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President Bush installs John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, making a recess appointment to circumvent the Senate, where Democrats blocked approval of the nominee. Bolton will be able to serve until a new Congress forms in 2007.

The Turkish Parliament is expected to pass a measure Thursday that permits U.S. military aircraft to fly over Turkish soil on deployment to Iraq. Washington meanwhile urges Turkey to keep its forces out of northern Iraq once fighting begins. The White House fears a Turkish incursion could lead to clashes with Iraqi-Kurdish fighters. NPR's Guy Raz reports.

Over several years in the 1990s, U.S. forces had an idea of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts but did not attack because of doubts about the accuracy of intelligence, according to testimony and documents gathered by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. Officials involved were also reportedly concerned about killing innocent bystanders. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports.

France, Russia, Germany and China call for major revisions to the draft resolution on the future of Iraq currently before the U.N. Security Council. The nations want the resolution to include a clear timetable for withdrawing international troops from Iraq and to give the Iraqi interim government total control over security. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Vicky O'Hara.

U.S. officials confirm the FBI is investigating whether Ahmad Chalabi told Iranian agents that the United States had broken their country's communications code. Chalabi, a formerly exiled Iraqi leader now back in Baghdad, provided the United States with details, now discredited, about Saddam Hussein's weapons program. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports.

This week, U.S. intelligence agencies produced a new assessment of the violence in Iraq and the chances for political reconciliation there. The last National Intelligence Estimate in February said the security situation in Iraq was dire and getting worse. The latest report says it could "continue to improve modestly."

Militants kidnap an American and a Nepalese man in the same upscale Baghdad district from which two Americans and a Briton were seized last month. The men work for a Saudi firm that supplies U.S. forces. At least a dozen American civilians are being held or are missing in Iraq. Hear Washington Post reporter Karl Vick and NPR's Renee Montagne.

The Senate Intelligence Committee hears testimony about reforming U.S. intelligence services, weeks after it released a report criticizing the agencies. Committee chairman Pat Roberts said the hearings were the beginning of a major re-examination of how the CIA and other intelligence organizations should work. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Mary Louise Kelly.

U.S. troops and Iraqi forces storm into the center of Najaf in what Marine commanders are calling a final push to crush a rebellion by supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The cleric and hundreds of his followers are believed to be inside the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Ivan Watson.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns Syria and Iran to stay out of the war in neighboring Iraq. Rumsfeld accuses Syria of shipping military gear to Iraqi forces, an allegation Syria's foreign ministry called "unfounded." Rumsfeld also warns Iraqi exiles entering the country from Iran that they will be treated as "combatants" if they join the fighting. Hear NPR's Scott Horsley.