The Associated Press

As the United States and Britain pushed into Iraq, the allies also suffered their first casualties. Two U.S. Marines died in combat and another dozen American and British Marines were killed in a helicopter crash that appeared to be accidental. A U.S. Marine was the first to die in action. His company was advancing on a burning oil pump station when he was shot in the stomach, a comrade said. President Bush was informed of the death early Friday and expressed his regrets.

He was from the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait.

Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers surrender to allied forces

SOUTHERN IRAQ – Hordes of Iraqi soldiers, underfed and overwhelmed, surrendered Friday in the face of a state-of-the-art allied assault. An entire division gave itself up to the advancing allied forces, U.S. military officials said.

Senate pares $100B from tax cut to pay for Iraq war

WASHINGTON – The Republican-run Senate dealt President Bush’s $726 billion tax-cutting proposal a surprise blow on Friday by plucking out $100 billion to finance the war with Iraq. An effort to slice the tax plan in half was resoundingly defeated.

CNN reporters expelled

NEW YORK – Four CNN staffers constituting the last staff members of a U.S.-based TV network left in Baghdad were ordered out of the country Friday by Iraqi authorities.

Anti-war demonstrations continue across the country

SAN FRANCISCO – Undeterred by mass arrests, raucous bands of demonstrators marched through the streets of San Francisco on Friday in the largest of anti-war protests around the country.

Polls suggests public rallies behind Bush after invasion

WASHINGTON – Public approval of President Bush has surged after the start of the war with Iraq, but not to the levels of support his father enjoyed during the Persian Gulf War a dozen years ago, polls suggest.