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More American paratroopers arrive in northern Iraq as Kurdish fighters seize positions abandoned by Iraqi paramilitary forces. The Kurds say they're within 15 miles of the oil city of Kurkuk. The Kurdish advance follows heavy U.S. bombing of the area. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

British troops exchange artillery fire with Iraqi militia forces near the southern city of Basra, amid reports of a possible uprising against the Iraqi government in the country's second-largest city. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Congress is expected to approve President Bush's $75-billion request to fund the war in Iraq, but the House and Senate must reconcile differences over the size of a proposed tax cut. The House passed the president's package, worth $726 billion over 10 years. But the war's growing price tag makes the Senate reluctant to sign off on the entire amount. NPR's David Welna reports.

There was more fierce fighting today around the central Iraqi city of An Najaf, about 100 miles south of the capital of Baghdad. U.S. forces with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division have all but surrounded the city, and are slowly eliminating the Iraqi military and paramilitary resistance there. NPR's Eric Westervelt, embedded with the 3rd Infantry, reports on the fierce battle to gain control of the city -- site of a holy Shi'ite shrine.

U.S. military officials reject reports that Iraqi resistance is stalling the drive to Baghdad, or slowing allied supplies. At a news briefing in Qatar, Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart says "there's no pause on the battlefield." In Nasiriyah, U.S. Marines defending two key bridges against Iraqi resistance shift tactics and push into the city. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan identifies Saturday's suicide car bomber as an Iraqi army officer and says such attacks are now "routine military policy." Four U.S. troops died in the attack near the central Iraq city of Najaf. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep.

The Supreme Court hears arguments on two related lawsuits that challenge a policy at the University of Michigan that considers race in admitting new students. The cases test whether the university is allowed to discriminate because it values diversity in its student body, or whether discrimination is only justified to reverse past racial injustice. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

As the siege of Baghdad nears, the city mysteriously plunges into darkness in the first widespread power outage since the war began. Streets are empty, and southern and western roads out of the city are blocked. Iraq's information ministry maintains U.S. forces aren't within 100 miles of capital. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels.

A U.S. military official says 11 bodies -- some of them believed to be Americans -- were found with prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital. Lynch was one of 15 Army solders in a convoy that made a wrong turn near Nasiriyah on March 23. NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Navy Captain Frank Thorp.

International aid agencies bracing for a flow of refugees out of Iraq see the opposite. Officials in Jordan say few are leaving Iraq. Instead, thousands of Iraqi exiles are leaving Jordan to return home. NPR's Jackie Northam reports.