10 things you need to know today: June 14, 2012

Lance Armstrong at the 2011 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge: Seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong could be stripped of his titles if claims made by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agnecy about alleged

(Image credit: Gail Oskin/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. U.S.: RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS IN SYRIA MAY NOT BE NEW

A senior Defense Department official says that when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alleged on Tuesday that Russia was sending attack helicopters to Syria, she may have been referring to helicopters sent months ago, not new shipments. "She put a little spin on it to put the Russians in a difficult position," the official says. Clinton's helicopter accusations are said to be part of a calculated plan to pressure Russia to turn its back on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russian foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov responded to the allegations by claiming that the U.S. had supplied other countries in the region with weapons that could be used against peaceful protesters. [New York Times]

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Lance Armstrong will not be allowed to compete in the Ironman France triathlon later this month following new charges from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that he illegally doped when he competed in the Tour de France. While federal investigators closed a two-year investigation into doping allegations against the legendary cyclist in February without charging Armstrong, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency continued to investigate. The department has threatened to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong responded to the charges with a statement, saying "I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one." [CBS/Associated Press]

In a speech to parliament in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected quick fixes — like joint debt sharing — to Europe's financial crisis and said Germany can't shoulder the burden alone. "Germany's power is not infinite," Merkel said. "So our responsibility as Europe's largest economy is to deploy our strength credibly, so that we can be of full use to Europe." Merkel called on fellow G-20 members to help, saying Europe's debt crisis and Germany's role in it will be the "central tropic" when the G-20 meets next week at a summit in Mexico. [Bloomberg]

British Prime Minister David Cameron took the stand Thursday in the media ethics inquiry launched in the wake of the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal. Cameron conceded that the relationship between the press and politicians had "become too close." Cameron's 2007 hiring of Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor, to be his director of communications is expected to be a key point of inquiry in the interrogation. [Washington Post]

The U.S. Justice Department says it will not look to retry former presidential candidate John Edwards on five unresolved counts of campaign finance fraud. After a highly publicized, six-week trial, a jury acquitted Edwards on one count and deadlocked on five others in late May, and a mistrial was declared. The final outcome has some questioning whether it was worth charging Edwards in the first place. [Associated Press]

The Washington Post reports that the U.S. military is increasing its secret intelligence operations across Africa, setting up a web of small air bases on the continent to monitor terrorist hideouts. The surveillance missions are overseen by Special Operations forces, which have had a key, clandestine role in Obama's national security strategy, with teams dedicated to tracking and killing suspected terrorists. [Washington Post]

HBO is apologizing after a story about a model of President George W. Bush's head being used in a decapitation scene went viral. Bush's severed head is shown in the show's season one finale, when one character is forced to look at her father's severed head on a spike, among a number of others. "George Bush's head appears in a couple of beheading scenes," the showrunners, who have apologized along with HBO, said on the DVD commentary. "It's not a choice, it's not a political statement. We just had to use whatever head we had around." [Hollywood Reporter]

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