News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Surprise Visit - Cheney stops in Iraq

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Spying Defended
President OK'd eavesdropping
Transcript: Bush's Radio Address
Video: 'Critical' Program
Son of Accused al-Qaida Financier Arrested
Jordan Sentences Al-Zarqawi in Absentia

Politics
Judge Deals DeLay Setback

Other News of Note
Congress Passes Katrina Aid Bill, Tackles Patriot Act

Fox News
Iran Faces Sanctions Over Israel Remarks
Tookie Service Planned
Pulitzer-Winning Columnist Jack Anderson Dies at 83
Gitmo Detainee Attempts Suicide Again
Boy Accused of Killing Dad Over Bad Grades
Bolivia Set for Election- Video: Worst Nightmare?
Santas Go On Rampage
Plea Deal Ends FBI, Chinese Double-Agent Case
Last-Minute Deal (WTO news)
Mexico Condemns U.S. Immigration Bill
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Rendition is not new: Powell
Time Persons of 2005: Bill and Melinda Gates, Bono
Battles rage in US over celebrating holidays
ReplayTV to launch TV recording software for PCs
Sony on track to double videogame player sales
Cancer vaccine has strong response in young girls
Sharon aide markets Spielberg's 'Munich' in Israel
Concert brings music back to New Orleans
Israeli air strikes continue in Gaza Video
WTO proposes farming changes
Indian stampede kills dozens

AP World News
String of Attacks Kill 19 People in Iraq
EU May Cut Aid if Hamas Wins at Polls
Stampede Kills 42 India Flood Survivors
Report: Bhutan's King to Step Down in 2008
Pope Says True Gift of Christmas Is Joy
Chinese Media Print Slain Villagers' Names
Kikwete Wins Tanzanian Presidential Race
Groups Seek End of Thai Militant Blacklist
Groups Race to Deliver Aid in Quake Zone
WTO Draft Sets Deadline to End Subsidies
Paper: Torture in U.K.-Run Post-WWII Camp
Report: Six Die in Mexico Prison Riot
Lebanon Bombing Sparks Defiance, Fear
Bolivian Candidates Differ Sharply
Holocaust Remarks Seen As Iranian Strategy

Military.com
New IED School Opens for Troops
Protecting Reemployment Rights of U.S. Troops
Budget Decision Targets Service Personnel

CENTCOM: News Releases
MAJOR IED MANUFACTURING CACHE DISCOVERED
U.S. NAVY SAILOR RESCUED IN ARABIAN GULF
BULGARIANS END SERVICE IN MNDCS

Department of Defense
Former Prison is a Testament to Evil -Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Group Embraces Military Families - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
Eye on Iraq Update (pdf)
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Coalition Forces Kill, Nab Militants
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
National Guard, Reserve Update

CASUALTIES
Officials Identify Army Casualty - Story

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

National Hurricane Center

Today in History
1118 - Alfonso van Aragón occupies Saragossa on Almoraviden
1352 - Etienne Aubert elected as Pope Innocentius VI
1603 - Admiral Steven van der Haghens fleet departs to East-Indies
1621 - English parliament accept unanimously, Protestation
1774 - Jews expelled from Prague, Bohemia; Moravia by Empress Maria Theresa
1777 - 1st national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne's surrender
1783 - English king George III fires government of Portland
1787 - New Jersey becomes 3rd state to ratify constitution
1796 - 1st US newspaper to appear on Sunday (Baltimore Monitor)
1799 - George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon
1813 - British take Fort Niagara in the War of 1812
1832 - Charles Darwin visits Vurland
1839 - 1st celestial photograph (the moon) made in US, John Draper, New York NY
1849 - William Bond obtains 1st photograph of Moon through a telescope
1859 - South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"
1862 - Battle at Lexington TN (Forrest's Second Raid)
1865 - 1st US cattle importation law passed
1878 - French SS Byzantin sinks after collision, 210 killed
1890 - Lugards expedition to Mengo/Kampala, Uganda
1899 - Fieldmarshal Lord Roberts appointed British supreme commander in South Africa
1917 - Soviet regiment (Stalin/Lenin) declares Finland Independent
1920 - 1st US postage stamps printed without the words United States or US
1923 - International zone of Tangier set up in Morocco
1935 - Edward Benes becomes President of Czechoslovakia
1936 - Su-Lin, 1st giant panda to come to US from China, arrives in San Francisco
1939 - Finnish army recaptures Agläjärvi
1941 - German submarine U-434 sinks; Japanse troops land on Hong Kong
1944 - Destroyers Hull, Spence & Monaghan sink in typhoon (Philippines); Nazi occupiers of Amsterdam destroy electricity plants
1945 - Uruguay joins the United Nations
1948 - Indonesia begins its 2nd political election
1956 - Japan admitted to the United Nations; Israeli flag hoisted on Mount Sinai
1957 - Shippingport Atomic Power Station, 1st nuke plant to generate electricity
1958 - 1st test project of Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment; Niger gains autonomy within French Community (National Day)
1960 - General Meeting of United Nations condemns apartheid
1961 - India annexes Portuguese colonies of Goa, Damao & Diu
1964 - During services held for Sam Cooke, fans caused damage to Funeral Home
1965 - Borman & Lovell splash down in Atlantic ends 2 week Gemini VII mission
1966 - Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for 1st time on CBS; Britain abolishes death penalty
1971 - People United To Save Humanity (PUSH) forms by Jesse Jackson in Chicago
1972 - US begins its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam
1973 - Soyuz 13 launched into Earth orbit for 8 days
1976 - "Wonder Woman" debuts on ABC; Soviet dissident Viktor Bukovski exchanged for Chile CP-leader Corvalan
1980 - Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts minister Van Agts abortion laws; IRA's Sean McKenna becomes critically ill, ends hunger strike; Vietnam adopts constitution
1985 - UN Security Council unanimously condemns "acts of hostage-taking"
1991 - DeForest Kelly (Dr. McCoy on "Star Trek") gets a star in Hollywood; General Motors announces the closing of 21 plants
1994 - Socialist Party (ex-communist) wins Bulgaria parliamentary election
1996 - TV industry executives agree to adopt a ratings system

