Bahston: Mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was described by the prosecution as a “hands on killer’ in opening statements of Bulger’s federal trial on 19 counts of murder. Bulger raked in millions as head of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, and is believed to have carried on his criminal life even while acting as an informer for the FBI. He disappeared and lived in hiding for 16 years after an FBI agent told him he was about to be indicted. Bulger’s lawyer denies his client was an informer.

National: The head of the National Security Agency told a Senate hearing that the massive secret collection of Americans’ telephone data had thwarted “dozens” of terror plots. Army Gen. Keith Alexander said the NSA collects data and keeps it for five years, but doesn’t search it unless looking for a terrorist connection. Edward Snowden, the contract computer technician who revealed who revealed the program known as PRISM, is still in hiding in Hong Kong. He told the South China Morning Post that the US has been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and Mainland China since 2009.

• A 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl, whose family challenged the 12-year-old age restriction for receiving an adult lung transplant, had surgery and received a pair of adult lungs. Sarah Murnaghan was in the end stage of cystic fibrosis when her parents pleaded for her to be given adult lungs, which are more frequently available. Her case might change rules that make it harder for children in some cases to get transplanted organs.

World: Pope Francis has caused a Catholic controversy, saying in a private audience that he thinks there is a “gay lobby” operating within the Vatican. A summary of the meeting quotes the Pope as having said in Spanish, “There is a stream of corruption, there is that as well, it is true … the ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there. We need to see what we can do.”

• The United Nations says 93,000 people have died in Syria’s civil war. That’s an additional 30,000 deaths since the last report in November.  

Rainbow Babies: The Census Bureau says half the children under 5 in the US are minorities. Whites are rapidly sliding to minority status.

The Obit Page: NASCAR driver Jason Leffler was killed in an accident during a qualifying heat on a dirt track at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey. He was 37. Leffler twice won the NASCAR Nationwide series.

Hot Ice: The first game of the Stanley Cup finals went into triple overtime with relentless end-to-end action between the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago finished it 4-3 after 112 minutes and 32 seconds of play, making it the fifth longest game in Stanley Cup history.

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