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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 16, 2003

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-- U.S. special forces raided the Baghdad home of microbiologist Rihab Taha, nicknamed ``Dr. Germ,'' who ran Iraq's secret biological laboratory. Troops brought out boxes of documents and three men with their hands up. Taha's whereabouts weren't immediately known

-- Looters defied the launch of joint U.S.-Iraqi police patrols and ransacked food from a major Baghdad warehouse complex Wednesday. Elsewhere in the city, residents went shopping or sat in cafes, signs that life was slowly returning to normal.

-- A Marine patrol passing the Iraqi National Bank caught armed robbers and recovered $3.6 million in U.S. currency. Other Marines conducted raids, sometimes accompanied by Iraqi police, to secure infrastructure sites

-- Iraqis from a number of different factions -- exiles, Shiites, Sunnis, tribal leaders -- began discussions Tuesday in the ancient city of Ur on the shape of a future government. They agreed that Iraq should be democratic and will meet again in 10 days.

-- U.S. officials announced that Abul Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985, had been captured in a commando raid in Baghdad.

-- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, warned that Iraqi chemical or biological weapons could still fall into the hands of terrorists.

-- In northern Iraq, U.S. officers tried to determine details of an armed confrontation in the city of Mosul in which 10 people were reportedly killed. The New York Times quoted Iraqis as saying Marines fired into a crowd of civilians, but Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that was not true.

-- Ali Ismaeel Abbas, a 12-year-old boy who lost both his arms in a missile explosion and became a symbol of Iraqi war suffering, arrived at a hospital in Kuwait City.

-- U.S. officials say the seven American POWs rescued Sunday in Iraq are now inseparable and want to stay together as they undergo medical treatment in Kuwait. No word yet on when any of them might go home.