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Automatic spending cuts are scheduled to take effect Friday. Over time, the across-the-board spending cuts could slow economic growth and lead to hundreds of thousands of government employees going out on furlough.

The Obama administration is offering more direct aid to Syrian rebels, who are fighting to topple Bashar Assad's regime. The conflict has left 70,000 people dead and a diplomatic solution seems far out of reach. Secretary of State John Kerry was delivering the news to Syrian opposition figures at a conference in Rome Thursday.

The powerful head of Mexico's teacher's union is in jail charged with embezzling about $160 million in union funds. Prosecutors claim some of the money went to plastic surgery, real estate in the U.S. and other luxury expenses.

In eight years on the throne of St. Peter, Benedict XVI has angered Muslims, offended Jews and made controversial comments about the spread of AIDS. But the scandal that has most haunted him is the abuse of children by pedophile priests.

It's thought that the province of Idlib in northern Syria might be the first to fall under the control of anti-government rebels. If that were to happen, Idlib, which borders Turkey, would become an unofficial buffer zone, where rebel fighters could regroup and aid workers could get help to the displaced. But one key government-controlled army base is standing in the way.

Also: DC Comics kills off Batman's legendary sidekick; Jesse Jackson Jr. is reportedly writing a memoir; and banned performance enhancing drugs in literary competitions.

The first pope in about 600 years to voluntarily step down is headed to a life out of the public's eye. Now, the church's cardinals turn to the task of selecting a successor.

Friday's deadline looms and "oh, it's gonna happen," says one Republican congressman. We continue to scour news outlets for stories that help make sense of the sequester.

Banishments are much more complicated than they used to be. And this "Minute Physics" video suggests, paradoxically, that both you and the person you banish are somehow simultaneously at the center of the universe.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is making it easier for more nontraditional students to become doctors. Applicants don't have to have taken the standard admissions test or a full slate of premed classes to be considered. The school's leadership hopes the move will foster greater diversity.