WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is taking steps to defuse a controversy that surged to the forefront of the presidential campaign.

Instead of requiring church-affiliated employers to provide birth control coverage for their workers, Obama is going to make sure those workers get the free contraception directly from health insurance companies.

Obama had been under attack on the issue from congressional Republicans and GOP presidential hopefuls -- and even Democrats and liberal groups allied with the Roman Catholic church were abandoning him on it.

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DETROIT (AP) — The government has disclosed new details about the relationship between a Nigerian who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane and a man who is described as his mentor in the attempted act of terrorism.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab faces a life sentence when he returns to court Thursday. In a filing Friday, prosecutors say he actively pursued al-Qaida figure Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2009.

The government says they first communicated through text message and eventually spent days together plotting to destroy a U.S.-bound jetliner. Prosecutors say the details were disclosed by Abdulmutallab during his talks with the FBI in 2010.

Al-Awlaki and the bomb maker were killed by a U.S. drone attack last year. He was an American-born cleric and one of the best-known al-Qaida figures.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The federal government's lead lawyer in an upcoming trial over fault in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is urging judges to make sensitive business documents and testimony public.

Mike Underhill, a U.S. Justice Department lawyer, made his comments Friday at a pre-trial hearing before U.S. Magistrate Sally Shushan, who is working with the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, to determine what proprietary information should not be disclosed.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton, companies involved in spill, are worried about trade secrets going public.

The trial is to begin Feb. 17.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man from Uzbekistan has pleaded guilty to terror-related charges in a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama.

Ulugbek Kodirov entered the plea Friday in federal court in Birmingham, Ala. Defense attorney Lance Bell says the 22-year-old man avoided a possible life sentence by pleading guilty. Instead, he now faces about 15 years in prison at sentencing.

Kodirov pleaded guilty to three counts: Threatening to kill the president, possessing an automatic weapon, and providing material support to terrorists.

Kodirov was indicted last July after prosecutors said he bought an automatic rifle from an undercover agent with plans to kill Obama.

Authorities say Kodirov was in the country illegally because he obtained a student visa but never enrolled in school.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal regulators say an ammonia leak that caused an emergency alert at Southern California's San Onofre nuclear plant was caused by employees who failed to recognize degraded equipment and fix it.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission report Friday faults plant operator Southern California Edison for failing to follow its own procedures at the twin-reactor site north of San Diego.

The report says the problem had "very low safety significance."

But watchdog groups have criticized the company for not alerting the public for more than an hour after the Nov. 1 leak started in a storage tank.

Some workers were evacuated but there was no public danger.

Meanwhile, the company is investigating a leak in a steam generator tube, as well as unusual wear in hundreds of tubes in the second plant.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy has named a ship for Gabrielle Giffords, the recently retired congresswoman from Arizona who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head received in January 2011.

In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords.

The littoral combat ship is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships.

Mabus said: "God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her."

Mabus also announced that the ship's "sponsor" is Roxanna Green. She's the mother of Christina-Taylor Green. The 9-year-old who was among six people killed in the shooting. Thirteen, including Giffords, were wounded. The sponsor's initials will be welded into the keel of the ship.

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BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania judge overseeing Jerry Sandusky's child sex-abuse case has set a tentative trial date of May 14th. The former Penn State football assistant told a hearing today that he thinks a local jury would be just as fair and unbiased as one from anywhere else in Pennsylvania.

The judge says he'll rule soon on Sandusky's request for access to his grandchildren, as well as a request from prosecutors to keep him confined inside his house while awaiting trial.

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LaPLACE, La. (AP) — Authorities in Louisiana say a wrong-way driver caused a crash on Interstate 10 outside New Orleans that left five people dead.   

State police say a driver was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes early Friday morning and crashed head-on with another vehicle with four people inside.

Two other vehicles were involved and the drivers suffered minor injuries.

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NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A county coroner says he examined the body of late Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua at the request of prosecutors because of the odd timing of his death a day after he was found competent to testify at a high-profile church sex abuse trial.

Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman says county prosecutors contacted him after the 88-year-old Bevilacqua died January 31st at a Wynnewood seminary.

Hofman tells a local newspaper he didn't conduct an autopsy but did see Bevilacqua's body and order toxicology tests.

Church officials say Bevilacqua was suffering from cancer and dementia.

Before he died a Philadelphia judge ruled Bevilacqua competent to testify at the child endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn. Philadelphia prosecutors say they had nothing to do with ordering the review.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A defense lawyer says an Uzbekistan national charged with supporting terrorism in a plot to kill President Barack Obama will plead guilty in federal court in Alabama.

Court records show 22-year-old Ulugbek Kodirov is scheduled for a hearing Friday afternoon in Birmingham. His lawyer, Lance Bell, says a guilty plea is expected but declined further comment.

Kodirov was indicted last year on a charge of threatening Obama's life and illegally possessing an automatic rifle. Federal authorities added an additional terror charge on Thursday.

Kodirov was arrested last July in suburban Birmingham after prosecutors said he obtained an automatic rifle from an undercover agent with plans to kill Obama.

Authorities say Kodirov was in the country illegally after obtaining a student visa but never enrolling in school.

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