AP - President Barack Obama, grappling with a political firestorm that threatened to consume his administration, unveiled a birth control compromise Friday that he said would both protect religious liberties and ensure that women have access to free contraception.

AP - Two suicide car bombers struck Syrian security compounds in Aleppo on Friday, killing 28 people, Syrian officials said, bringing significant violence for the first time to a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad in the 11-month-old uprising against his rule.

AP - Greece's future in the eurozone grew increasingly precarious Friday as violence erupted on the streets of Athens and dissent grew among its lawmakers after European leaders demanded deeper spending cuts.

AP - A judge said Friday he would decide soon whether to grant former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky greater freedom — and visits from his young grandchildren — while he awaits trial on child sex-abuse charges, but prosecutors countered that Sandusky's home is not a safe place for children.

AP - The former third-grade teacher charged with committing lewd acts on students was paid $40,000 to drop an appeal of his firing, a newspaper reported Friday.

AP - All of a sudden, abortion, contraception and gay marriage are at the center of American political discourse, with the struggling — though improving — economy pushed to the background.

AP - The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said Friday he is cooperating with an ethics panel's investigation of his stock trades and expects to be exonerated.

AP - Police captured a man on Friday who was convicted of threatening to kill Madonna and walked away from a Los Angeles-area mental hospital last week.