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Host Robert Siegel talks with NPR's Guy Raz about Thursday's re-opening of Iraq's criminal courts. An American adviser says Saddam Hussein and top associates in the Baath Party could be put on trial in Iraq. There have been protests in Baghdad -- most recently Wednesday by a group of Iraqi doctors -- against the rehiring of Baath Party members for government posts.

The Defense Department investigates the contents of a trailer it says may have been used as a mobile biological weapons lab. A U.S. official says the trailer, recovered April 19 near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, has all the equipment of a lab, but that preliminary tests have not turned up any evidence of banned biological agents. Hear NPR's Eric Westervelt.

The kitschy, Americanized "tiki" adaptation of island life includes everything from Hawaiian shirts to Hula girls... and don't forget tropical drinks garnished with paper umbrellas. Hundreds of people are gathering under bamboo torches in Palm Springs, Calif., for a third-annual celebration of tiki culture known as the Tiki Oasis. Alex Cohen of member station KQED reports.

The SARS outbreak in Beijing is slowing down, Chinese officials say, dropping from a peak of more than 100 new cases a day to fewer than 50. But officials with the World Health Organization say the outbreak is not under control and say they worry the disease could spread significantly outside the capital city. Hear NPR's Richard Harris.

Reporter John Lawrence in Baghdad says units of the 101st Airborne Division entered Baghdad yesterday fully expecting to go into combat against Iraqi forces in one part of the city. There was no battle, but the troops had their first encounters with Iraqi civilians.

Russian, French and German leaders wind up two days of meetings held to discuss postwar Iraq, and reassert their demands for a leading U.N. role in postwar affairs. But the chief opponents of the U.S.-led war cautiously welcome the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports.

Kurdish commanders say their fighters will withdraw from Kirkuk after working with U.S. forces to gain control of the oil center in northern Iraq. Turkey is uncomfortable with a continued Kurdish presence in Kirkuk. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

U.S. Marines have moved into the Iraqi city of Kut, which fell with little resistance. NPR's Steve Inskeep spent an afternoon at a checkpoint just outside of Kut, where Marines stood guard trying to prevent Iraqi fighters from fleeing the city. The experience at the checkpoint hints at the challenges U.S. forces face now that central authority has collapsed.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says more peacekeeping forces may be needed to maintain order in Iraq. He says no decisions have been made, but suggests other nations may supply some of their own forces to provide security as Iraq moves to form a new government. Hear Dana Priest of The Washington Post.

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Barham Salih, the prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan about the aspirations of the Kurds.