10 things you need to know today: April 1, 2012

1. SYRIAN CRISIS RAGES ON AS WORLD LEADERS HOLD SUMMIT

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised the Syrian people "they will not be left alone," as leaders from 60 nations around the world met in Turkey to discuss how to put more pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which continues to attack its opposition. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admonished Syria for "adding to its long list of broken promises" by failing to implement a peace plan it had agreed to last week. More than 9,000 people have already been killed in the conflict, which has lasted more than a year. [CNN]

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2. BURMA'S AUNG SAN SUU KYI WINS BY-ELECTION

Burma's Nobel laureate opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi easily won a by-election for parliament, her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), said Sunday. The landmark vote — it was the first time the NLD competed in an election since 1990 — is a key test of the political reforms promised by the country's military-backed ruling party. [BBC]

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3. BOMBS IN SOUTHERN THAILAND KILL 14

Suspected Muslim insurgents staged deadly coordinated bombings in the southern Thai towns of Yala, Hat Yai, and Mae Lan, killing 14 and wounding 340. The attacks were the most deadly in recent memory in the restive region where more than 5,000 people have been killed since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004. [Associated Press]

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4. PROTESTERS DEMAND ZIMMERMAN'S ARREST

Thousands of peopled joined a demonstration in Sanford, Fla., where 17-year-old black teen Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in February. The protesters demanded the arrest of George Zimmerman, who has claimed he shot the unarmed teen in self-defense, though Martin's family says Trayvon was racially profiled. [Associated Press]

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5. KENTUCKY WILL FACE KANSAS IN NCAA TITLE GAME

The Kentucky Wildcats will play the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA men's basketball championship game on Monday. Kentucky beat the Louisville Cardinals 69-61, while Kansas triumphed over Ohio State 64-62. [NPR]

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6. EGYPT'S BROTHERHOOD BREAKS ELECTION PLEDGE

The Muslim Brotherhood — an Egyptian Islamist group which had previously been outlawed — has broken a pledge not to seek the country's highest office, nominating millionaire tycoon Khairat el-Shater as its candidate to become Egypt's first president since Hosni Mubarak. The move comes amid heightened tension between Egypt's military rulers and the Brotherhood, which already dominates Parliament and the assembly writing a new Constitution. [New York Times]

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7. GAY MARRIAGE LAW HEADS TO APPEALS COURT

A legal battle over the federal Defense of Marriage Act is headed to a federal appeals court in Massachusetts, the first state in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage. Because the law defines marriage only as a union between a man and a woman, it prevents same-sex married couples from receiving federal benefits. A Massachusetts federal judge declared a key section of the law unconstitutional in 2010. [Associated Press]

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8. GIVING BIRTH TAKES LONGER THAN IN THE PAST

Labor lasts about two hours longer for American women giving birth than it did for women 50 years ago, a new study says. "Older maternal age and increased BMI (body-mass index, a ratio of weight to height) accounted for a part of the increase," said lead author Dr. Katherine Laughon, an epidemiologist with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, in a news conference. [HealthDay]

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9. VENEZUELAN PRES. RETURNS TO CUBA FOR TREATMENT

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to Cuba on Saturday for another round of cancer treatment. Chavez is expected to be in Havana for several days to receive more radiation after recent surgery to extract a second cancerous tumor in his pelvic area. The leftist leader has vowed to beat his cancer and win another six-year term when the country goes to the polls in October. [Associated Press]

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10. CORAL MAY BE ABLE TO SURVIVE IN WARMER OCEAN

Coral that has been exposed to fluctuating water temperatures in the past may be able to survive the warmer ocean temperatures that climate change is predicted to bring in the future, giving researchers hope for the long-term well being of the world's reefs. A team of scientists made the discovery after studying the health of coral in the remote Pacific island republic of Kiribati. [Sydney Morning Herald]