Frank Whitman / Special to Stars and Stripes

Tech. Sgt. Walter Fujioka, left, and Master Sgt. Kevin Saquilan watch Pacific islanders retrieve the boxes they just dropped out of their C-130 during the 2005 Christmas Drop. The plane's crew was from the 36th Airlift Squadron of the 374th Airlift Wing, based in Yokota Air Base.

See story - at Stars & Stripes

SAQLAWIYAH PATROL — U.S. Marines patrol through a local village to search for hidden weapon caches during an operation in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Terrorists Can Win Only in U.S., Media (ain't that the truth)
Rumsfeld: Troop Reduction After Election
Troops Witness Decrease in Terror Activity
No Word From Kidnappers
Iraqis Hand Over 'the Butcher'
Unit to Keep Low Profile During Iraq Vote
Troops Prepare for Dec. 15 Iraqi Elections
Western Iraq Reconstruction Moves Forward
Medics Head Home After Saving Thousands
Coalition Forces Keep Baghdad Streets Safe

Operation Enduring Freedom
Karzai Makes Parliamentary Appointments

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Victim's Family Demands Explanation from Air Marshals (I'm waiting for the lawsuit- you know it's coming)

Politics
Prisons Probe

Oddities
He puked his guts up? Nice..
Office Parties not like those you can't remember

Fox News
Clinton Criticizes Bush on Greenhouse Standards
Getting Ready (bird flu)
L.A. Leaders Urge Calm if Tookie is Executed
Short Runways Probed in Deadly Chicago Airline Crash- NTSB Examines Crash Site- Video: Runway Horror
Bangladesh Detains Eight Suspects For Bombings
Israel Threatens to Restrict Trade at Gaza Frontier
AP Poll: Bush Ratings Boosted
Karzai Appoints Diverse Afghans to Parliament Posts
U.S. Confirms Red Cross Denied Access to Detainees
Brazilian Thought Nun's Bible Was Gun Before He Killed Her
Paris Hilton Christmas Shrine
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Stocks hope Fed will play Santa
UAE hints OPEC might trim output
Bahrainis launch $1.5 billion project
Crunch week ahead for 'motley' crew of IPOs
ElBaradei: Nuclear arms should be taboo as slavery
Abbas tells Palestinians to keep truce
US condemns attacks on Iraqi election officials
Egyptian kidnapped by gunmen in Iraq
Germany summons Iran envoy over Holocaust remarks Video
Croat war crimes suspect arrives in Netherlands
Schwarzenegger must decide if killer is executed
US asks court ruling on Padilla to be set aside
Entergy appeal for New Orleans aid rejected
China says pollution density in river declining
Joy as climate talks take Kyoto to next phase
Colombian police back off as Indians grab land
Gold mine too close for comfort for Ghana town
Smoking lowers chances of surviving throat cancer
US FDA issues alert on study of Abbott antibiotic

AP World News
Chinese Villagers Describe Police Siege
Earthquake Survivors Prepare for Winter
ElBaradei Accepts Nobel Peace Prize
Japan Edgy After Spate of Child-Killings
N.Korea Decries U.S. Envoy's Criticism
Book May Have Helped Police Catch Gotovina
Israel Demands Better Border Security
Mexican Police Rescue 3 Kidnapping Victims
KLM Plane Evacuated After Bomb Threat
Officials: Thai Boy Died of Bird Flu
Haiti Removes Five From Supreme Court
Bangladesh Holds Eight After Bombing
Guatemala Wants to Shield Drug Judges
Chavez Rejects Criticism of Media Use
London Bids Farewell to the Routemaster

Military.com
U.S. to Stay Clear During Vote
Marine Barracks Helps Wounded
U.S. Soldier Dies on Guard Duty
Lieberman's Pro-War Views Concern Dems

CENTCOM: News Releases
IRAQ: THREE AL QAEDA TERRORIST CELL MEMBERS SENTENCED BY THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
IRAQ: MORE DETAINED AS A RESULT OF OPERATION ABLE RISING FORCE
IRAQ: MOSUL BOMBING CELL MEMBERS SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT BY THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
RAMADI TERRORIST BROUGHT IN
BUSY DAY IN NORTH CENTRAL IRAQ
IRAQI GIRLS SCHOOL RECEIVES NEEDED SUPPLIES

