Mitt Romney’s constant tax controversies aren’t over yet. The presidential hopeful requested an extention on his 2011 federal tax return. According to filed documents, Romney doesn’t expect to owe more than the $3.4 million already paid, and will be filing before the November election. In January, Romney caved to pressure from GOP primary rivals to release his 2010 returns, showing he paid a tax rate of about 14 percent on $22 million along with evidence of previously undisclosed overseas funds. On Friday, President Obama released his tax returns, revealing a a 20.5 percent federal tax payment on income of $789,674.

Kofi Annan’s Syrian ceasefire was interrupted by violence Friday, as Syrian forces killed five protesters. In response, clashes between rebels and government troops broke out in several areas across Syria, with especially heavy fighting along the Turkish border. Under the impression that the two-day truce would protect them from attacks, civilians demonstrated in the streets across the country. Though Annan’s plan urged the government to keep forces at bay, Syrian activists say the troops were out in full force to control anti-Assad rallies. The Russian ambassador to the U.N. challenged Annan’s plan with one of his own, arguing that the U.S.-backed treaty isn’t equipped to stop the violence that’s been raging in Syria for the past 13 months.

Raise the roof! Earnings reports from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo signaled that the housing market is on the mend, with more Americans paying their mortgages on time and low interest rates on refinancing mortgages. JPMorgan, the largest bank in the U.S., issued 6 percent more mortgages than a year ago and received 33 percent more applications, while Wells Fargo issued 54 percent more mortgages and got 84 percent more applications. The housing market has hindered economic recovery more than any other segment, and while home prices are still dropping, healthier housing reports from the banks far surpassed Wall Street expectations for first-quarter earnings.

Judge Jessica Recksiedler, who was assigned to hear the George Zimmerman case, disclosed that her husband works for the law firm of Mark NeJame, who is acting as the CNN analyst on the case. In a short hearing, she told the case’s lawyers of her conflict, which could allow Zimmerman’s attorney to request her removal from the case. ZImmerman’s lawyer says the issue worries him and he is considering asking for another judge next week. Zimmerman, who is being charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, will enter a plea on May 29 and will seek bail on April 20.

A tornado hit Norman, Okla. Friday and meteorologists predict an outbreak across the Central and Southern plains this weekend. Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located, reported no serious injuries, though there was damage to buildings in the town. Areas of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma are at high risk, while the threqat is moderate in sections of Texas and Missouri, experts say. Five National Weather Service offices have been working on an "impact based" warning test to convey risks from severe weather and avoid another disaster like Joplin, Missouri, where a storm killed 158.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker joined the gang at CBS This Morning to recount his heroic rescue of a neighbor from her burning home. Booker describes his “come to Jesus moment” when, while searching for the woman, he realized there was a very good chance he might not make it out of the house. With burns on his hand, he was then taken to the hospital where he promptly texted Gayle King to let her know he was OK. “Yesterday all my problems were really big to me. Today things feel a lot more clear,” Booker said. “And I have a lot more respect for firefighters!”

George Zimmerman, the man charged with second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, will be seeking bail at an April 20th hearing, Zimmerman’s lawyer said on Friday. Zimmerman was arrested Wednesday for the Feb. 26th fatal shooting, which has caused an international outcry. A judge ruled on Thursday that there was probable cause to charge Zimmerman with second-degree murder, and Zimmerman is scheduled to be arraigned on May 29. According to an affidavit revealed on Thursday, Martin’s mother identified the screams heard on Zimmerman’s 911 call as her son’s—Zimmerman has long claimed he acted in self-defense.

Megaupload.com, the enormous file-sharing site, has 25 million gigabytes of digital files stored after the government seized most of its assets and shut down the site in January. The cache is roughly equivalent to half the Library of Congress. On Friday, the federal government, the Motion Picture Association of America, and three other groups were ordered to negotiate what should be done by a U.S. District Court in Virgina. Megaupload's eccentric founder and majority owner, Kim Dotcom, is currently still in New Zealand appealing against extradition to the U.S.

Brad Pitt’s manager confirmed Friday that one of the world’s most famous couples is now engaged. Angelina was spotted Wednesday wearing what looked like an engagement ring at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Chinese Galleries, and on Friday a rep for jewelry designer Robert Procop confirmed that “Procop did indeed design an engagement ring for Angelina Jolie, in collaboration with Brad Pitt.” Procop said he and Brad worked on the ring for more than a year before it was perfect. Pitt’s manager said there is no date set yet, but the couple’s six children are “thrilled.”

It appears as though the Lockerbie bomber might actually be at death’s door, despite speculation over the last year that he was faking it. Abdulbasit al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer who was convicted in 2001 of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, has been taken to the hospital, his brother confirmed to Reuters. "His health began to deteriorate quickly ... so [we] took him immediately to the hospital where he is receiving a blood transfusion," he said. Britain freed Megrahi in 2009 as he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer and seemed to have only months to live.

