TURKEY TENSIONS: Turkey warned Thursday that U.S. objections will not stop its troops from crossing into Iraq to pursue Kurdish separatists, while a steady stream of U.S.-made Turkish fighter jets roared across the skies along the border. High-level Iraqi officials arrived in Turkey as part of frantic efforts to persuade the government not to order an attack on Kurdish guerrilla bases in northern Iraq, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq sent American diplomats to join the delegation.

PRAISE FOR BLACKWATER: U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Thursday that he still holds Blackwater bodyguards in "high regard," even as he labeled the killing of 17 Iraqis by the company's security contractors a "horrific" incident that prompted him to call for an FBI investigation. He also noted that he failed to fully examine possible problems with Blackwater. Critics have accused the Moyock, N.C.-based company of lax oversight on its heavily armed security teams in Iraq.

PANEL QUESTIONS RICE: At a hearing by a congressional watchdog committee, Democratic lawmakers said the State Department under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been too lax with armed security contractors, ignored corruption at the highest levels of the Iraqi government and was sloppy in overseeing construction of the costly new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The usually unflappable Rice became frustrated at several points, including a tense exchange on whether the Iraqi prime minister is corrupt, during which she said she would not respond to rumors.

U.S. DEATH

Army Staff Sgt. Larry I. Rougle, 25, of West Jordan, Utah, died Tuesday in Sawtalo Sar Mountain, Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds when he was engaged by enemy small-arms fire during combat operations; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy.