John Edwards can breathe a big sigh of relief. The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has dropped its case against the former presidential candidate. Edwards had been acquitted on one of six charges last month and the jury in his case could not reach verdicts on the other five counts, all relating to campaign money he allegedly used to cover up an affair with his mistress, Rielle Hunter. “In the interest of justice, we have decided not to retry Mr. Edwards on those counts,” the DOJ Criminal Division's Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said. “We knew that hits case—like all campaign-finance cases—would be challenging.”

The U.S. backtracked from statements made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier in the week, saying the helicopters Russia was supplying Syria with may not be new. Russia's foreign minister defended his country's alleged sale of arms to Syria, and also accused the U.S. of supplying weapons to the rebels fighting the government. "We are not violating any international law," said Sergei Lavrov, in response to a question about arms sales to Syria. Clinton said Tuesday that the U.S. has “confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments." But U.S. officials said the helicopters are likely those that Syria had sent to Russia a few months ago for routine repairs, which were now being returned to the Syrians. Clinton said Wednseday, “Russia says it wants peace and stability restored. It says it has no particular love lost for Assad."

With Newt Gingrich out of the running for the White House, it seems billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson has found a new horse to back. In the past few days, Adelson and his wife have given $10 million to Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. That brings the Adelsons’ 2012 political donation tally to super PACs to at least $35 million. Adelson may well give more. He’s been quoted as saying he would considering giving $100 million to candidates across the country during the 2012 election cycle. Adelson and Romney met at Adelson’s hotel in Las Vegas in early May following Gingrich’s bowing out of the race.

Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in Geneva to kick off an historic two-week visit to Europe. The Burmese legislator will address the U.N.’s International Labor Organization while in Geneva before traveling to the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Norway, where she will be able to accept in person the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991. The Burmese pro-democracy leader is on the continent for the first time since 1988, as she spent much of the last 24 years in house arrest. Of her tour, Suu Kyi said, “Each country will be different. I will know how backward [Burma] is when I reach the other countries.”

Lance Armstrong fired back at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after it brought formal charges against the seven-time Tour de France winner earlier this week, which could put the American’s tour wins at risk. Armstrong called the moved a "vendetta" in a post on his website. Upon the charges being filed, Armstrong has immediately been banned from competing in triathlons, events in which he has recently made a foray. The 15-page letter from USADA claims that blood it collected from Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 was “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” Armstrong scoffed at the charges in a post on his website published Wednesday, writing that they are “baseless” and “motivated by spite.”

The Obama administration has implemented new Customs and Border Control procedures that require visitors to the U.S. and those returning home to undergo screening before they reach the country. At airports in Ireland, Madrid, Panama, and Japan, passengers are being searched for explosives and undergoing customs checks before they even get on a plane—in addition to the respective airports’ security procedures already in place. The new American system is an attempt to tighten security after al Qaeda’s several attempts to place bombs on planes headed for America.

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng may have escaped China, but his extended family still living in Dongshigu village is suffering. Their village is now guarded by men who locals claim are government-employed thugs. Chen’s older brother says that police tortured him in order to find out how Chen escaped, and that they also beat his wife. Chen’s 78-year-old mother claims she is harassed everywhere she goes. “The men follow me wherever I go. Three or four of them at a time. Sometimes they search me–my bag, my clothes, my pockets. They even search my shoes.”

Social-media teams at The Atlantic and Businessweek will have to find other ways to drive traffic to their websites after Reddit banned them from posting on its forums. Reddit, the popular news-sharing community, has accused several high- profile sites of posting articles on its forums in a spam-like manner and thus banned their content. It’s not the first time Reddit has combed its forums for spammers: an Atlantic editor was previously banned for posting a host of articles under a pseudonym. Reddit lists what qualifies as spam in its FAQ section, where one bullet point reads: “If you spend more time submitting to Reddit than reading it, you’re’ almost certainly a spammer.” Adding that Reddit doesn’t allow “spam,” saying it forbids links to a site “that you own or otherwise benefit from in some way.”

These days it takes some star power to get some good causes noticed, and both Hillary Clinton and Ben Affleck are lending some of theirs to help prevent childhood deaths. Clinton and Affleck made appearances at a two-day conference Wednesday, along with about 700 other government and private sector leaders. The Call To Action for Child Survival gathering is being held at Georgetown University. More than 7.5 million children die under the age of five die each year. The idea is to eradicate the causes of preventable death like malaria.

CNN announced Wednesday that it will cancel John King’s evening news show. JK USA, which has aired in the 6 p.m. time slot since 2010, was consistently CNN’s least-watched evening show, a sad spot to occupy on the network that has recently been experiencing a particularly bad ratings stretch. The empty 6 p.m. slot will be filled by Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room,” which will now be expanded to three hours in length. King will remain with the network as the lead national correspondent. He has already covered seven presidential campaigns, four of them with CNN.

