National and World News from NPR

A shooting spree that left three African-Americans dead in Oklahoma and the death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin have renewed public debate about hate crime laws. Host Michel Martin speaks with law professor and former federal prosecutor Paul Butler about hate crime statutes and whether they're necessary.

As he's been reporting for NPR.org in recent months, Alan Greenblatt has noticed something unusual: he's increasingly being asked to prove who he is and that he is, in fact, a journalist. Here's what he found when he started to ask why that's happening:

How many people would bother to impersonate a reporter? Enough, apparently, to cause some government officials to do preliminary background checks on people to whom they grant interviews.

Most pitchers in the majors stick to fastballs, curveballs, sliders and change-ups when facing batters at the plate.

But not New York Mets right-hander R.A. Dickey. Dickey is currently the only knuckleball pitcher in a current rotation. At 37, he's also one of the older pitchers in the league and has seen his career — and life — mimic the erratic trajectory of the difficult pitch he throws game after game.

Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has been suspended without pay for five games, effective immediately, as the firestorm continues over his comment to Time magazine last week that "I love Fidel Castro."

Now there's fresh evidence that CT scans to detect early lung cancer belong on the short list of effective cancer screening technologies — at least for people at high risk.

Researchers conclude that spiral CT, which makes 3-D pictures of lungs, could reduce lung cancer deaths by 35 percent at a cost of $19,000 to $26,000 per year of life saved.

Wireless providers have agreed to create a national database of stolen cellphones that it is hoped will make the devices somewhat less tempting to thieves.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and a group of lawmakers and law enforcement officials are set to announce outlines of the plan at 10 a.m. ET.

The key moment in the manhunt for suspects in a murder spree that terrorized African-Americans in Tulsa, Okla., came Saturday morning when a tip was called in to the city's Crime Stoppers hotline, the Tulsa World says.

On this day when a U.N.-brokered cease-fire was supposed to go into effect in Syria, "activists reported military attacks on two towns ... even as the government claimed its military forces have begun pulling out" of some areas, The Associated Press reports.

The BBC says: