10 things you need to know today: July 13, 2012

A man participates in the Robin Hood Tax Campaign protest outside JPMorgan headquarters on June 19 in New York City: While JPMorgan&#039;s profits are down 9 percent, they still amount to a startl

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last updated 8 January 2015

1. SYRIAN OPPOSITION: 200 DEAD IN MASSACRE

Syrian opposition activists says 200 people have been massacred in the village of Tremseh. State media says "terrorist groups" are to blame for the mass killings, but residents say the attacks were carried out by tanks, helicopter gunships, and the pro-government Shabiha militia. U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan says he is "shocked and appalled." If the deaths are confirmed, the Tremseh massacre would be the single bloodiest event yet in the Syrian conflict. In the wake of the reported massacre, protesters took to the streets demanding Annan's removal, saying his diplomatic efforts have been ineffectual. [BBC]

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Email documents show that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned British regulators in 2008, when he was the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, about how the Libor, an important global interest rate benchmark, was calculated and suggested a number of changes. European, Japanese, and American officials are currently investigating a number of banks suspected of rigging the Libor rate in a growing scandal. [Bloomberg]

"The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children whom Sandusky victimized," former federal judge and FBI director Louis J. Freeh reported Thursday, delivering the findings of an independent investigation into the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. Freeh went on to say that legendary coach Joe Paterno "was an integral part of the act to conceal." A key finding of the inquiry was that the late Paterno knew as early as 1998 of suspicions that Sandusky was abusing children and failed to take action. [New York Times]

The revelation that Team USA's uniforms for the opening ceremonies of the London Games were made in China has created a growing uproar. "The Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday. "I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again." [CNN]

Wells Fargo & Co. will pay $175 million to settle Justice Department claims that it discriminated against Hispanic and African-American borrowers and violated fair-lending laws. From 2004 to 2009, the bank discriminated against qualified minority borrowers by steering them into subprime mortgages or mortgages with higher fees merely because of the color of their skin, not their "credit-worthiness." [Associated Press]

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