Birthdays
1709 - Elizabeth, empress of Russia
1803 - William Allen (Representative/Governor-OH)
1811 - Alexander Sandor Asboth, Union Brevet Major General
1816 - Alfred Elzey Jones, Confederate Major General
1825 - Charles Griffin, Union Major General
1826 - Mercer Brooke John, Confederate Navy
1835 - George Dashiell Bayard, Union Brigadier-General
1856 - Joseph John Thomson, English physicist, discovered electron (Nobel 1906)
1863 - Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria (Sarajevo/WWI)
1888 - Robert Moses, power broker (built Long Island; NYC parks & roads)
1890 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, radio pioneer inventor (FM)
1913 - Willy Brandt, (Herbert Frahm), German chancellor (1969-74, Nobel 1971)
1927 - Ramsey Clark,US Attorney General (1967-69); Saddam Hussein's attorney
1930 - Theodore C. Freeman, astronaut
1934 - Boris Valentinovich Volynov, cosmonaut (Soyuz 5, 21)
1942 - William HAF, English prince/grandson of George V
1945 - Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, King of Nepal (1972-2001)
1946 - Stephen (Steve) Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist
1947 - Steven Spielberg, director (ET, Close Encounters, Jaws)
1951 - Andrew S.W. Thomas, Ph.D./astronaut (STS 77, STS 89/91)
1956 - Reinhold Ewald, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-25)

Passings
0468 - Huna Mari bar Mar Zutra, rabbi, executed in Pumpedita
1290 - Magnus I Ladulås (Barn Bolt), King of Sweden (1277-90)
1505 - John IX van Horne, prince-bishop of Lieges, executed
1651 - Francisco the Melo, Portuguese/Spanish earl of Assumar, dies at 54
1737 - Antonio Stradivari, renowned violin-maker, dies in Cremona Italy at 93
1829 - Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, French nature investigator, dies at about 85
1862 - Johnson Kelly Duncan, architect/Confederate Brigadier-General, dies at 35
1897 - Carlo A. Alfieri, Italian Member of parliament, dies at 70
1919 - John Alcock, pilot (1st non-stop over Atlantic), dies in crash at 27
1931 - John T. "Legs" Diamond, US gangster, murdered at 35
1932 - Eduard "Ede" Bernstein, German marxist/revisionist, dies at 82
1935 - Juan V Gómez, general/dictator of Venezuela (1908-35)
1980 - Alexei N. Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers a fatal heart attack at 76
1981 - Mehmet Shehu, PM Albania (1954-81)/"US-Russian spy", commits suicide
1992 - Mark Goodson, TV game show producer (Goodson-Toddman), dies at 77; Richard H. Ichord, US leader of House Un-American Activities Committee

Reported Missing in Action
1968
Barras, Gregory I., USAF (MS); A1H shot down - remains returned, ID'd December, 1998

1971
Hildebrand, Leland L., USAF (WI); F4 shot down (w/Wells), released by DRV March, 1973 - alive and well as of 1998

Wells, Kenneth, USAF (WA); released by DRV March, 1973 - alive and well as of 1998

1972
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their B52G was shot down:
Certain, Robert G. (MD); navigator - released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Ferguson, Walter L. (MI); gunner - remains returned March, 1973

Johnson, Richard E. (CA); radar navigator, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive as of 1998

Rissi, Donald L. (IL); pilot/commander - remains returned August, 1978

Simpson, Richard T. (SC); electronics warfare officer - released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as Lt. Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Thomas, Robert J. (FL); co-pilot - remains returned August, 1978

Other MIA's in 1972
McElvain, James R., USAF (CA); F111 shot down (w/Ward)

Ward, Ronald J., USAF (OK); F111 shot down (W/McElvain)