On the third day of the Jerry Sandusky trial, the man known as Victim 10 detailed an incident in which the former Penn State coach allegedly pinned him down and performed oral sex, threatening that the boy would “never see my family again” if he told anyone what happened between them. Now 25, Victim 10 said he and Sandusky were wrestling in the ex-coach’s basement at the time and that Sandusky later apologized for threatening him and told him “he loved me.” Victim 10 said Sandusky abused him on two other occasions, once in 1998 at a pool and again in Sandusky’s basement in 1999, when he was allegedly forced to perform oral sex on Sandusky. The man said he was roughly 11 years old when the assaults occurred.

Mobster turned government informant Henry Hill has died at the age of 69 after a long illness. Hill was part of New York’s Lucchese mafia family in New York from the 1960s until the 1980s. He then became an FBI informant, entered the witness-protection program, and testified against his former crime bosses. The 1986 book Wiseguys and the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas were both based on his life.

In roughly two weeks, the mystery surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death will finally be uncovered. Florida Judge Kenneth Lester has ordered that an autopsy report and crime scene photos be released within 15 days for use in court. Judge Lester also requested tests conducted on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood-watch volunteer who is charged with second-degree murder in Trayvon’s death. Other materials to be used in court include Zimmerman’s statements to police, transcripts of his jailhouse calls, and comments by “Witness Nine.” Photos of Trayvon’s body and names of witnesses will not be released.

While testifying before Congress on Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon said he couldn’t “defend” the banking house’s $2 billion loss. In his second day of testimony Dimon called the loss “purely management’s mistake,” and he insisted that regulators “won’t stop mistakes, just make them smaller and fewer.” Republican Sen. Bob Corker used his questioning to attack Dodd-Frank, citing another banking chief who said the financial-overhaul bill “really missed the mark”—to which Dimon said, “I don’t know.” Dimon, who said on Tuesday that he was “very sorry” for the error and that the traders didn’t grasp the risk, was greeted by hecklers on Wednesday, who were escorted out.

A drone war on Capitol Hill? Sen. Rand Paul proposed a bill on Tuesday that would require the government to obtain a warrant before conducting surveillance in the U.S. with aerial drones. Paul’s Preserving Freedom From Unwarranted Surveillance Act is a rebuttal to this year’s Federal Aviation Administration funding bill, which makes it easier for law-enforcement agencies to use drones in the U.S. Senator Paul said his new proposal targets “unwarranted government intrusion” through the use of drones and would allow Americans to sue the government for violating the act. “Americans going about their everyday lives should not be treated like criminals or terrorists and have their rights infringed upon by military tactics,” Paul said Tuesday.

A wave of coordinated car-bomb attacks throughout Iraq on early Wednesday killed 63 people and injured dozens more—one of the deadliest attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from the country last year. The first bomb struck a procession at around 5 a.m. in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, killing seven and wounding two. That was followed by coordinated blasts in Baghdad, Hillah, Karbala, and Balad. Another person was killed in Kirkuk when three more bombs exploded, one outside a prominent political office. The wave of violence this week comes as hundreds of thousands of Shiites participate in the annual holy pilgrimage to Baghdad.

Comedian Jerry Lewis’s health scare last night looked worse than it was when he collapsed moments before taking the stage at a gala to honor Tom Cruise with the Friars Club Entertainment Icon Award. Lewis, 86, was rushed to a Manhattan hospital after passing out from low blood sugar, the New York Post reports, and is believed to have been released later that evening. Lewis was also set to be honored with the Applause Award at the gala last night. Tom Cruise said he was “sorry Jerry couldn’t be here tonight” while accepting his award—the club’s highest honor that has only previously been awarded to Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant, and Frank Sinatra.

Yemen on Wednesday pressed ahead with a U.S.-led offensive against Islamic militants in the southern part of the country, a day after it recovered control of two strategic cities. Yemeni officials said at least 30 fighters were killed and many more wounded in airstrikes on the contentious region, but it remained unclear whether they were Yemeni airstrikes or American drone strikes. One local official said at least one attack had come from a drone. Ansar al-Sharia, an offshoot of al Qaeda in Yemen, claimed that the U.S. launched five drone strikes Wednesday morning and denied that any of its fighters had been killed.

Lindsay Lohan is pushing hard for that comeback. The actress is set to star alongside porn actor James Deen in a new movie The Canyons. The flick, which was written by author Bret Easton Ellis, will expose the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles and will require Lohan to appear naked. The independent film has a budget of just $200,000 and will be shot over a few weeks in the next month. Ellis tweeted, “Shooting THE CANYONS starring James Deen and Lindsay Lohan: July 9-31 in L.A. Could not have dreamed of a better cast. Lindsay nailed it…”

Greeks are stuffing their wallets with cash and stocking up on provisions ahead of Sunday’s election, panicked that the vote will force them out of the euro zone. Banks told Reuters that citizens were withdrawing up to €800 million, or $1 billion, daily in preparation for the worst amid rumors of anti-austerity parties leading in the polls. While it’s now illegal to publish polls ahead of the election, party officials have reportedly been leaking “secret polls” in what appears to be an attempt to improve their standing. The EU and IMF have warned that Greece must adhere to the conditions of the bailout deal or risk being pushed out. Last week, Greek officials said they could run out of money as soon as July.

