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Olympic skier Bogdana Matsotskas was scheduled to compete on Friday, but she withdrew after unrest in Ukraine took a violent turn. She hopes her absence from the slopes will draw attention home.

Ukraine's parliament has voted to push the president from power. NPR's Scott Simon gets an update from correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Kiev.

American volcanologist Kayla Iacovino trekked last year to Mount Paektu, an active volcano in North Korea. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Iacovino about her work in the secretive country.

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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. After threats that they would not take place, hundreds of South Koreans are traveling to North Korea to meet with relatives six decades after their separation following the Korean War. The reunions went ahead despite tensions caused by the north's nuclear tests and the south's determination to conduct military exercises with the U.S. that begin on Monday.

Call it a new twist on the old "teach a man to fish" adage. A group in Vancouver, British Columbia, is teaching inveterate alcoholics to brew their own beer and make their own wine, in an attempt to keep them from drinking unsafe liquids to get an alcoholic high.

Germany's Sochi 2014 contingent is reeling from the news that Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, a former Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing who took fourth place in the biathlon Monday, has tested positive for banned substances at the Sochi Winter Olympics. An Italian athlete also tested positive, officials said Friday.

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An uneasy calm settled over Kiev today since opposition leaders signed a peace deal with Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovych. But after three days of fighting left scores of people dead, protesters are still trying to decide if the deal is worth the sacrifice. Despite their demands, Yanukovych remains in place, although there will be early elections.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel. What does it mean when the wolf cries wolf? Timothy Snyder poses that question, referring to leaders and propagandists in Ukraine and Russia, who denounced the protestors in Kiev's Independence Square as fascists. Snyder is a Yale historian who writes about Ukraine in a forthcoming issue of the New York Review of Books, and he joins us now from Vienna. Welcome to the program.

There's another big breaking story from Ukraine, where earlier today an agreement was reached to hopefully end what in recent days had been a deadly series of clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces:

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been in jail since 2011 on what her supporters say were trumped-up charges aimed at silencing one of President Viktor Yanukovych critics, may soon be free again.

Eighteen-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin has lived up to her reputation as the pre-race favorite by winning the gold medal in women's slalom at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

There's cautious optimism in Ukraine and the West on Friday at news that President Viktor Yanukovych has agreed to hold new elections, form a unity government and restore a constitution drafted in 2004. But the mood in Moscow may not be as optimistic.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. We'd like to start the program today talking about two disturbing situations from two different parts of the world that have been very much in the news this week. There are the violent protests in Ukraine that have been going on all week. More than 70 people have died there. And while the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders have reached an agreement to end the violence, tensions are still very high there.

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Good morning, I'm David Greene.

Australian police think they know what happened to a rare pink diamond that's worth $180,000. The diamond was swiped from a jewelry store by a man who fled on a bicycle. Based on fingerprints and surveillance footage, police arrested the guy, who's a British tourist. They're pretty sure he swallowed the loot but they need firm evidence. And X-ray was inconclusive. Think there's a pretty clear solution here - what goes in must come out. How about a little bit of patience?

Eighteen-year-old American Mikaela Shiffrin is the favorite in Friday's women's slalom at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Three other Americans are also in the field of 88.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia is on a Middle East tour. From Cairo, Kaine talks to Steve Inskeep about U.S. aid to Egypt and what he's observing as the country sets out on a path to democracy.

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Now as Soraya just mentioned, we'll have to wait to see if Ukrainians who are part of this protest movement side with the opposition leaders and agree to this deal. It is worth remembering that Ukraine, in terms of history and language, is really split in two - the eastern Russian-speaking half looks to Russia. The western Ukrainian-speaking region, which is once part of Poland, feels much closer to Europe. And people in the west are more often opposed to President Yanukovych.

The office of president Viktor Yanukovich says a deal has been reached with opposition leaders to stop the violence in the capital Kiev. Scores of people have died in two days of clashes.

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In Ukraine, protesters and police clash today in the worst violence yet during the three-month old uprising against President Viktor Yanukovych. A flurry of diplomatic visits to Kiev and the EU's threat of sanctions have failed to slow the carnage. At least 100 people are reported dead after two days of fighting. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Kiev covering the crisis.

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Russia's president is also being criticized by Ukrainian-Americans watching the violent confrontations going on in their home country. Ukrainians in the U.S. tend to side with those protesting in Kiev's independent square. They're angry that President Viktor Yanukovych chose a closer relationship with Russia over a deal with the EU.

The Philadelphia area is home to more than 55,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry. NPR's Jeff Brady reports the community is holding rallies and lobbying their members of Congress.

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The Winter Games in Sochi have focused world attention on Russia in the age of Putin: huge state expenditures, contracts that benefit the president's cronies, complaints about shoddy workmanship, controversy over Russia's treatment of gays and lesbians.

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Now, to Cairo where the spotlight is on an important case in the government's crackdown on press freedoms. Three jailed journalists for the al-Jazeera English channel were taken to their first court hearing today. Their arrest nearly two months ago has been denounced by rights groups. As NPR's Leila Fadel reports, they were denied bail today in a short but dramatic appearance.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

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And I'm Robert Siegel. We begin this hour with Syria. Peace talks have stalled and with no clear path forward, all sides are, once again, digging in. A look at Lebanon's Hezbollah reveals how the region is primed for war. Its fighters are giving pivotal help to the Syrian regime. NPR's Alice Fordham is in Lebanon and reports on why a group founded on resisting Israeli occupation has embraced the war next door.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Earlier today, we spoke with another protester at Independence Square, known locally as Maidan Square. Viktor Andrusiv has been part of the protest movement from the day it started last November. We reached Andrusiv just hours after he says one of his friends was killed by police. I asked him what happened.

VIKTOR ANDRUSIV: Actually, we still are trying to find out. But he was attacking the police and he has a lot of wounds from a gun.

SIEGEL: A lot of bullet wounds?

Two self-styled amateur archeologists from Germany, who filmed themselves scraping off pieces of Egypt's Great Pyramid in hopes of proving that the ancient wonder was built by people from the legendary city of Atlantis, are now facing possible criminal charges in their home country.

During a trip to Egypt in April 2013, Dominque Goerlitz and Stephan Erdmann, along with a German filmmaker, were granted access to parts of the Great Pyramid at Giza that are normally off-limits to the public. They smuggled their samples back to Germany with plans to produce a documentary.

Feeli the Finnish reindeer,

Had some very shiny horns ...

OK, we'll stop there.

Here's the news:

"Herders in Lapland are spraying their reindeer with reflective paint to help drivers see them in the dark," the BBC writes.