World: Syrian state television reports that Israeli rockets struck a military research center in Damascus. Israel has not claimed responsibility, but did admit attacking a shipment of missiles inside Syria Friday. Also in Syria, pro-government forces have killed at least 62 people, many of them women and children, in the Syrian coastal town of Banias according to reports from the area. Pictures posted on social media show burned and bloody bodies. This comes in addition to an apparent massacre in nearby Baida earlier in the week in which 50 people were reported dead. President Obama said this past week that it is unlikely the US will introduce ground forces to help topple the Syrian regime.

 > The widow of a garment worker has filed a murder complaint against the owner of the collapsed factory building in Bangladesh. The death toll is now 622. The owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, could be executed if found guilty.  

 National: Five women died when the limousine they were riding in burst into flames as it crossed the San Mateo Bridge southeast of San Francisco last night. Four other women and the male driver escaped.

 Boom, Boom Room: Speaking to the NRA convention in Houston yesterday, Executive Wayne LaPierre asked how many Bostonians had wished they owned a gun two weeks ago when the two Boston Marathon bombers were on the loose. LaPierre claimed the NRA grew by a million members to 5 million since the Newtown School shooting. “The gun lobby – that’s you,” he told the convention. “With our liberties at stake, we trump the billionaires, the media and the politicians every time.”

 Not To Be: Jockey Kevin Krigger finished a disappointing 17^th in his bid to be the first black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby since 1902. Rosie Napravnik, who was hoping to be the first female winner, finished 6th. On the bright side, a horse named Orb beat the muddy track to become the first Derby winner for 62-year-old trainer “Shug” McGaughey.

 Revelation: The cleaning of a 15^th Century fresco in the Vatican has revealed what may be one of the first European paintings of North American Indians.  It was painted just two years after Christopher Columbus visited the New World.

 Slow Disaster: Parts of Florida are battling an infestation of giant African snails that grow to be over eight inches and eat stucco. Calcium in the stucco helps them build their shells. Authorities have collected 118,000 of them, but a mature snail produces thousands of offspring a year.

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