pledge to seek a retrial of Mubarak. Morsi has made legal action against leaders of the previous government a priority, and the decision will put the issue of retribution for Mubarak and his conspirators back in the news as a campaign begins for new parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for April. Mubarak, who has been held in a military hospital because of health concerns, will remain in custody. [New York Times]

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Police in India said Sunday they have arrested six suspects in another gang rape aboard a bus, a month after another woman was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi and thrown from the vehicle. That woman later died of her injuries. In this latest crime a 29-year-old woman was reportedly the only passenger on a bus as she was traveling to her village in northern Punjab state on Friday night. According to police, the driver refused to stop at her village despite her repeated pleas and drove her to a desolate location. There, the driver and the conductor took her to a building where they were joined by five friends and took turns raping her throughout the night, police said. The victim was dropped off at her home early Saturday. All six men have admitted to being involved in the assault. Police are searching for one other suspect. [Associated Press]

A spokesman for the Treasury Department told The Washington Post's Ezra Klein that the agency has no plans to mint a $1 trillion coin to get around the debt-ceiling problem. "Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit," Anthony Coley, the spokesman, said. For the platinum coin idea to work, Klein points out, "the Federal Reserve would have to treat it as a legal way for the Treasury Department to create currency. If they don't believe it's legal and would not credit the Treasury Department's deposit, the platinum coin would be worthless." [Washington Post]

According to senior administration officials, President Obama plans to push Congress to move quickly over the coming months to overhaul the immigration system that would include a path to citizenship for the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Obama and Senate Democrats will propose the changes in one comprehensive bill, in direct opposition to what some Republicans have proposed — breaking the overhaul into smaller pieces. Obama is expected to lay out his plans in the coming weeks, and perhaps during his State of the Union address in February. [New York Times]

France continued to bomb Mali for a third day and Paris dispatched more troops to the capital of Bamako. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France's intervention on Friday to bomb a convoy of heavily armed Islamist fighters sweeping southwards had stopped them from seizing Mali's capital within days. "The president is totally determined that we must eradicate these terrorists who threaten the security of Mali, our own country and Europe," Le Drian said. [Reuters]

Aaron Swartz, 26, the co-founder of Reddit, who as a teenager helped create RSS, a family of web feed formats used to gather blog updates, committed suicide at his Brooklyn home on Friday. Swartz was scheduled to go on trial in a few weeks on federal charges that he stole millions of scholarly articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in an attempt to make them freely available. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, but faced decades in prison and millions in fines if convicted. In a statement released Saturday, Swartz' family in Chicago expressed bitterness toward federal prosecutors pursuing the case. "Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach," they said. [Associated Press]

Survivors of the Costa Concordia shipwreck in Italy and relatives of the 32 people who died marked the first anniversary of the accident on Sunday with the unveiling of memorials for the victims, a mass, and a moment of silence. The captain of the ship, Francesco Schettino, is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and leaving the ship before all passengers were evacuated. He hasn't been charged but is living under court-ordered restrictions pending a decision on whether to indict him. Schettino maintains he saved lives by bringing the ship closer to shore rather than letting it sink in the open sea, and claims the reef he hit wasn't on his nautical charts. [Associated Press]

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong told The Associated Press in a text message that he will speak "directly, honestly, and candidly" in his upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey. Meanwhile, a source who has declined to be identified reportedly says that Armstrong will offer a limited confession and apologize for doping throughout his long cycling career during which he won seven Tour de France titles. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency stripped Armstrong of all the titles and banned him from the sport in October after releasing a detailed report accusing him of leading a sophisticated drug program on his U.S. Postal Service teams that included steroids, blood boosters, and a range of performance-enhancing drugs. [Associated Press]

The White House disappointed the more than 34,000 people who had signed a petition requesting that the government secure the resources and funding to build a Death Star by 2016, with a letter titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For." Estimating that undertaking such an endeavor would "cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000" Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, reminded the Star Wars buffs that the government is "working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it." [Christian Science Monitor]

Miss New York Mallory Hagan, 23, was crowned Miss America on Saturday night, beating out 52 other contestants to take the top prize. According to her official bio, Hagan attends the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. As Miss New York, Hagan focused her efforts on Child Sexual Abuse Awareness and Prevention. Hagan will now become an advocate for the Children's Miracle Network, the organization's official charity. [ABC News]

Frances is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, managing the website on the early morning shift and editing stories on everything from politics to entertainment to science and tech. She's a graduate of Yale and the University of Missouri journalism school, and has previously worked at TIME and Real Simple. You can follow her on Twitter and on Tumblr.

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