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U.S. forces move to secure cities and oil fields in the north, attacking the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace and base of power. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says much work remains in Iraq, including recovering prisoners of war, searching for weapons of mass destruction and capturing or accounting for the Iraqi leader. Hear NPR's Scott Horsley.

The nation's largest counterterrorism exercise begins Monday, and it will consist of a mock chemical attack in Connecticut and a biological attack in New Jersey. The five-day drill will test the readiness of federal, state, local and international officials. It's the third such drill, and those who participated in the last one two years ago say it provided some useful lessons.

Probes of the nation's insurance industry widen, as California joins New York in investigating insurance sales practices. California's insurance commissioner plans to ban brokers from steering customers to certain policies in exchange for hidden commissions. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

MetroHealth System announced Wednesday it is implementing a technology that can sterilize approximately 50,000 N95 and KN95 respirator facemasks per day to help with healthcare workers’ personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages. An early intention of the technology was to sterilize ambulances during the Ebola crisis, said MetroHealth’s Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Amy Ray. The technology uses concentrated hydrogen peroxide in a contained area.

The U.N. is warning that Somalia could soon be facing a famine without urgent international action, raising concerns of a repeat of 2011's famine which killed more than a quarter of a million people.

The record number headlined the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' annual "Global Trends" report published Wednesday, just a day before World Refugee Day.

President Trump told the U.N. that the U.S. won't succumb to a global bureaucracy. But other leaders said that working together could solve crises and conflicts.

On the third anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake, the country is laying plans to rid itself of the cholera epidemic that followed in its wake. Most scientists now think Nepalese soldiers unwittingly spread the pathogen in Haiti when they joined a United Nations peacekeeping force.

In 2012, it estimated that the Gaza Strip would be unlivable by 2020. "Gaza's 2 million people are seeing faster and faster decline in their living conditions," says the U.N.'s Gaza Coordinator.

Also: The CDC offers more Zika advice to pregnant women; Saudi Arabia is willing to send troops to Syria; and the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition is in full swing in Wisconsin.