NPR 2012-02-11

 President Obama's trying to put to rest criticism of a controversial policy on birth control. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the administration is tweaking its policy now to address concerns of the Roman Catholic Church.

 
The new policy will still ensure that nearly all women who get health insurance through the workplace will have access to birth control free of charge. But Mr. Obama says women who work for Catholic hospitals, universities or other institutions with a religious objection will now get their coverage 1 directly from the insurance company, not their Catholic employer.
 
"The result will be that religious organizations won't have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly."
 
The move is designed to address concerns that the old policy infringed 2 on religious liberty. It's not clear how the move will play with Catholics generally, a key constituency in several battleground states. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
 
Mitt 3 Romney's presidential campaign for the conservative vote drew him to the largest annual conservative gathering 4 in Washington D.C. today. Thousands attending the conservative political action conference, or CPAC, heard the candidate pledged to shrink government, overturn the healthcare law and boost jobs. The former governor and businessman also makes no apologies for being rich.
 
"I did some of the very things conservatism is designed for. I started new businesses and turned around broken ones, and I'm not ashamed to say that I was successful in doing it."
 
Rick Santorum spoke 5 earlier. Newt Gingrich is due to address CPAC in a couple of hours.
 
Jerry Sandusky's trial on child sex abuse charges is tentatively set for mid-May. The former Penn State football coach appealed in court today where judge also announced plans to rule soon on whether Sandusky can see his grandchildren. Here's Sandusky.
 
"When I had a wife who came home after visiting with grandchildren or who's sitting there, when grandchildren call on my birthday, and they ask to talk to me and she has to tell them that they can't. I'm sensitive to that."
 
Prosecutors 6 are asking that Sandusky remain under house arrest until his trial.
 
In Greece, politicians are refusing to support a new international bailout just a day after the government agreed to it. Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens that the political uncertainty 7 comes on another day of anti-austerity protests.
 
The protests were small compared to previous demonstrations 8, but they turned violent. This news video shows scores of young men in hoods 9 and masks fighting riot police. They are pelting 10 gas bombs at the officers who respond with rounds of tear gas. The political drama was just as intense. Two ministers resigned and more threatened to leave. The stakes are high. If parliament votes against the new bailout, the EU says Greece can't have the money.
 
Joanna Kakissis reporting.
 
Dow down 136 points.
 
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Latin music pioneer Jimmy Sabater has died. The 75-year-old musician passed away of natural causes in New York. NPR's Felix Contreras explains Sabater had been part of at least two creative Latin music movements here in the US.
 
When Jimmy Sabater was a member of the Joe Cuba Sextet, he wrote one of the defining singles of the boogaloo era of the 1960s, Bang Bang. Sabater was born in the US to parents who came from Puerto Rico in the 1970s. He was an important part of the style of music that makes Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz, salsa. Ultimately, Jimmy Sabater's music reflected the nature of a bicultural life, taking the best of both and creating something new. Felix Contreras, NPR News.
 
Calm has returned to the streets of Rio de Janeiro hours after police went on strike. The government is using troops to patrol the city which holds world-renowned Carnival 11 festivities in about a week. The celebration typically attracts about a million people. The county's security is also under greater scrutiny 12 these days because it's preparing to host the championship matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.
 
US stocks down today. At last check, Dow losing 134 points, it's at 12,757, down more than 1%; NASDAQ off 24, it's at 2,903; and the S&P 500 also down nearly 1% or 12 points, it's at 1,340.
 
I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.