From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Raum.

Activists in Syria say government forces are shelling rebel-held towns across the country today. They say at least 74 civilians have been killed. The BBC's Jim Muir is monitoring events from Beirut.

There has been in many areas, but specifically Latamneh, the north of Damascus, where there was very heavily shelling apparently, they are calling it a massacre. Now more than 50 killed tough. Activists uploaded onto Youtube video which does show large numbers of bodies being piled into pickup trucks and driven off and then a funeral, very emotional, many many people gathered there and a young toddler dead, being held aloft by the crowd. Other bodies waiting to be buried lined up in shrouds on the ground. The BBC's Jim Muir reporting from Beirut.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to a ceasefire starting Thursday. Activists speculate he is trying to get rid of as many rebels as possible before the truce.

An avalanche struck a Pakistani army base in the Himalayan today. Officials say at least 100 soldiers are buried in the snow. It struck a glacier in the Kashmir region near the Indian boarder, a territory claimed by both countries. Both Pakistan and India stationed thousands of troops there, and they skirmished from time to time, but not since a ceasefire in 2003. More soldiers have dead from the hash weather than combat. With viciously cold temperatures and high winds that last for months at a time.

Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma are investigating a string of shootings which they say may have been racially motivated. From member station KOSU, Michael Cross reports all those shot were African-Americans and witnesses have identified a suspect.

African-American leaders in Tulsa are trying to keep the calm as police in FBI agents looking to the separate shootings which left three people dead and two wounded. Witnesses have described the shooter as a white man in a white van. Investigators say the attacks might be linked because they happened in quick succession within three miles of one another and all five victims were out walking when they were shot. It also appears that the victims didn't know each other. Tulsa NAACP president  Warren Blakney senior met with leaders in the community Friday night and says he is on edge for his people as someone appears to be targeting black people to shoot. For NPR News, I'm Michael Cross, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

Officials in Virginia Beach, Virginia, say they have counted for all the residents of an apartment complex where a navy fighter jet crashed yesterday. Nobody died. Admiral John Harvey credits the people at the crash site for the luck of fatalities.

It was citizens that dragged our aircrew to safety out of the fire zone. It was citizens who stepped up and helped move those hoses. It was citizens who evacuated the other inhabitants of the apartment complex and got that going and saved them from the fires that went through those buildings.

At least seven people were injured including the two pilots.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Investigators say they suspect dissident Irish nationalists planted a bomb near the main Dublin-to-Belfast highway yesterday. A bomb disposal team removed the device which police say could have caused fatalities. It was found on Good Friday on the anniversary of the 1998 peace agreement designed to end 30 years of sectarian violence in northern Ireland.

Coup leaders in Mali have agreed to step aside and hand power back to civilians. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from the capital.

Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo who holds Mali's military junta announced the agreement on a civilian transition. Sanogo says Mali's parliamentary speaker was stepping as the interim head of state, leading up to Democratic elections though he didn't say when. Regional leader, **, Faso's foreign minister, has confirmed that Mali's neighbors will immediately lift crippling sanctions imposed on the junta. Djibrill Bassole says considering the grave humanitarian crisis, victims of the rebellion in northern Mali as well as many displaced people and refugees are to receive emergency assistance. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Bamako.

Artist Thomas Kinkade died yesterday. A family spokesman said he died at his home in the San Francisco Bay area. No call was given, but the spokesman said, appeared to be from natural causes. Kinkade was 54. His paintings focused on ideal like landscapes, cottages and churches. The draw-devoted ** dismissed by many art critics. Kinkade claimed to be the most collected living artist in the US, fetching some 100 million dollars in sales every year.

I'm Nora Raum, NPR News, in Washington.