Armstrong teammate talks cheating

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has denied numerous accusations of doping over the years. Look back at his record-setting career. Armstrong, 17, competes in the Jeep Triathlon Grand Prix in 1988. He became a professional triathlete at age 16 and joined the U.S. National Cycling Team two years later. In 1995, Armstrong wins the 18th stage of the Tour de France. He finished 36th overall and finished the race for the first time that year. Armstrong rides for charity in May 1998 at the Ikon Ride for the Roses to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He established the foundation to benefit cancer research after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. After treatment, he was declared cancer-free in February 1997. Armstrong takes his honor lap on the Champs-Élysées in Paris after winning the Tour de France for the first time in 1999. After winning the 2000 Tour de France, Armstrong holds his son Luke on his shoulders. Armstrong rides during the 18th stage of the 2001 Tour de France. He won the tour that year for the third consecutive time. Armstrong celebrates winning the 10th stage of the Tour de France in 2001. After winning the 2001 Tour de France, Armstrong presents President George W. Bush with a U.S. Postal Service yellow jersey and a replica of the bike he used to win the race. Armstrong celebrates on the podium after winning the Tour de France by 61 seconds in 2003. It was his fifth consecutive win. Jay Leno interviews Armstrong on "The Tonight Show" in 2003. After his six consecutive Tour de France win in 2004, Armstrong attends a celebration in his honor in front of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Armstrong arrives at the 2005 American Music Awards in Los Angeles with his then-fiancee Sheryl Crow. The couple never made it down the aisle, splitting up the following year. Armstrong holds up a paper displaying the number seven at the start of the Tour de France in 2005. He went on to win his seventh consecutive victory. As a cancer survivor, Armstrong testifies during a Senate hearing in 2008 on Capitol Hill. The hearing focused on finding a cure for cancer in the 21st century. In 2009, Armstrong suffers a broken collarbone after falling during a race in Spain along with more than a dozen other riders. Young Armstrong fans write messages on the ground using yellow chalk ahead of the 2009 Tour de France. He came in third place that year. Armstrong launches the three-day Livestrong Global Cancer Summit in 2009 in Dublin, Ireland. The event was organized by his foundation. In May 2010, Armstrong crashes during the Amgen Tour of California and is taken to the hospital. That same day, he denied allegations of doping made by former teammate Floyd Landis. Ahead of what he said would be his last Tour de France, Armstrong gears up for the start of the race in 2010. Lance Armstrong looks back as he rides in a breakaway during the 2010 Tour de France. Armstrong finishes 23rd in the 2010 Tour de France. He announced his retirement from the world of professional cycling in February 2011. He said he wants to devote more time to his family and the fight against cancer. Armstrong's son Luke; twin daughters, Isabelle and Grace; and 1-year-old son, Max, stand outside the Radioshack team bus on a rest day during the 2010 Tour de France. The frame of Armstrong's bike is engraved with the names of his four children at the time and the Spanish word for five, "cinco." His fifth child, Olivia, was born in October 2010. In February 2012, Armstrong competes in the 70.3 Ironman Triathlon in Panama City. He went on to claim two Half Ironman triathlon titles by June. He got back into the sport after retiring from professional cycling. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEW: Tyler Hamilton says his ex-teammate Armstrong "wanted you to be riding your best" NEW: "He's got himself really backed into a corner," Hamilton says of Armstrong Former Armstrong team manager quits current team, citing need to defend himself Anti-doping agency says Johan Bruyneel was "intimately involved" in alleged doping Manchester, England (CNN) -- A former teammate of once acclaimed, now embattled former cyclist Lance Armstrong said Friday that there was no question why U.S. Postal Service team members doped during big races. "It was done by the team, but it was done for the Tour de France so I could be a good teammate for Lance Armstrong," Tyler Hamilton told CNN on Friday. "He wanted you to be riding your best in the biggest races." Hamilton, who admits he's not Armstrong's "biggest fan," is one of 26 witnesses who testified to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency as part of its investigation into doping by Armstrong and other riders on the team. Armstrong's legacy may withstand accusations In its report, released Wednesday, the organization tasked with keeping banned substances out of U.S. Olympic-sanctioned sports said it had uncovered "overwhelming evidence" that Armstrong had participated in and helped run the cycling team's doping program. Armstrong's lawyer Tim Herman dismissed the USADA report as a "one-sided hatchet job" and a "government-funded witch hunt" against the seven-time Tour de France winner, who has consistently denied doping accusations. Armstrong decided to give up fighting the agency's investigation in August, after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit he had filed seeking to stop the probe. Hamilton was one of two former members of Armstrong's cycling team who spoke to CNN Friday about the doping allegations. Emma O'Reilly, a former part masseuse and part personal assistant to Armstrong and his cycling team, said she hoped her decision to talk about doping -- which she first did nearly a decade ago and more recently through the USADA report -- will help make the sport of cycling better, rather than simply bring Armstrong down. "I think that now, more than ever, this is the opportunity for riders to have the choice to ride clean and stay clean if they choose to," O'Reilly told CNN. How will Lance Armstrong's brands react? Lance Armstrong: A champion at cheating? 