Advertising sales were in decline for the first quarter of 2012, with two surprises: Oprah’s O has seen an ad-page decline of 24.1 percent while Newsweek has had a 27.5 increase in ad pages. Consumer magazines had an overall decline of 8.2 percent in ad pages, according to data published by the Publishers’ Information Bureau, with the overall number of ad pages falling to 33,827.7 from 36,868.25 pages over the same period last year. Seventy percent of the 218 magazines surveyed reported declines. Newsweek wasn’t the only magazine to buck the trend, Forbes and Bloomberg Business Week both reported increases in ad pages.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called North Korea's failed rocket launch "deplorable," joining South Korea, the U.S., Japan, and foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations including Russia who united in condemnation of Kim Jong-un's regime. North Korea had defied international warnings to conduct the test of a rocket. In a rare admission of weakness, the North Korean government issued a statement admitting the failure, but said that scientists and technicians are looking into possible causes. In retaliation, the White House cut off food aid to North Korea, which has suffered from devastating famines in recent years.

It’s probably safe to say that Joe Eszterhas will never work with Mel Gibson again. The screenwriter of the upcoming film The Maccabees said that his son recorded Mel Gibson’s “violent” behavior, remarks which Gibson has denied making. Joe Eszterhas’s collaboration with Gibson on The Maccabees, first went south when Gibson revealed that he was hoping to make a movie “that would convert the Jews to Christianity.” In addition to the anti-Semitism, Eszterhas said Gibson shared a “pornographic scenario” with Ezsterhas’s 15-year-old son, which the screenwriter said is “heinous.” Ezsterhas said his son took to sleeping with a butcher knife under his pillow out of fear of Gibson.

Not every state politician can be as heroic as Cory Booker. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin tried to save his birdfeeders from hungry bears Wednesday night and ended up being chased around his own yard, barefoot. Shumlin said Vermont “almost lost the governor,” as he was within “three feet of getting ‘arrrh.’ ”

Greenland, New Hampshire police chief Michael Maloney was shot to death along with a woman in a home early Friday morning, and the suspected gunman—Cullen Mutrie, 29—was also found dead inside. It’s still unclear whether Mutrie and his female acquaintance died of a double suicide or a murder-suicide. Maloney and four other officers arrived at the home to serve a search warrant, and may have found a drug deal occurring; Mutrie opened fire and Maloney was killed in the shootout. The four other officers were also wounded, and a tactical team found the three dead people inside the house.

Talk about a star-studded cast! Ridley Scott is stacking his new movie, The Counselor, a story about a lawyer who goes into the drug business, with a handful of Hollywood A-listers. Michael Fassbender has signed on to play the lead, and now it looks like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will sign onto the project as well, marking their first movie since teaming up for Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 2005—the movie that sparked their romance. Javier Bardem is also rumored to be in talks to join the cast. If it works out, this will be the first time Pitt reunites with Scott since they made Thelma & Louise together.

British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Burmese President Thein Sein on Friday as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a week before the European Union will meet to discuss easing the sanctions against Thein Sein’s regime. On Thursday in Malaysia, Cameron said he wouldn’t be opposed to easing sanctions if he is satisfied with the reform. Cameron’s visit comes just a few weeks after Suu Kyi’s party’s victory at the polls on April 1, and only a few months after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Burma—and Suu Kyi—in December.

Apple said Thursday night that claims that it colluded with book publishers on e-book prices are “simply not true.” “The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry,” a spokeswoman said, ending the company’s silence on the suit, filed Wednesday morning. The antitrust suit claims that Apple allowed publishers to set their own prices on Apple’s site, but only if the publishers agreed not to price their e-books lower on any other sites, Amazon included. The Apple spokeswoman compared the practice to that of their app store: “Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the app store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.”

The United Nations is poised to send 30 unarmed monitors to make sure Syria is obeying its ceasefire agreement. The 15-member Security Council is expected to approve the deployment as early as Friday and eventually send up to 200 observers to make sure both sides adhere to the plan drafted by special envoy Kofi Annan. The U.N. had been slow to respond to the violence in Syria because Russia and China vetoed involvement in the escalating situation, but has since brokered a peace deal put in place this week, which U.S. officials and others around the globe have altered hopes about.

As tensions rise over Iran’s nuclear program, diplomats from six countries will meet with Iranian officials in Turkey on Saturday. The talks will be taking place against a backdrop of strict sanctions against Tehran for what the West sees as its ambitions to build nuclear weapons. Though Iran will have more than one chance to reach an agreement, analysts believe this weekend will be their best shot. The sanctions against Iran are expected to get worse, which will make it harder for the country to negotiate. President Obama has publicly stated that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear bomb and has not ruled out military intervention.

