It’s the latest development in an interminable blame game.  Documents released by two Republican congressmen Friday show more security was requested prior to the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi. The 166-page document also contains an anxious message from Ambassador Stevens the day he died. But the key conversation in the documents dates back to February, when a U.S. officer in Libya in fact expressed the need for more security. “Beginning tomorrow, Benghazi will be down to two agents ... We have no drivers and new local guard employees,” the officer wrote. The response from the government was brief: “The DS ... is hesitant to devote resources.”

As the death toll linked to a fungal meningitis outbreak rose to 21 Friday, the New England Journal of Medicine has released a report looking for as to why the outbreak has been so difficult to track. The disease that has now infected more than 271 people was first identified in a middle-aged Tennessee man and caused by a different mold than most other cases. Doctors said the patient developed minor symptoms four weeks after receiving back injections of a steroid manufactured by the now defunct New England Compounding Center. Roughly six weeks and two hospital visits later, the patient died, but the new report has identified his case as “the trigger” for discovering the link to other patients’ steroid injections.

After a bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut Friday afternoon, many Lebanese are pointing fingers at neighboring Syria for targeting a high-profile security official who was a major foe of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government issued a statement condemning the bombing, but some have said Syria has wanted to destablize Lebanon for harboring refugees. Protesters gathered at the bombing site later in the night to mourn the victims and express anger over the fallen official. On Saturday, the Lebanese prime minister offered to resign over the blast, but many worried the country would descend into chaos without him.

Mitt Romney a huge six-point lead over President Obama, according to Gallup's latest national tracking poll out Friday, a trend that first began after the first presidential debate. But there's a twist: According to Marist poll also out today, Obama's still leading in Ohio and Wisconsin—two key swing states that could provide the presidential with the firewall he needs to win the Electoral College. Meanwhile, 64 percent of sampled early voters in the Badger State cast their ballot for Obama, as did 67 percent of those in Iowa. But 54 percent of voters who plan to hit the polls on election day say they'll support Romney, versus 39 percent who know they'll back Obama. 

Mitt Romney may be the "Beehive state's favorite adopted son," but even proud parents have to be realistic about their kids. In a blow to Romney, the Salt Lake City Tribune announced their endorsement of President Obama in an editorial Friday, adding that "Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first." The paper slammed Romney for being "the party's shape-shifting nominee" saying "we have watched him morph into a friend of the far right, then tack toward the center with breathtaking aplomb."

Fidel Castro has reportedly suffered a massive stroke and is struggling to speak and eat, a Venezuelan doctor said Friday.
Dr. José Marquina, who has previously claimed to have direct ties to Castro, said the 86-year-old former Cuban leader “recognizes absolutely no one” and is being cared for at his home in Havana. His family is fighting to keep him alive but are remaining mum on the state of his health. Rumors that Castro is near death’s door have been circulating recently in the media and in social networks. He left office in 2006 due to life-threatening intestinal issues, handing over leadership to his younger brother, Raul.

Yikes, this is getting ugly. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted on Friday that she never told Marie Claire contributor Ayelet Waldman that Anne-Marie Slaughter, the famed “women can’t have it all” writer, was “whining.” Waldman pushed back, saying they had a “conversation” about it. In excerpts from the magazine article released on Thursday, Clinton was quoted as saying Slaughter is a “whiner.” After a media firestorm erupted—including charges that Clinton is “trashing whiners”—Clinton said the magazine article was “wildly misleading.” Waldman said via Twitter that “Clinton’s whining comment came up in context of work-life balance” but that it was not directed at Slaughter in particular.

A product designed to keep your skin from burning might actually have the opposite effect. The makers of continuous spray Banana Boat sun care recalled products Friday due to reports that the spray could ignite on the skin. There have been four incidences when Banana Boat sunscreen has ignited when exposed to a flame before drying. The manufacturer says the spray valve could be the issue, since it dispenses more product and takes longer to dry. The likelihood of actually lighting on fire is extremely rare, according to the Burn Prevention Network, and aerosol sprays are known to be flammable.

Shamed cycling legend Lance Armstrong stated the obvious when he said the last few weeks have been “difficult” at his first public appearance since being outed for doping. Armstrong addressed a crowd at Livestrong’s 15th-anniversary celebration, saying he was “humbled” by their support. “It’s been a difficult couple of weeks for me and my family, my friends and this foundation…I’ve been better, but I’ve also been worse,” he said. Nike, Anheuser-Busch, and other sponsors said they would terminate their contracts with Armstrong after the USADA released evidence that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs. The cyclist stepped down as chairman of Livestrong, but will remain on the board of directors.

