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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.

Protesters are expected this weekend in Washington, D.C., California and overseas for what's being billed as a last-chance effort to stop a war with Iraq. Anti-war protesters say their views aren't being covered in the news. But supporters of military action say the media is biased against President Bush. NPR's Laura Sydell reports.

Soldiers with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Kuwait are poised for a major ground combat operation in Iraq, and many believe it will come soon. A few woke up in the middle of the night to listen to President Bush's address to the nation. Some expressed relief that the waiting is almost over. But there's also anxiety, according to NPR's Eric Westervelt, who's with Charlie Company of the 315th. He reports that only three of the 150 troops in that company have combat experience.

Suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Iraq leave more than 140 people dead and hundreds wounded in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala. The nearly simultaneous attacks targeted Shiite shrines, where more than 2 million Shiite Muslims -- many of them pilgrims -- had come to observe the holy day of Ashoura. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

About 1,000 U.S. soldiers parachute onto an airfield in an area controlled by Iraqi Kurds in an effort to threaten the Iraqi regime from the north. It's the largest and most public deployment yet of U.S. ground forces in the Kurdish enclave -- and a sign that the United States may be opening a second military front against Baghdad. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

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.

The Pentagon reports U.S. forces are rolling through key areas in Iraq with little sign of Republican Guard units. A week of heavy bombing has weakened some guard divisions, but military officials say they've seen few surrenders. The Pentagon says it's not clear what Iraq's strategy is, and warns again that the toughest fighting lies ahead. Hear NPR's Jennifer Ludden.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair conclude a summit in Northern Ireland. The two say the United Nations will have a "vital role" in postwar Iraq. Bush suggests the role primarily would be humanitarian. But Blair is under pressure from his public and European neighbors to permit a leading U.N. role in governing and rebuilding Iraq. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

In Sri Lanka, remittances sent from abroad constitute the number one source of foreign capital, due in large part to hundreds of thousands of poor rural women who migrate to the Middle East to work as housemaids. The mass migration of women is taking a heavy toll on Sri Lankan family traditions. Sandy Tolan reports.

In the conclusion of a four part series on Wal-Mart, NPR's Scott Horsley reports on labor problems facing the company. As the nation's largest private employer, the company has faced multiple class-action lawsuits from disenchanted employees. Critics say that Wal-Mart's system of reducing labor costs to keep its prices down is short-sighted and ineffectual when less than half of its workers are covered by the company's health plan.