The stock market soared on the news. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 142 points, or nearly 1 percent, after briefly breaking 15,000 for the first time in history.

Coming after a poor March jobs report and some recent data showing economic weakness, the figures helped ease fears that U.S. hiring might be slumping for a fourth straight year. The job market is benefiting from a resurgent housing market, rising consumer confidence and the Federal Reserve’s stimulus actions, which have helped lower borrowing costs and lift the stock market.

“All things considered, 165,000 isn’t the biggest monthly gain in payrolls you’ll ever see, but it’s enough to assuage concerns that the economy had stalled again,” said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.

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Family of bombing suspect arranges for funeral as investigators seek more clues near college

BOSTON (AP) — The family of slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was making arrangements Friday for his funeral as investigators searched the woods near the college attended by his younger brother and alleged accomplice.

A funeral parlor in Worcester that is familiar with Muslim services said it will handle arrangements for Tsarnaev, whose body was released by the state medical examiner Thursday night.

The body was taken initially to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters. Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of their death and he is prepared for protests.

Tsarnaev, 26, died three days after the bombing in a furious getaway attempt in which authorities say he and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago, killed an MIT campus police officer and tossed home-made bombs and grenades at police. The younger brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ran over his brother’s body as he drove away from the scene to escape, authorities have said.

The medical examiner had yet to release the cause of death, pending the filing of a death certificate.

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Sectarian shadow hangs over latest reported mass killing in Syria’s civil war

BEIRUT (AP) — The bodies of the Syrian boys and young men in jeans and casual shirts were strewn along a blood-stained pavement, dying apparently where they fell. Weeping women moved among the dead, and one of them screamed, “Where are you, people of the village?”

In the Syrian civil war’s latest alleged mass killing, activists said Friday that regime troops and gunmen from nearby Alawite areas beat, stabbed and shot at least 50 people in the Sunni Muslim village of Bayda.

The slayings highlighted in the starkest terms the sectarian overtones of a conflict that has already killed more than 70,000 people. Details of the killings came to light as the Obama administration said it was again weighing whether to arm the rebels.

Syria’s 2-year-old crisis has largely broken along sectarian lines: the Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while President Bashar Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime’s security services and military officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime’s fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.

The killings in Bayda fall against this backdrop. Tucked in the mountains outside the Mediterranean coastal city of Banias, the village is predominantly Sunni but is located in the Alawite ancestral heartland centered in the rugged region along the sea.

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In Costa Rica, Obama prodding Central American leaders to act vigorously against drug violence

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday cast Mexico as a nation ready to take “its rightful place in the world” and move past the drug battles and violence that have defined its relationship with the United States. He then headed to Costa Rica to prod Central American leaders to tackle those same issues more aggressively.

Obama’s three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica is his first to Latin America since winning a second presidential term in an election in which he gained the support of Hispanic Americans by a large margin. His trip is being followed with great interest by Hispanics in the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Central America and farther to the south.

In Mexico in particular, he tried to set a new course for ties between the U.S. and its southern neighbor, eagerly promoting Mexico’s improving economy and its democracy.

“A new Mexico is emerging,” Obama told a crowd of young people during a speech at Mexico City’s grand National Museum of Anthropology. “Mexico is also taking its rightful place in the world, on the world stage. Mexico is standing up for democracy not just here in Mexico but throughout the hemisphere. Mexico’s sharing expertise with neighbors across the Americas. When they face earthquakes or threats to their citizens or go to the polls to cast their votes, Mexico is there helping its neighbors.”

Despite Obama’s rosy portrayal, Mexico’s high poverty rates have barely budged in recent years. Its economy grew by only about a 1 percent rate in the first three months of 2013 and is not creating anywhere near the 1 million jobs annually it needs to employ young Mexicans entering the workforce. Without jobs or opportunities to study, many young people have become easier prey for recruitment by drug cartels.

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Incoming NRA president: Members fighting ‘culture war’ that goes deeper than gun rights

HOUSTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention Friday with a warning to its member they are engaged in a “culture war” that stretches beyond gun rights, further ramping up emotions surrounding the gun control debate.