Five years ago, Britney Spears was getting too toxic for her own good, her father’s attorney told the courtroom in her trial against former manager San Lutfi. “Jamie [Spears] was living in constant fear that he was going to look at the TV one day and see Britney was dead,” he said, describing a period when the pop star was hospitalized and lost custody of her children. “He is scared to death, and he’s thinking to himself, ‘My daughter has lost everything. Here she is, in a psychiatric ward, out of her head.’” The attorney also said Spears suffered from depression for years after breaking up with Justin Timberlake. Spears’s family says Lutfi was trying to keep her away from them, while Lutfi says he found what was probably crystal meth in the singer’s house and was trying to stop her drug use.

The impossibly good-looking crew working Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries’s jet were forced to follow the strictest of dress codes, right down to the style of their underwear, according to a manual disclosed in an age-discrimination lawsuit filed by a former pilot. Jeffries reportedly required the actors and models working his aircraft to be clean-shaven males wearing Abercrombie jeans, polo shirt, boxer briefs, flip-flops, and a spritz of Abercrombie cologne. Other unusual demands: The song “Take Me Home” had to play when passengers entered the cabin for return flights, black gloves were to be worn while handling silverware, and white gloves were to be worn when setting the table. Unsurprisingly, Bloomberg reports that Jeffries’s management style is being questioned by his staff.

Dennis Quaid and Kimberly Quaid are ending their eight-year marriage. Five months after withdrawing her initial petition for divorce, Kimberly filed for divorce once again on Friday. She is seeking joint legal and sole physical custody of their 4-year-old twins. The couple announced separation in March but decided to give their marriage another chance. This is Quaid’s third divorce, he split with actress P. J. Soles in 1983 and then Meg Ryan in 2001.

Maybe her new single will be called “Me Against the Manager”? The attorney for Britney Spears’s former manager, Sam Lutfi, opened the trial against the pop star Thursday by claiming Lutfi had been trying to keep Spears off drugs. Lufti claims he had drug-sniffing dogs search Spears’s house and that they turned up a substance that was probably crystal meth. “My client was made a scapegoat for drug abuse and the erratic behavior of Britney Spears,” his attorney told the jury. Lufti even claims Britney’s famous head-shaving incident was meant to hide drug evidence. The former manager is suing Spears’s parents for millions of dollars, saying her mom wrote lies about him drugging and isolating the star.

The Food and Drug Administration officially announced Thursday that the meningitis outbreak is linked to tainted steroid injections produced by the New England Compounding Center. Health officials found a fungus known as Exserohilum rostratum in unopened packages of the steroid, according the FDA’s statement. As many as 14,000 people may have been exposed to the contaminated drugs, which were recalled Sept. 26. More than 250 cases of fungal meningitis and 20 deaths have been reported. The compounding center shut down in early October.

Turns out mad scientists do exist. Canadian authorities discovered this week that in July, an entrepreneur chartered a fishing boat and scattered 100 tons of iron dust into the sea in an ecological experiment. The man did not have oversight from any governmental or academic authorities and even managed to trick the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into lending him ocean-monitoring buoys. Authorities in Canada are currently investigating, with scientists hoping that ecological damage from the experiment is minimal.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on trial for accusations of sleeping with an underage prostitute, testified on Thursday that he had no "intimate ties" with the then-17-year-old. Although Berlusconi is accused of having slept with her on 13 occasions, he said that there were never events "of a sexual nature" in his home. He further claimed that his stories of "bunga-bunga" sex parties were always just a joke. Sure, Mr. Berlusconi, we believe you.

Jobless claims in the United States spiked last week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department. Although this represents a change from the steadily declining number of claims from past weeks, the change at this point still seems to be an outlier indicating that the economy is on a long, slow road to recovery. Claims for state unemployment benefits also slightly exceeded expectations, and factory activity increased slightly in the mid-Atlantic region. 

One of the alleged masterminds behind the attack on the Libyan compound that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens says Libya’s army is “chicken” and continues to go about his day-to-day business. Though Libya has called Ahmed Abu Khattala commander of the attack, he tells The New York Times that he hasn’t even been questioned about it. Abu Khattala asserts that the compound guards provoked a peaceful demonstration by shooting at protesters and insists he wasn’t part of the attack. He also accused U.S. leaders of “playing with the emotions of the American people” and “using the consulate attack just to gather votes for their elections.”

Scotland Yard announced on Friday that it had begun a formal criminal investigation of the late BBC presenter and DJ Jimmy Savile after an assessment of sex-abuse accusations dubbed Operation Yewtree yielded over 400 leads. The Metropolitan Police say that this is "alleged abuse on an unprecedented scale." The investigation is now focusing on over 200 individuals who have come forward alleging that they were sexually abused by Savile or one of a few other individuals associated with the scandal.

