By REUTERS
BEIRUT - Syrian troops shelled villages, fired across frontiers and were accused of massacres in the hours before a deadline on Tuesday that many doubt can usher in a UN-brokered ceasefire and halt a 13-month slide into all-out civil war.In Damascus, President Bashar Assad said nothing on Monday about whether he would honor his undertaking to start withdrawing government forces from urban areas on April 10 - a deadline that diplomats say appears to give him until midnight Syrian time, or 2100 GMT, on Tuesday to comply.Shlomo Karhi instructs to return confiscated AP equipment