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job, all eligible cardinals are expected to participate in the conclave. So far, only two of the 117 qualified "princes" of the church have begged off -- a seriously ill Indonesian cardinal and a Scottish cardinal who acknowledged sexually inappropriate conduct.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans controlling the House are moving to take the roughest edges off across-the-board spending cuts that are just starting to take effect.
• Even as the military would bear a $43 billion cut over just seven months, the new GOP measure released Monday would give the Pentagon much-needed funding for readiness. It would also ease the pain felt by critical agencies like the FBI and the Border Patrol.
• The effort is part of a huge spending measure released Monday that would fund day-to-day federal operations through September -- and head off a potential government shutdown later this month.
• The measure would leave in place automatic cuts of 5 percent to domestic agencies and 7.8 percent to the Pentagon ordered Friday by President Barack Obama after months of battling with Republicans over the budget. But the House Republicans' legislation would award the Defense Department its detailed 2013 budget while other agencies would be frozen in place at 2012 levels.
• The unprecedented across-the-board cuts would then be applied to the day-to-day budgets of every federal agency except Veterans Affairs, which is exempt from them.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote on President Barack Obama's pick to lead the CIA after weeks of wrangling with the White House over access to top-secret information about the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
• The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the panel would move ahead Tuesday with John Brennan's nomination to lead the spy agency

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