'Dope, or don't compete at highest level' The USADA sent its report -- chronicling what it called "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" -- to international cycling authorities, who are considering a request to strip Armstrong of his Tour de France titles and other wins. And the International Olympic Committee said Friday that it also is examining the agency's evidence to decide if it should consider taking away the bronze medal Armstrong won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, according to spokesman Andrew Mitchell. Meanwhile, the RadioShack Nissan Trek cycling team announced Friday that it is parting ways with Johan Bruyneel, who managed the U.S. Postal Service and Discovery racing teams on which Armstrong raced. In its report, the USADA said "the overwhelming evidence in this case is that Johan Bruyneel was intimately involved in all significant details of the U.S. Postal team's doping program." Bruyneel is among three former U.S. Postal Service and Discovery team officials who are fighting the charges. The Radio Shack Nissan Trek team said the mutual decision "is necessary to make this decision since Johan Bruyneel can no longer direct the Team in an efficient and comfortable way." On his website, Bruyneel said he was "surprised and extremely disappointed" the USADA released its findings before he could review them. "I still hope to be able to defend myself in a forum free from bias, although I now fear that USADA's calculated action may have irreversibly prejudiced my case," he said. Armstrong teammates recount tricking drug testers In her affidavit, released Wednesday, O'Reilly reiterated allegations she first made in a 2003 book "L.A. Confidentiel" by two journalists on allegations against Armstrong. She told the agency she engaged in clandestine trips to pick up and drop off what she assumed were doping products and said she was in the room when Armstrong and two other team officials came up with a plan to backdate a prescription for corticosteroids for a saddle sore to explain a positive steroid test result during the 1999 Tour de France. "Now, Emma, you know enough to bring me down," she says Armstrong told her after the meeting. "The quote has got a bit dramatized," she said. "History has shown that I didn't have enough to bring him down, and I never wanted to bring him down. Never, ever wanted to bring Lance down." Doping was commonplace in cycling in the '90s, O'Reilly said, as integral to the sport as the bikes that bore riders up and down the French hillside. She said she tried to distance herself from doping activities but felt some pressure to go along. She said she first came across doping by the team in 1998, when she said a man gave her a package that he described as testosterone for team cyclist George Hincapie. The man, whose name is redacted from the affidavit, warned her not to travel to the United States with it, O'Reilly said. Hincapie acknowledged using banned substances in his affidavit to the USADA and in a statement released the same day. That same year, she says, Armstrong gave her a small plastic-wrapped package after a race in The Netherlands and asked her to dispose of it. O'Reilly said Armstrong told her it "contained some things he was uneasy traveling with and had not wanted to throw away at the team hotel." O'Reilly also recounted buying makeup for Armstrong to conceal what she said he described as bruise from a syringe injection during a race. While O'Reilly said she never saw Armstrong use banned substances -- though she felt sure that he did -- Hamilton had a different story, saying "the first time I ever blood-doped was with Lance" and that Armstrong was well aware and involved with everything that happened. The Massachusetts-born cyclist recalled how the U.S. Postal Service team had a French man, whom he referred to as Motoman, who followed the tour on his motorcycle to deliver the performance-enhancing drug EPO at different stops. Your Armstrong questions answered Asked why few cyclists on his team were caught despite what he characterized as repeated doping, Hamilton said they just did as they were told. "The team doctors told us what we could take, when we could take it, how long it would stay in our system," he said. "So if we followed those simple rules, 99 times out of 100, we would pass." Having first tested positive for doping in 2004, Hamilton said he continued to lie -- pointing to what he called omerta, or "the code of silence ... within the top tier of cycling." "I believed that was my only way back into the sport," he said. "It is a bit of a mafia. It's a powerful group. You can say the wrong thing, and next thing you know ..." It wasn't until last year, with an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" and the publication of a book the following year, that Hamilton came clean about being a chronic user. He said telling the truth has been cathartic for him, while expressing understanding about his former teammate's continued denials. "I lied for a long, long time. And you start believing some of your lies," said Hamilton, who accused Armstrong of trying to intimidate him a year and a half ago. "And he's got himself really backed into a corner." Armstrong on giving up fight against doping accusations CNN's Amanda Davies, Zayn Nabbi, Kabeer Mahajan, Michael Pearson and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

