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Key developments Saturday in the war in Iraq:

American forces agreed to team up with Iraqi police to stem widespread looting that included the trashing of the nation's flagship museum, as Iraqis increasingly expressed anger at U.S. troops for not stopping the disorder.

A Marine task force headed north from Baghdad to engage Iraqi military and was expected to move on Tikrit, President Saddam Hussein's hometown. In the west, coalition troops took an airfield and the 4th Infantry Division moved into southern Iraq from Kuwait.

Saddam Hussein's science adviser surrendered to U.S. military authorities, becoming the first of the 55 most wanted Iraqi figures in coalition custody. He insisted that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

A wild firefight outside a Baghdad hotel and the threat of suicide bombings kept American soldiers busy putting down armed resistance in the capital. Elsewehere in Baghdad, a Marine at a checkpoint was killed by a gunman carrying Syrian identity papers.

British forces have seized 250 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons believed to have been stored for suicide bombers in Basra, according to British pool reports.

More than 40 vests stuffed with explosives and ball-bearings were found by U.S. Marines at a Baghdad school along with empty hangers suggesting that potential suicide bombers might be wearing the vests.

U.S. forces stopped a bus with 59 men of military age who had $630,000 in cash and a letter offering rewards for killing American soldiers. Military officials said the bus was headed for Syria.

Jessica Lynch, the soldier rescued in a daring commando raid in Iraq, returned to the United States to recover from her injuries at an Army medical center.

American and Kurdish forces appeared to bring some measure of calm to Mosul, but sporadic gunfire and arson blazes continued.

24,000 pounds of medical supplies landed at Baghdad's international airport for hospitals in Baghdad.

In his weekly radio address, President Bush spoke of Iraqi children kissing Marines and possible difficult fighting ahead.

The Navy is seeking to send home, within days, two of the three aircraft carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf. Each carrier has about 80 planes aboard, including 50 strike aircraft.

Finance officials from the seven richest industrial countries agreed to support a new U.N. Security Council resolution to rebuild Iraq and promised to begin talks on reducing Iraq's massive foreign debt burden.

The Jordanian government said military gear and ammunition from Jordan found in Iraq by coalition forces is from the 1980s, when the kingdom supported their neighbor in its war against Iran.

Police were on heightened alert for possible anti-Semitic acts as 11,000 protesters marched through Paris on Saturday demanding the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Iraq.

Even as the war with Iraq winds down, protesters in the United States and abroad renewed their campaign against the conflict.

photo credit and caption:

Two elderly men talk as items that were taking from looters burn in the street in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, Saturday, April 12, 2003. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

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