NRA First Vice President James Porter, who will assume the organization’s presidency Monday, issued a full-throated challenge to President Barack Obama in the wake of a major victory regarding gun control and called on members to dig in for a long fight that will stretch into the 2014 elections.

More than 70,000 NRA members are expected to attend the three-day convention amid the backdrop of the national debate over gun control and the defeat of a U.S. Senate bill introduced after December’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. A small gathering of gun control supporters were outside of the convention in Houston.

Porter’s remarks came in a short speech to about 300 people at a grass-roots organizing meeting and set the tone for a “Stand and Fight”-themed convention that is part gun trade show, political rally and strategy meeting.

“This is not a battle about gun rights,” Porter said, calling it “a culture war.”

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AP PHOTOS: Wildfire churns across Southern California, homes evacuated

A California wildfire carving a path to the sea grew to more than 15 square miles as crews prepared for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather.

Here’s a look at the wildfires spreading across Southern California.

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Solar-powered airplane leaves Northern California on first leg of trip to several US cities

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — A solar-powered airplane left Northern California on Friday for the first leg of a planned cross-country trip that its co-pilot described as a “milestone” in aviation history.

The Solar Impulse — considered the world’s most-advanced sun-powered plane — left Moffett Field in Mountain View just after dawn. Its creators said the trip is the first attempt by a solar airplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across America.

It plans to land at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas, Lambert-St. Louis airport, Dulles airport in the Washington area and New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. Each flight leg will take about 19 to 25 hours, with 10-day stops in each city.

“All the big pioneers of the 20th century have tried to fly coast to coast across America,” said co-pilot and one of the plane’s founders, Bertrand Piccard. “So now today we’re trying to do this, but on solar power with no fuel with the first airplane that is able to fly day and night just on solar power.”

The plane is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries.

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No sweat needed: Mild to moderate exercise can cut women’s risk for kidney stones, study finds

Women have another reason to exercise: It may help prevent kidney stones. You don’t have to break a sweat or be a super athlete, either. Even walking for a couple hours a week can cut the risk of developing this painful and common problem by about one-third, a large study found.

“Every little bit makes a difference” and the intensity doesn’t matter — just getting a minimum amount of exercise does, said Dr. Mathew Sorensen of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

He led the study, which was to be discussed Friday at an American Urological Association conference in San Diego.

About 9 percent of people will get a kidney stone sometime in their life. The problem is a little more common in men, but incidence has risen 70 percent over the last 15 years, most rapidly among women.

Obesity raises the risk as do calcium supplements, which many women take after menopause. A government task force recently advised against supplements for healthy older women, saying that relatively low-dose calcium pills don’t do much to keep bones strong but make kidney stones more likely.

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Reese Witherspoon pleads no contest, pays fine after Ga. arrest caught on dash-cam video

ATLANTA (AP) — Reese Witherspoon pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge and paid a $100 fine after berating a state trooper in Atlanta while her husband was given a sobriety test, an embarrassing exchange caught on a dashboard camera after the usually squeaky-clean Hollywood star had what she called “one too many” glasses of wine.

The video, which was first obtained by TMZ and publicly released by authorities Friday, shows Witherspoon asking the Georgia state trooper after she was placed in custody, “Do you know my name?” and then adding, “You’re about to find out who I am.”

Witherspoon’s lively exchange with the trooper had already been outlined in a police report, but the video offered a rare glimpse at the actress unfiltered. Witherspoon, an Oscar-winning actress who has built a wholesome professional image, apologized shortly after her arrest, saying she was “deeply embarrassed.”

Municipal Court of Atlanta Deputy Solicitor Ronda Graham said in a statement that Witherspoon entered the plea and paid the fine, resolving the case.

During an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday, Witherspoon said she panicked and said “all kinds of crazy things,” including falsely claiming that she was pregnant at one point. She said during the interview that she had too much to drink before her arrest.

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5 things to know Saturday at the 139th Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Derby is Saturday at Churchill Downs. Here are five things you should know:

TODD’S SQUAD

Trainer Todd Pletcher will saddle a record-tying five horses — Verrazano, Revolutionary, Palace Malice, Overanalyze and Charming Kitten. He first tried it in 2007, when his best finish was sixth. His only win came in 2010 when he entered four and won with Super Saver.