13 Cuban refugees die as raft sinks

Thirteen are either dead or missing Yucatan is a popular destination for refugees headed to the U.S. Ten survivors are in the custody of immigration officials (CNN) -- Two people drowned and at least 11 went missing, when a raft bearing 23 refugees from Cuba sank off the coast of Isla de Mujeres, near Cancun, Mexico Friday, according to immigration authorities. Ten adult survivors, nine men and one woman, were taken into custody, where Red Cross medical workers determined them to be in good health, the Federal Immigration Institute in Quintana Roo said. The Yucatan Peninsula, particularly the municipalities of Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Cozumel, is a major landing point for smugglers who bring Cubans into Mexico and take them to the U.S. border. "It's a major receiving dock for things coming from the Caribbean," said Samuel Logan, founding director of Southern Pulse, an online information network focused on Latin America. The Cancun area has become more popular with human smugglers in the past decade because the 135-mile-wide Yucatan Channel is not heavily patrolled by the U.S. Coast Guard as are other parts of the Caribbean Sea. Most U.S. interdiction efforts occur in the Straits of Florida between Cuba and Florida. Mexican authorities did not say what the refugees' intended destination was.

Woman sues over meningitis

Leaders of a House committee expand their investigation into the outbreak Fourteen people have died, and the cases have been linked to steroid injections The woman says she is one of 14,000 people who received tainted injections She underwent medical tests and a spinal tap, the lawsuit says (CNN) -- A Minnesota woman is suing a Massachusetts pharmaceutical company at the center of the deadly meningitis outbreak. The lawsuit filed Thursday in Minnesota federal court may be the first one in the recent outbreak. In the suit, Barbe Puro alleges that in September, she was injected with a tainted batch of steroids from the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center. What's a compounding pharmacy? There have been 185 cases of noncontagious fungal meningitis in 12 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Fourteen people have died, and the cases have been linked to the steroid injections made by the Massachusetts facility, the CDC has said. Some 14,000 people may have received the injections. Puro was informed that she received the tainted injections and should see a doctor, the suit alleges. She "underwent medical testing including blood work and laboratories, a spinal tap," the suit says. It is unclear what the results of those tests were. Puro is seeking unspecified compensation and pushing for class-action status to cover others. CDC: Tests may not detect deadly fungus Meanwhile, members of Congress on Friday expanded an investigation into the outbreak. In a letter to the director of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy, leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce noted the Food and Drug Administration sent the NECC a warning letter in 2006 "detailing significant violations witnessed" by investigators the previous year. "Included in the list of violations was the NECC's manipulation of a sterile injectable product, which caused FDA to be concerned about potential microbial contamination," the letter said. Also, "this particular inspection called into question whether the NECC was operating as a traditional compounding pharmacy or a drug manufacturer that produced, marketed and distributed drug products, not linked to prescriptions for identified patients, on a commercial scale." The committee is investigating whether "remedial measures" were taken after the inspection, "and why the NECC was able to continue operating in this manner more than six years after the fact," the letter said. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick accused the NECC of misleading regulators and operating outside its license by shipping large batches of drugs nationwide. Also Wednesday, the state's pharmacy board took the step of requiring all Massachusetts compounding pharmacies to sign affidavits stating they are complying with state regulations requiring compounders to mix medications for specific patients.

