National News from NPR

"Strange things are happenin' to me" a bewitched Mitt Romney said recently to a crowd of Mississippi supporters. The former Massachusetts governor is right: Strange things do happen to folks, especially national political candidates, when they talk to us Southerners. They start drawling and twanging, trying to sound like us. Sometimes, they're mocking us; sometimes they're just trying to be friendly. We know the difference.

President Bashar Assad's forces have placed landmines "near the borders with Lebanon and Turkey" along routes used by refugees trying to flee the fighting inside Syria, the watchdog group Human Rights Watch reported today.

Saying it has collected "reports and confirmations from witnesses and Syrian deminers," the organization called such actions "unconscionable."

There was a 1.1 percent increase in retail sales in February from January, the Census Bureau says. It was the largest rise in five months, Reuters reports.

And the gain didn't come just become rising gas prices led to a 3.3 percent increase in the value of gasoline sales. According to The Associated Press, retail sales rose 0.8 percent excluding gasoline.

Buford is an old railroad town which was once home to thousands, but now has a population of one. Don Sammons plans to retire from managing his businesses and move. Up for auction next month:a gas station, convenience store, garage and a home.

Pizza chefs from around the world are gathered to compete in events like: largest dough stretch, fastest pizza-box folding and freestyle acrobatic dough-tossing.

(As news comes in from Afghanistan about the killings of 16 civilians, allegedly by a U.S. soldier, we'll update this post.)

There are fears that the killing of 16 Afghan civilians on Sunday, reportedly by a U.S. Army staff sergeant who gunned down the men, women and children in cold blood, will inflame the people of that nation.

Alabama and Mississippi will play an unaccustomed high profile role Tuesday as each candidate for the Republican presidential nomination looks to voters in those states to give his candidacy a boost towards inevitability, if you're Mitt Romney, or just keep their candidacies alive if you're Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich.

Mississippi and Alabama hold Republican primaries Tuesday. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has campaigned lightly in the two states. But former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former House Speaker have both campaigned aggressively there.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with trade moves against China.

What is remarkable is that those who bought bonds will get a tiny rate of return. Renee Montagne talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about what the results mean, who's buying Treasuries and how the borrowed funds are being spent.