Desmonte Leonard, the man sought in the Auburn, Ala., shooting over the weekend that killed three and injured three others, has turned himself over to authorities, local media reported Tuesday night. The 22-year-old has been the police’s only suspect since the shooting took place near the campus of Auburn University on Saturday night during a house party. Two former Auburn football players, Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips, died in the shooting while current player Eric Mack was sent to the hospital.

Casey Anthony is ready to speak out—though it appears she isn’t ready to show her face. The 26-year-old who was made famous by a made-for-TV trial over the 2008 death of her 2-year-old Caylee, Anthony made her first statements to the media since her July acquittal after spending months in silence. “Obviously I didn’t kill my daughter,” Anthony told Piers Morgan on his show Tuesday night. The two spoke on the phone for about 10 minutes. “If anything, there’s nothing in this world I’ve ever been more proud of, and there’s no one I loved more than my daughter. She’s my greatest accomplishment.” She continued: “I’m ashamed in many ways of the person that I was.” Anthony confirmed that she would not be signing a book or movie deal anytime soon. “I’m not making gazillions of dollars at the hands of other people, or trying to sell myself to anyone…The caricature of me that is out there, it couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Attorneys for the girlfriend of James “Whitey” Bulger filed an appeal on Wednesday to reduce her eight-year sentence for aiding the infamous mobster. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced Catherine Greig to eight years in prison on Tuesday, after federal probation officers advised on a sentence ranging from 27 months to 33 months. Prosecutors had asked for a 10-year sentence. Greig’s attorneys asked the court to review the conviction.

If either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama want to win over indpendent voters this fall, they better step up their economic plans. According to a new Washington Post–ABC News survey, 54 percent of independents think Obama’s economic plan sucks, while 47 percent say Romney’s plan sucks, too. Satisfaction with Obama’s and Romney’s policies at 38 percent and 35 percent, respectively, isn’t going to get them anywhere with this crowd. Even though Obama has the black and Latino votes locked up with regard to the economy, support for Romney’s plan, racewise, is pretty split. About 42 percent of white voters like Romney’s plan and 42 percent don’t. Of black voters, 68 percent hate it, as do 48 percent of Latino voters. 

It’s a fitting end to an inspirational saga: 66-year-old Ron Barber won the seat of his former boss, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Tuesday night after Giffords resigned to recover from a gunshot wound to the head. Both Barber and Giffords were victims of the January 2011 shooting that left six people dead outside an Arizona supermarket during a Giffords event with voters. Though it seems obvious he’d get the sympathy vote, Barber’s victory surprised Arizona politicians; he defeated a 30-year-old Tea Party Republican and former Marine who served in Iraq.

British investigators had former tabloid editor and current CNN host Piers Morgan’s emails and phone transcripts, reveals The Daily Beast in an investigation into previously unreleased documents. Calling the investigation “one of the most unnerving things in my life,” Morgan is revealed in the documents to be a man who is deeply concerned about his reputation and uncomfortable in the hot seat—and someone who takes his privacy very seriously. Meanwhile, former News International chief Rebekah Brooks, husband Charlie, and four others appeared in court briefly on Wednesday, where a judge ordered the defendants to sever communication with each other, except for husband and wife. They will appear in court again on June 22.

A denomination that was once a haven for white racists is setting a new tone: the Southern Baptist Convention is set to elect as its president Fred Luter Jr., a black minister who grew up in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward and lost his home in Hurricane Katrina. Luter preached on street corners before eventually growing an inner-city church into a large Southern Baptist congregation. In 1995 he electrified attendees by preaching at a pastors’ conference. Luter became a nationally recognized preacher, eventually being honored with the nomination for SBC president.

A powerful new X-ray telescope will soon be on the prowl for supermassive black holes, the invisible remnants left when stars die. Called the NuStar by NASA, the telescope will be strapped to the back of a Pegasus XL rocket and launched into space from an island halfway between Hawaii and Australia on Wednesday. While black holes can’t be seen, the telescope will penetrate clouds of gas and dust for telltale signs of their existence with X-rays. The NuStar will map known black holes and search for previously unknown ones.

It’s no secret that the U.S.’s relationship with Pakistan has been in free fall for some time now. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave a glimpse of how bad things have gotten when he testified at a Senate budget hearing on Wednesday. Panetta told the panel that Pakistan’s refusal to reopen supply routes to Afghanistan is costing the U.S. $100 million a month. Asked if America should cut off aid to its nominal ally, Panetta urged Capitol Hill to be careful about “just shutting it down.”

“Words are cheap,” Mitt Romney told a group of business leaders at a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, predicting that the president would change his tune this week after the backlash from his “the private sector is doing fine” comment. Romney noted that Obama’s speeches may be “soaring and eloquent,” but it would behoove his listeners “to look at the record more than the words.” The Republican presidential candidate declared that the Obama administration has carried out the “most anti-investment, anti-business, anti-jobs series of policies in modern American history.”