Department of Defense
Bush: U.S. Has Solid Strategy for Victory - Story
Iraqi Citizens Turn Over 'Butcher of Ramadi' - Story

ON THE GROUND
Officials Have Great Hopes for Elections
Iraqis Want Coalition Vocabulary Change
Forces Convert Old Iraqi Air Base in Kut - Story

FACE OF DEFENSE
Marines Take the Road Less Traveled - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
100 Families Get Free Computers - Story
Scholarships Help Families of Fallen

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Coalition Forces Net Weapons
Security Dominates Iraq Discussions
Terrorists Won't Quit After Vote
Casey Outlines Iraq Plans
IED Kills Troop; Bus Bomb Kills 19
Bush Cites Rebuilding Video
Iraqi Crew Indicator of Progress
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
Afghan Insurgents Show Weakness
Coalition Forces Kill, Nab Militants
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps

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

MILITARY NEWS
Technology Helps Send Greetings
Rumsfeld Dismisses Rumors
Center Goal: Reduce IED Threat
Deploying Marines to Train Iraqis
Course Improves EOD Training
National Guard, Reserve Update

CASUALTIES
Officials Identify Marines Casualties - 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
0741 - Zacharias becomes Pope
1294 - Pope Coelestinus V becomes Pope (until Dec 13th)
1508 - League of the kingdom signed (covenant against Venice)
1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned papal edict demands he recant
1652 - Sea battle at Dungeness: Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp beats English fleet
1672 - New York Governor Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York & Boston
1688 - King James II flees London
1690 - Massachusetts Bay becomes 1st American colonial government to borrow money
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army draws into Manchester
1799 - Metric system established in France
1816 - Dutch regain Sumatra
1817 - Mississippi admitted as 20th state
1864 - General Sherman's armies reach Savannah; 12 day siege begins
1869 - Womens' suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
1887 - Austria-Hungary/Italy/Great-Britain signs military treaty of Balkan
1898 - Spanish-American War ends; US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico & Guam
1899 - 1st defeat of "Black Week" - Battle at Stormberg South Africa - Boers vs British army; nearly 3000 British troops killed
1901 - 1st Nobel Peace Prizes (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)
1903 - Nobel for physics awarded to Pierre/Marie Curie
1904 - King Peter I of Sweden named nationalist regime
1906 - 1st American awarded Nobel Peace Prize - President Theodore Roosevelt
1907 - Ruyard Kipling receives Nobel prize for literature
1910 - J.D. Van de Waals wins Nobel Prize for physics
1911 - Calbraith Rogers completes 1st crossing of US by airplane (84 days); Tobias Asser given Nobel prize for peace
1913 - Kamerlingh Onnes receives Nobel prize for physics
1914 - French government returns to Paris
1915 - 10,000,000th model T Ford assembled
1920 - President Woodrow Wilson receives Nobel Peace Prize
1922 - Pete Henry makes longest known NFL drop-kicked field goal, 45 yards; Nobel awarded to Fridtjof Nansen, Niels Bohr & Albert Einstein
1923 - Polish government of Grabski, forms
1924 - Willem Einthoven awarded Nobel for medicine
1925 - George Bernard Shaw awarded Nobel
1926 - 2nd part of Hitler's Mein Kampf published
1927 - Grand Ole Opry makes its 1st radio broadcast, in Nashville TN
1931 - Jane Addams (1st US woman) named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize; Manuel Azaña becomes premier/Niceto Zamora President of Spain
1932 - King Rama VII (Prajadhipok) grants Thailand a constitution
1934 - Fascist dictator of Latvia Ulmanis begins building concentration camp
1936 - England replaces King Edward VIII stamp series with King George VI, as King Edward VIII abdicates throne to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson; Stockholm: physicist P.B.J. Debije receives Nobel prize for chemistry
1940 - British anti-offensive in Libya (Sidi Barrani)
1941 - British battleship Prince of Wales sinks off Singapore; Japanese troops land on northern Luzon in the Philippines; Japanese troops overrun Guam
1942 - Hitler names Mussert "leader of Netherlands people"; North Africa: 5th German pantser army forms under Colonel-General von Arnim
1943 - British 8th Army occupies Orsogna/Ortona Italy
1944 - 9 Dutch citizens hanged by Nazis; German counter attack at Dillingen-bridgehead at Saar
1947 - USSR & Czechoslovakia sign trade agreement
1948 - UN General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1950 - 1st black American awarded Nobel Peace Prize - Ralph J Bunche
1952 - Yitzhak Ben-Zvi elected 2nd President of Israel
1954 - Albert Schweitzer receives Nobel Peace Prize
1958 - 1st domestic (New York-Miami) passenger jet flight-National 707 flew 111
1961 - USSR & Albania break diplomatic relations
1964 - Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr Martin Luther King Jr
1965 - Dutch ends economic boycott of Rhodesia
1966 - Israeli Shmuel Yosef Agnon wins Nobel Prize for literature; Nobel for chemistry awarded to Robert S Mulliken
1971 - William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice; West German union chancellor W Burns receives Nobel prize of peace
1975 - Andrei Sakharov's wife Yelena Bonner, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
1977 - Soyuz 26 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station
1978 - In Oslo, Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat accept 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
1979 - Piet Dankert appointed as chairman of European Parliament
1980 - Soyuz T-3 returns to Earth
1981 - El Salvador army kills 900
1982 - Soyuz T-5 returns to Earth, 211 days after take-off
1983 - Danuta Walesa, wife of Lech Walesa, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize; Raul Alfonsin inaugurated as Argentina's 1st civilian president
1984 - South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received his Nobel Peace Prize; 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
1986 - Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepts 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
1987 - "Nightline" is seen in the USSR for 1st time
1988 - Massive Earthquake in Armenia kills 100,000 in cities of Leninakan & Spitak
1989 - President Gustav Husák of Czechoslovakia, resigns
1990 - Hindu-Muslim rebellion in Hyderabad-Aligargh India, 140 die; Soyuz TM-10 lands
1994 - European Campaign against Racism "All different, All equal" begins; Nobel prize awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres & Yasser Arafat
1995 - Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9" in 24 hours (Starting Dec 9 at 7 PM, breaks previous record of 25.3" in 1982