While the details surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death are still disputed, the prosecution has filed an affidavit alleging that shooter George Zimmerman “profiled” the teenager as he walked home from buying iced tea and a bag of Skittles. Zimmerman “assumed Martin was a criminal. Zimmerman felt Martin did not belong in the gated community and called the police,” prosecutors wrote. While talking about Martin, Zimmerman said “these assholes, they always get away,” according to the document, which also states that the teenager tried to run home but was followed.

China's economy is slowing ... but still leaving most nations in the dust. The country's GDP grew at 8.1 percent in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, which is a rate that the U.S. could only dream of. But it marks a deceleration from the 8.9 percent rate in the quarter before, and it is historically a low for a country that's seen 10-percentage points of growth for three decades. Government efforts to cool inflation and deflate a housing bubble were some of the reasons the world's second largest economy started slowing last year, and the problems in Europe and the U.S. also affected China's manufacturing and exports.

Republican strategist Nicolle Wallace said Friday that the Hilary Rosen-Ann Romney spat over stay-at-home mothers has been a “win in every regard” for the Romney campaign. “The Romney campaign has handled this brilliantly, and kudos to them,” said Wallace, a former adviser to John McCain and George W. Bush. While Dan Schur, McCain’s former communications director, said that one comment by an unaffiliated Democratic strategist may not make “much difference,” but it has given Mitt Romney’s campaign the opening it needs to try to win woo women voters. Even Vice-President Joe Biden weighed in, calling Rosen’s comments “an outrageous assertion.”

A premature baby in Argentina who survived for hours in a morgue refrigerator after she was declared stillborn is in "very serious" condition Friday after doctors detected an infection. The infection could compromise the neurological system and kidney function of Luz Milagros Veron, named because it means "miracle." The 9-day-old baby is being treated with antibiotics at the Perrando Hospital in northeast Argentina, after being born months premature.

Even with Osama bin Laden dead, Pakistan doesn't want the family of a terrorism mastermind in the country. The widows and children of bin Laden will be deported to Saudi Arabia next week, their lawyer said Friday. A Pakistani court sentenced the three widows and two of bin Laden's daughters to 45 days of house arrest for living illegally in the country, but they will now take a special Saudi flight next Wednesday. One of the wives is Yemeni, and it's not clear if she can remain there.

Joe Muto’s undercover stint as the Gawker “Fox Mole” was pretty short lived. On Tuesday, Gawker announced their newest hire, a disgruntled Fox employee who was eager to expose the underbelly of Roger Ailes’s network. By Wednesday he had been discovered and given the boot. The jig is up—but this isn’t the last you’ll see of Muto. “I am a weasel, a traitor, a sellout and every bad word you can throw at me …” he admitted on Gawker. “But as of today, I am free, and I am ready to tell my story, which I wasn’t fully able to do for the previous 36 hours.”

Delivering what aides called a general-election-launching speech to the National Rifle Association, Mitt Romney tried to shore up his support with gun owners by warning darkly of President Obama’s authority to appoint Supreme Court justices. Romney painted a picture of a tyrannical president who, in his second term, would be likely to appoint another liberal justice hostile to gun rights. “In his first term, we’ve seen the president try to browbeat the Supreme Court. In a second term, he would remake it,” Romney said. “Our freedoms would be in the hands of an Obama court, not just for four years, but for the next 40. That must not happen.’’

Iran is pulling some stealthy moves to circumvent Western sanctions on its oil revenues. Tehran ordered the captains of its fleet of 39 oil tankers to disable their tracking devices, so that the ships are now all “off-radar,” a senior executive at the National Iranian Tanker Co. confirmed to Reuters. The country may also have cheated in reporting reduced oil sales in March by offering free freight and financial discounts that led to cheap, covert sales, effectively reversing reduction in shipments.

Jerome Muriaux, a business and real estate lawyer with a penchant for collecting weapons, was killed on Friday after apparently inspecting a package of grenades that had been delivered to his Paris law office when one went off, blowing him up. Paris police are investigating the incident but considering it an accident.

The battle of the tax returns begins Friday, with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden releasing theirs to the public and urging Mitt Romney to join them. The Obamas revealed that they earned a combined income of $789,674 in 2011, of which they paid 20.5 percent in federal taxes—a total of $162,074. Their income took a big dip from last year, when they reported about $1.7 million. (About half of this year's total comes from book sales, with the other half being the president's salary.) The Bidens, meanwhile, reported taking in $379,035 last year and paying $87,900 in federal tax—an effective tax rate of about 23 percent.