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The Israeli Cabinet voted overnight to expand ground operations in southern Lebanon. Israel Radio reported that the number of ground troops in Lebanon will more than double. Despite growing international calls for a cease-fire, Israeli officials say the offensive against Hezbollah could last for weeks.

About 10,000 Israeli troops are now fighting across a wide stretch of southern Lebanon in an expanding offensive. Hezbollah struck back Wednesday with one of the heaviest rocket barrages of the three-week-old war. At least 150 rockets hit Israel, killing one.

The center of New Orleans has plenty of broken windows and flying debris, but it is largely empty of people, as Hurricane Katrina makes its way inland. The system came ashore as a Category Four storm Monday morning east of New Orleans.

The first 400 recruits for the new Iraqi army begin basic training under U.S. supervision at a base east of Baghdad. The recruits are under heavy guard for fear that Iraqi resistance fighters might attack. U.S. officials say they hope to have a division of 12,000 troops within a year. NPR's Anne Garrels reports.

Months before war in Iraq began, there was a fierce turf battle in Washington, D.C., over who would write the final script for the nation's reconstruction: the State Department or the Pentagon. The Pentagon won, but the political fallout hurt U.S. efforts to restore postwar order. NPR's Jacki Lyden reports.

The U.N. Security Council approves a U.S.-backed resolution that recognizes the creation of an interim governing council in postwar Iraq and mandates a formal U.N. mission to provide humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people. Syria, the only Arab member of the council, abstains from the vote. Hear NPR's Vicky O'Hara.

Israeli army and police work to evict Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. Settlers and Jewish protesters resisted the eviction in many places, but a number of the settlements are now empty, and Israeli officials say the operation is going more quickly than expected.

Iraq's National Assembly votes to extend its deadline to draft a constitution by one week. The extension was agreed to after Kurdish leaders requested more time; feverish last-minute talks failed to resolve contentious issues, from the role of Islamic law to regional autonomy.

The Base Closure and Relocation Commission approves the closure of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The commission is considering hundreds of other Pentagon recommendations, including closing Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

Katrina, which first struck Florida last week as a tropical storm, is now a powerful Category 5 hurricane churning in the Gulf of Mexico, pointed at New Orleans. Eric Blake of the National Weather Service updates Liane Hansen on the storm's progress.