Birthdays
1765 - (Izaäk J.) Alexander Gogel, Dutch minister of Finance/patriot
1787 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, pioneer of educating the deaf
1794 - James Wolfe Ripley, Union Brevet Major General
1813 - Zachariah Chandler, merchant/politician (founder of Republican Party)
1815 - Ada Byron (Lovelace), considered the first computer programmer
1820 - Allen Russell, Union Brevet Major General
1822 - Thomas Casimer Devin, Union Brigadier-General
1851 - Melville (Louis K) Dewey, creator of Dewey Decimal System for libraries
1883 - Andrej J. Vysjinski, Russian lawyer/foreign minister/UN-ambassador
1903 - William Plomer Transvaal, author (Paper Houses, I Speak of Africa)
1904 - Antonin Novótny, President of Czechoslovakia (1957-68)
1911 - Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report)
1918 - Professor Longhair, king of New Orleans music
1925 - Carolyn Ashley Kizer, US writer (Yin, Pulitzer 1985)
1930 - Clayton K Yeutter, US trade representative/Republican National chairman

Passings
0969 - Nicephorus II Phocas, Byzantine co-Emperor (963-69), murdered
1041 - Michael IV Paphlagonicus, emperor of Byzantine
1524 - Henry van Zutphen, Dutch Augustine/Lutheran minister, burned to death
1896 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony, dies at 63
1909 - Red Cloud, Sioux Indian chief
1946 - Damon Runyon, US journalist/writer (Guys & Dolls), dies at 66
1967 - Otis Redding, singer (Dock of Bay), dies in plane crash at 26
1971 - Jozef Cals, Dutch Minister of Education/premier (1965-66), dies at 57
1982 - Freeman "Amos" Gosden, US radio actor (Amos 'n' Andy), dies at 83
1990 - Armand Hammer, CEO (Occidental Petroleum), dies at 92
1991 - Berenice Abbott, US photographer
1992 - Carlomagno Andrade, Equadorian general
1994 - Keith Joseph, British MP (C)

Reported Missing in Action
1964
Sansone, Dominick, US Army (NY); C123 shot down (w/Vaden), remains returned July, 1984

Vaden, Woodrow W., US Army (TN); C123 shot down (w/Sansone), remains possibly buried by Vietnamese

1967
Grzyb, Robert H., US Civilian; captured while riding in a Jeep, DIC September, 1968 per PRG list

1971
McIntire, Scott W., USAF (NM); F105G shot down; search and rescuer personnel believe KIA