NPR National News

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Karzai At 'End Of The Rope,' Says Witnesses Dispute U.S. Account Of Killings.

-- Soldier Accused Of Massacre 'Just Snapped,' Official Says.

Saying that Sunday's murders of 16 civilians has him at "the end of the rope," Afghan President Hamid Karzai "lashed out at the United States" today, The Associated Press reports.

The student government at the University of California, Irvine voted Thursday night to call for the resignation of Dr. Hazem Chehabi, who is the chairman of its school's foundation. He also serves as the Syrian consul general in California. He is a personal friend of Syria's dictator Bashar Assad.

Consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in February from January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported. The increase — the largest in the past 10 months — was mostly fueled by higher prices for gasoline.

Excluding the food and energy sectors, prices rose 0.1 percent. That's a sign that the so-called core rate of inflation remains in check.

According to BLS:

-- Gas prices spiked 6 percent last month and were up 12.6 percent from February 2011.

While American sports fans focus on college basketball, there's big cricket news that's making headlines in much of the rest of the world:

"Sachin Tendulkar Scores his 100th International Century For India." (BBC News)

If you're trying to determine whether the ground chuck you buy in the grocery store contains so-called pink slime, or lean beef trimmings, you won't find it on the ingredient list. "It's not required to be labeled," explains Don Schaffner, a food scientist at Rutgers University.

If you had defending national champions Connecticut making it out of the first round in your NCAA men's basketball championship bracket, we're sorry to say that the Huskies lost on Thursday to Iowa State by a score of 77-64.

It's not a huge upset, since Iowa State was seeded No. 8 in the South region and Connecticut was seeded No. 9. But still, it's a quick exit for last year's top team.

We're learning more about the U.S. Army staff sergeant accused in Sunday's massacre of 16 Afghan civilians, including women and children:

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: