10 things you need to know today: August 6, 2012

Musician Will.i.am listens to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Sciences and Exploration Directorate chief scientist Jim Garvin next to a mock up of the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity

(Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. POLICE IDENTIFY SIKH TEMPLE SHOOTING SUSPECT

Police on Monday were searching for a motive in the shooting deaths of six Sikh congregants at a temple in a Milwaukee suburb on Sunday. The gunman, who was identified as Wade Michael Page, a former member of the U.S. military, was killed by police. Federal officials swarmed a duplex in nearby Cudahy on Sunday, evacuating the area, and searched what sources said was the assailant's home. Neighbors tell CBS News that the man in the duplex had only been there about two weeks. The FBI is looking into whether the attack might be classified as domestic terrorism. Because of their customary beards and turbans, Sikh men are often confused with Muslims, and they have been the targets of hate crimes since the Sept. 11 attacks. [CNN, CBS News]

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NASA's rover Curiosity successfully completed a risky precision landing on Mars late Sunday night to begin a two-year mission for signs that the Red Planet once had conditions conducive to supporting life. The robotic lab had sailed through space for eight months, and covered 352 million miles before it touched down on Mars. The $2.5 billion mission is NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes, and it "marks a major milestone for a U.S. space agency beset by budget cuts and the recent loss of its 30-year-old space shuttle program." [Reuters]

In a sign that cracks within the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (pictured) government have further deepened, Prime Minister Riad Hijab has defected to Jordan, according to anti-Assad rebels and an official in Jordan's government. Earlier Monday, Syrian state-run TV said that Hijab had been dismissed. A rebel army official, Ahmad Kassim, said that three other cabinet ministers had also defected to Jordan. Mohammad Otari, a man who identified himself as a spokesman for Hijab, told Al-Jazeera TV that Hijab had been planning his escape for months, took 10 related families, and is now a "soldier" against Assad's "criminal regime." Until today, Hijab was seen as a loyalist in Assad's Baath party. [Associated Press]

The Justice Department is investigating whether Las Vegas Sands Corp., owned by high-profile Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, broke money-laundering laws by failing to alert authorities to millions of dollars transferred to its casinos by two Las Vegas high rollers. The deposits were made in the mid-2000s by a Mexican pharmaceutical businessman, later indicted for drug trafficking in 2007, and a California executive with Fry's Electronics, who later pleaded guilty to taking illegal kickbacks. [Associated Press]

After at least 13 Egyptian soldiers were killed by militants from an unknown jihadist group in a cross-border Sinai assault, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said he hoped the ambush would serve as a "wake-up call" to Egypt, long accused by Israel of losing its grip in the desert peninsula. Israeli soldiers killed eight of the gunmen after they tried to breach the border. A demilitarized Sinai is the keystone of the historic 1979 peace deal between the two countries. [Reuters]

On Monday, Japan marked the 67th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, in Hiroshima. The anniversary came amid a rising tide of anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan, after last year's catastrophic Fukushima plant meltdown. About 50,000 people, including Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and a number of foreign representatives, attended the annual ceremony in Hiroshima's peace park. [Voice of America]

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced the creation of a new think tank at the University of Southern California that will focus on a variety of state and global public policy issues including health, education, and the environment. The USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy will be funded with a commitment of $20 million from the former governor. [Los Angeles Times]

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