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The U.S. military concedes disappointment with the performance of some U.S.-trained Iraqi units in the wake of widespread attacks by both Sunni and Shiite Muslim insurgents. Chief U.S. administrator Paul Bremer acknowledges that the Iraqi army and civil defense force will not be in a position to control the country when the U.S. hands over sovereignty to an interim government at the end of June. NPR's Anne Garrels reports.

NPR's Melissa Block talks with two high-ranking retired U.S. generals -- Maj. Gen. Robert Scales and Maj. Gen. William Nash -- about the American strategy in Iraq now that fighting has broken out between U.S.-led forces and both Shiite and Sunni Muslim militias.

The Alamo, starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton, was supposed to open last December, but problems with cast and producers delayed it for a spring release. Bob Mondello reviews the historical epic, which opens in theaters Friday.

Amid fighting in several Iraqi cities, an increasing number of foreigners are missing or held hostage by insurgents. Meanwhile, Vice President Cheney goes to Japan as a crisis builds over threats to kill three Japanese who are captive in Iraq. Hear NPR's Philip Reeves and NPR's Rob Gifford.

On Friday, the mother of the youngest of three Japanese hostages being held in Iraq appealed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to withdraw Japanese troops. But Koizumi says he has no intention of withdrawing the troops, and pledges that Japan will do its utmost to rescue the hostages. NPR's Rob Gifford reports from Tokyo.

Taubman is a political science professor at Amherst College and an expert on Russia. This week he received a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of the Russian ruler Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.

The state of Illinois has expressed its "official regret" for the murder of Mormon leader Joseph Smith in 1844. But some say the violence that drove Mormons out of the state was precipitated in large measure by Smith himself. NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

U.S. Marines besiege the Iraqi town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, where crowds mutilated the bodies of four American civilians killed in a roadside attack last Wednesday. The Marines are preparing a new offensive in Fallujah to root out those responsible for the killings. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Eric Niiler of member station KPBS in San Diego.

Jack Miles is a former Jesuit seminarian and literary critic. In 1996 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, God: A Biography. In the book he examines God as a character -- the protagonist -- of the Old Testament. He is currently a contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly, a director of Trinity Press and a senior adviser to the president of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.

U.S. Marines target a mosque complex in the besieged town of Fallujah with rockets and a large bomb, killing at least 25 people and possibly as many as 40. Insurgents were reportedly using the mosque to stage attacks on U.S.-led forces. Hear NPR's Michele Norris and Eric Niiler of member station KPBS, who is with the First Marine Division.