Arms

GO AHEAD, Lance Armstrong, run to Oprah. Better yet, ride your bike. A real man would have held a news conference and submitted himself to reporters' questions instead of hiding behind Oprah Winfrey's forgiving skirttails. If Lance Armstrong were truly genuine, he'd stand in front of a sea of cameras and admit: "I cheated for years. I lied about it over and over. And I'm sorry. " Straight-up, no chaser. That's how a public figure of Armstrong's stature should admit guilt and apologize for what he's done.

EL PASO, Texas - A federal judge sentenced a British businessman to nearly three years in prison Wednesday for trying to buy surface-to-air missile parts from undercover U.S. agents to resell to Iran. Christopher Tappin, 66, pleaded guilty in November to aiding and abetting to export defense materials in a deal that opened the door for him to serve part of his sentence in Britain near his ailing wife. U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso said Wednesday that he would recommend that the Justice Department approve any request by Tappin to be transferred to the United Kingdom.

A New Jersey district's decision to put armed officers in every school doesn't mean that's the best way to promote safety. The Marlboro school system took the extraordinary action last week after the holiday recess in response to the school rampage in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 first graders and six adults dead. The Monmouth County district became the first in New Jersey to put an armed guard in every public school. Whether others follow suit seems doubtful. Gov. Christie opposes that approach, as does the New Jersey Education Association, the state's powerful teachers' union.

Acting on an anonymous tip Thursday, Radnor Township police were able to arrest a suspect in a November armed robbery. Daniel P. Whitman of Charles Drive, Bryn Mawr, was taken into custody for having a small amount of drugs. He was also being held on charges in unrelated cases, police said. In November, Whitman allegedly held up a woman and child at the Bryn Mawr 7-Eleven. - Mari A. Schaefer  

BEIRUT - Syria's rebels stepped up attacks on strategic sites including a sprawling military complex in the country's north on Friday, while reports emerged that President Bashar al-Assad's forces continued to fire Scud missiles at rebel areas. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin told European leaders that Russia does not seek to protect Assad but that only a negotiated solution can end the conflict - an outcome that looks unlikely as rebels make gains across the country. While few observers expect Syria's 21-month-old conflict to end soon, most say steady rebel advances appear to be tipping the balance in favor of those fighting to topple Assad's regime.

WASHINGTON - In his first extensive public remarks since last week's mass shooting at a Connecticut school, the head of the National Rifle Association called Friday for lawmakers to take action to put armed security guards in all schools in an effort to curb such violence. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said at a news conference in Washington. LaPierre called on Congress "to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation.

A Camden man who authorities say shot at New Jersey state troopers while committing an armed robbery has been charged with attempted murder, the Attorney General's Office announced Monday. Joshua A. Polanco, 21, was indicted by a state grand jury Friday in the alleged exchange of gunfire with troopers on the 2000 block of the Admiral Wilson Boulevard. Five troopers from the Metro South Unit saw Polanco point a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at the head of his robbery target in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant about 5:20 p.m. July 20, according to officials.

WORCESTER, MASS. - A champion arm wrestler from Massachusetts has been convicted in the death of his wife, who jumped out of a window to escape him. Forty-one-year-old Allen Stilkey, of Worcester, was convicted Monday of manslaughter. His wife, Lisa, jumped from a second-floor window of their home in February during what authorities said was a violent argument. Prosecutors said Stilkey had threatened to kill his wife. They said that he had recently taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on her. Stilkey's attorney maintained that his client was not responsible for his wife's death.

Now that the U.S. elections are over, the Obama administration is applying a full-court press for a political solution in Syria. Finally. But U.S. officials still refuse to openly engage with, or give military aid to, Syrian rebel commanders, who will exercise major influence after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Instead, the Obama team has been outsourcing the role of aiding military rebels to Saudi Arabia and the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar, with the Saudis now taking the lead. At a meeting last week in Antalya, Turkey, more than 300 commanders from the rebel Free Syrian Army agreed under pressure from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to form a unified command structure, in return for promises they would get more advanced weapons.

CAIRO - Gaza's ruling Hamas will not stop arming itself, because only a strong arsenal, not negotiations, can extract concessions from Israel, the No. 2 in the Islamic militant group said in an interview Saturday. The comments by Moussa Abu Marzouk, just three days after the worst bout of Israel-Hamas fighting in four years, signaled trouble ahead for Egyptian-brokered talks between the hostile neighbors on a new border deal. Hamas demands that Israel and Egypt lift all restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory, which has been buckling under a border blockade since the Islamists seized the territory in 2007.