AP - Trying to tamp down an uproar over race, President Barack Obama said Friday he used an unfortunate choice of words in commenting on the arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and could have "calibrated those words differently."

AP - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caved into pressure from hardline clerics and the country's supreme leader Friday and allowed the resignation of his top deputy after a week-long standoff.

AP - Key House Democrats agreed Friday on steps designed to cut the growth of Medicare, clearing one of numerous obstacles blocking an early vote on health care legislation. But even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the agreement as a "giant step forward" on President Barack Obama's top domestic legislation, leaders struggled without success to ease the concerns of moderate to conservative Democrats who have held up progress on the bill for a week.