Twitter's been having a rough time in Europe lately. Just one day after the company blocked German users from accessing an account owned by a neo-Nazi group, British police on Friday had another account suspended. This time, the account allegedly belongs to right-wing European Parliament member Nick Griffin, who is involved in a legal case about a gay couple denied lodging at a bed-and-breakfast. The account published the couple's address, urging protests at their home.

A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that a group of cheerleaders could continue to use banners displaying Bible verses at football games for their public school, at least until the end of the season. The decision comes on the heels of a public display of support for the cheerleaders from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who cited a state law mandating that religious and secular views of students be treated in the same manner by school districts. The next trial in the case is set for June 24, 2013.

It was no debate. At a traditional campaign stop charity dinner in New York Thursday night, Mitt Romney and the president exchanged humorous jabs. “It’s nice to finally relax and wear what Ann and I wear around the house,” a tuxedo-clad Romney joked to the crowd at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. Obama, speaking after Romney, took a similar approach: “Earlier today I went shopping at some stores in Midtown,” he said. “I understand Gov. Romney went shopping for some stores in Midtown.” Obama joked he was also well-rested after the “nice long nap” he took during the first debate.

Officials said on Friday that the CIA is asking the White House for a significant expansion to its fleet of armed drones. If approved, the increase could add up to 10 drones to a force currently numbered at 30 to 35 and would enhance the ability of the CIA to carry out lethal strikes in the Middle East. The move, needless to say, is eliciting concerns that the CIA is moving away from its roots in intelligence toward a more paramilitary identity.

Trayvon Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, on Friday called for a change to Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law—the measure George Zimmerman has used in defense of shooting and killng their teenage son. “We want to know what drugs were in [George Zimmerman’s] system that made him do the things he did,” their lawyer told reporters after a hearing regarding Trayvon’s school records. Trayvon’s parents “will stand by any ruling of the court,” their lawyer said, but they don’t think Trayvon’s school records should be relevant in George Zimmerman’s trial for second-degree murder, which will start June 10.

Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh went head to head with Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth over Medicare and abortion during a local half-hour news program Thursday night. In addition to promising to end Medicare "as we know it" if it remains unchanged, Walsh revealed just how anti-abortion he really is, claiming that exemptions to abortion laws in cases where a mother's life in danger are obsolete. "With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance," Walsh said. "There is no exception as life of the mother, as far as health of the mother, same thing."

Fox News chief Roger Ailes has signed a four-year deal with all Fox stations, including Fox News and Fox Business network, The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz reports. 

Having come out of a coma yesterday, Malala Yousafzai is “not out of the woods,” doctors told Reuters on Friday. The 14-year-old is able to communicate through writing and appears to have maintained memory recall, and she stood up for the first time since she was shot in the head by the Taliban last week and then flown to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in England for treatment. The hospital’s medical director said she is not talking yet because she’s still recovering from a procedure that allowed her to breathe through a tube in her neck.

Ain’t no other woman who can take your spot, J. Biel. Justin Timberlake married longtime girlfriend Jessica Biel on Friday in an über-secret spot in southern Italy that even the guests had trouble finding. “It’s great to be married, the ceremony was beautiful and it was so special to be surrounded by our family and friends,” the couple told People in an exclusive statement. Timberlake, 31, proposed to Biel, 30, in Montana back in December after five years of dating, minus a brief period of separation in 2011. But they’ve been inseparable since their engagement and are now officially bound together with a ball and chain.

A massive bomb exploded in a street in central Beirut during rush hour on Friday, killing at least 8 and wounding over 100. Wissam al-Hassan, a major Lebanese security official who led the investigation into former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's death, was killed. Protests errupted in Beruit after the bombing, with many citizens accusing Syrian President Bashar Assad of orchestrating the killing. The bombing occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese citizens on opposite sides of the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Wonder how long it took Obama to come up with this one. The president made a funny Friday at a Virginia campaign event. He's concerned that his Republican opponent's inability to remember things like facts correctly might be the symptoms of a serious condition. Mitt's been "backtracking" and "sidestepping" so much during the election, Obama explained, that perhaps he's suffereing from "Romnesia." Romnesia! Get it? Good, now get used to it. Chances are we haven't heard the last of this clever term. 

After being three hours late to her own concert, Madonna outraged Denver fans on Thursday night when she opened with a violent gun scene to the her song “Gang Bang.” Many of the concert-goers expressed their anger towards her show opener, offended that she chose to use guns in violence in light of the recent events in Aurora, Colo. that left 12 people dead.  Taking to Twitter, one woman tweeted: “Madonna: 3 hours late for Pepsi Center concert with no apology, then proceeds with ‘Bang Bang’ in city plagued with gun violence.”