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The State Department confirms reports that Saddam Hussein and his family seized about $1 billion from the Iraqi central bank hours before the start of the U.S.-led invasion. U.S. officials say they are trying to trace the missing cash, which may have helped fund an escape by the Hussein family. NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports.

U.S. forces accidentally open fire on Iraqi police apparently involved in a high-speed car chase, killing at least eight Iraqis and a Jordanian hospital worker. The incident occurs in Fallujah, a hotbed of resistance to U.S. forces. Two U.S. soldiers are killed in a separate incident in a nearby town. Hear NPR's Emily Harris.

Country music legend Johnny Cash dies at 71 due to complications from diabetes. Over a career that spanned six decades, Cash produced such hits as "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire" and earned 11 Grammys. NPR's Melissa Block talks with W.S. Holland, Cash's longtime drummer, about the prison concerts Cash often performed.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Meyers face tough questioning from the Senate Armed Services Committee about the progress of the U.S. mission in Iraq. Senators question the doubling of the mission's cost and the extension of tours of duty for U.S. reservists to one year. Hear NPR's David Welna.

A U.S. soldier is killed in a roadside bombing in Fallujah and another dies in an ambush on a military convoy in Baghdad. As attacks in Iraq continue, U.S.-led forces announce plans to put 28,000 new Iraqi police recruits through intensive training at a U.S. base in Hungary. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson.

Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States will seek a new U.N. Security Council resolution that might convince more countries to contribute troops to stabilization efforts in Iraq. But Powell stresses that the United States has no plans to give up its authority over security operations, as some governments have suggested. Hear NPR's Vicky O'Hara.

U.S. forces capture the former senior Iraqi official known as "Chemical Ali." U.S. officials initially said Ali Hassan al-Majid had died in an April airstrike, but later learned he was still alive. Al-Majid, No. 5 on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis, received his nickname for his alleged role in 1988 poison gas attacks on Iraqi civilians. Hear Ambassador Peter Galbraith.

In an effort to attract more foreign contributions, the Bush administration circulates a draft resolution within the U.N. Security Council that authorizes the creation of a multinational force in Iraq under U.S. command. The cost of the U.S. operation in Iraq continues to mount, and reports suggest the White House will ask Congress for about $60 billion in aid. Hear NPR's Vicky O'Hara.

In White House interviews with Arab television journalists, President Bush calls the reported abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces "abhorrent" and vows to punish those responsible. The interviews were part of an overall White House effort to limit the political damage from a scandal it admits has hurt America's image in the Arab world. Hear NPR's Don Gonyea.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council should be disbanded in favor of a caretaker government that would receive sovereignty from the U.S.-led occupying forces on June 30. Brahimi's plan also calls for Iraqi elections to be held by the end of January 2004. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Anne Garrels.