Town sweats prostitution scandal

Maine Zumba instructor Alexis Wright, 29, faces 106 prostitution-related charges Her business partner, Mark Strong, is charged on 59 counts Authorities say clients paid Wright for sex in her dance studio in Kennebunk, Maine Some are worried about police naming those accused of soliciting prostitution (CNN) -- An image on the website of Pura Vida Studio, in the picturesque Maine town of Kennebunk, shows 18 smiling women and one man flushed after an arduous dance workout. But that's not the full picture, authorities say. Prosecutors say 29-year-old fitness instructor Alexis Wright was paid to have sex with customers in her Zumba studio. She allegedly got help from her business partner Mark Strong, a 57-year-old insurance salesman and private investigator. Wright is accused of having sex with dozens of men and videotaping many of the encounters. Strong's lawyer, Dan Lilley, tells CNN that prosecutors have given him a list of 150 patrons and a computer hard drive with some videos, with erotic titles, that are part of the investigation. Neither Wright -- whose studio is "now closed," according to its website -- nor her attorney, Sarah Churchill, returned calls from CNN. The local district attorney declined to comment on the case. Both of the accused pleaded not guilty this month to prostitution-related charges: 106 against Wright and 59 counts against Strong. According to Kennebunk police, authorities were tipped off in September 2011 to illicit activity at the studio. A subsequent investigation, with help from Maine's State Police and the Drug Enforcement Agency, led to the execution of search warrants on February 14. Police arrested Strong on July 10, making the case public for the first time. That was followed by indictments against him and Wright. And the whole case has fueled debate, in Kennebunk and in the courts, about whether the alleged clients should be publicly shamed. Today, the town -- a stone's throw from the tourist haven and rocky shores of Kennebunkport where, among others, former President George H.W. Bush has a seaside home -- is on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Police have been handing out summonses to those accused of soliciting a prostitute; all who receive one would then have to appear in court to answer the misdemeanor charges. According to Lilley, the Johns include lawyers, accountants and even a local TV personality. The Kennebunk Police Department routinely detail who in their community has been charged, with what crime, on its website. But the names of those accused of paying to have sex with Wright have not been published -- at least not yet. In a notice posted online, the department said Friday it is waiting to release names pending an appeal made to the state Supreme Judicial Court of a lower court ruling denying a temporary restraining order to block the identities from getting out. Kennebunk Police plan to hold off releasing further information until the high court weighs in on the case. Until then, tensions are high in Kennebunk about what might happen if some of its most prominent townsfolk are publicly shamed. Josh Raymond, who works at a bakery in the town of just over 5,000 residents, said customers are talking about the scandal, but in hushed tones. And local radio host Stan Bennett said about half his listeners support outing Wright's alleged clients, while half think it's not worth the pain it might cause their children. Despite public pressure not to, the York County Coast Star has signaled its intention to publish the names -- like they would anyone else charged with a crime -- once police release that information. The newspaper's editor, Laura Dolce, wrote the decision to do so wasn't easy, understanding "many in the community... would prefer we not print the names at all." But she said listing the names was the right thing to do, making it clear who authorities believe was and was not involved. "There are people in this community who have had their names dragged through the mud for months because people believe they are on the list," Dolce said. "We also believe that printing the names of those charged with engaging a prostitute is the fair thing to do... to help set the record straight and put to rest the ugly rumors that continue to circulate throughout town." CNN's Greg Botelho, Kristina Sgueglia and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.