Nothing can stop the US Air Force!

-- From the U.S. Air Force Anthem

News of Note
Sharon Rushed Back Into Surgery
Israeli Politics, Mideast Peace Process in Flux
Robertson: Stroke Was God's Wrath
Iran President: I Hope Sharon Dies
Timeline: Ariel Sharon
Video: Sharon in ICU

Operation Iraqi Freedom
Four U.S. Troops Killed in Separate Iraq Attacks
11 U.S. Troops Killed in One Day in Iraq

Operation Enduring Freedom
Afghan Blast Kills 10 During Envoy's Visit
Afghan President Takes Landmark Turkey Trip

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Padilla Appears in Court
Italians Freed in Yemen
4-Year-Old on No-Fly List
Man nabbed with 'suicide bomber' in journal
U.S. seeks secrecy in trial over Hamas cash

Troops on Trial
U.S. Navy Takes Sailor Into Custody
Recruit-Death Charge Dropped
Sailor Is Suspect in Japan Beating Death

Politics
Gingrich Pushes for GOP Action in Abramoff Flap
Clinton Fundraising Group Fined for Hollywood Gala
Scandal triggers House leadership fight
Not everyone gives up lobbyist-linked cash

Supreme Court
Dems Seek to Stall Alito Vote
Tough questions expected for Alito
Alito to be Grilled on NSA Wiretaps

Oddities
Baby, you can park my car..
No buts about it: Man acquitted of mooning charges
Born in Year of the Dog? There's a job for you in China
Chained ankles, lost key, send artist on 12-hour desert hop

Other News of Note
Maverick politician Galloway joins 'Big Brother'

Fox News
W.Va. Miners Left Notes
Mecca Hotel Collapse Kills 20
Governor Orders DNA Tests 12 Years After Execution
IBM to Change Pension Plan
Florida's High Court Strikes Down School Vouchers
Charges in Missionary Killing
Stations Nix 'Book of Daniel'
Hilton Faces Slander Suit
Stocks to Watch, Jan. 6
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Sharon back in surgery to stop bleeding in brain
Note shows W.Virginia miner faced death with grace
Turkish family mourns third child dead from bird flu
Motorola adds Google to phones, forges Kodak pact
IBM to freeze $48 billion pension plan in 2008
A&P third-quarter net loss narrows
Stock futures point slightly higher; data eyed
Diabetes drug warning seen minor setback for Glaxo
Mourning turns to anger in Iraqi Shi'ite city
Indonesia landslides toll at 120, more rain expected
Expo-Yahoo, Google to square off at CES on Friday
Bush reaches beyond inner circle on Iraq policy
Schwarzenegger proposes huge spending in key speech
South Korea panel to issue final word on stem cell fraud
Humans display their stupid side to wildlife
Scientists in uphill battle to fight bird flu
Stroke experts agree Sharon's outlook is grim

AP World News
AP: Former Syrian VP Says Assad Should Go
Shootout Kills 13 Inmates in Honduras
Last Survivor of China's Gang of Four Dies
China to Offer Two Pandas to Rival Taiwan
Winter Storm Wallops Quake-Scarred Kashmir
Rock Slide Kills Three American Hikers
Haiti Business Leader Calls Protest Strike
Iran Rebuffs IAEA Chief ElBaradei
Palestinian Militant Freed After Rampage
German Rescuers Find Body of Last Victim

The Seattle Times
Bush summons ex-Cabinet members for advice
Mine-safety agency no stranger to criticism
How graft is wearing away the Galapagos
Study: Katrina evacuees having trouble coping
Wal-Mart site had racially offensive links
Revised regulations on fishing delayed
China protest leader gets 3 years in prison
Find: Early Maya had the write stuff
Obituary Famed singer's death blamed on hurricane
Bush seeks funding for language studies

Chicago Sun-Times
Miner: 'It wasn't bad. I just went to sleep'
Ex-cop gets 24 years for swiping cocaine
A 2-cent tip: Postage rates going up Sunday
City launches campaign to provide disaster instruction
Legal fight set after gas stations deny gouging after Katrina
Nearly every U.S. chicken flock to get tested for bird flu
Teens fishing find human head in Fla.
Grain worker nearly drowning in soybeans is rescued
Impostor receives $18,000 in guitars, equipment

Boston Globe: World
Archeologists find earliest example of Mayan glyphs
Olmert has stood with Sharon through changes

Military.com
Army, Air Force Brass to Begin Talks
Army Bowl Game Features High School's Best
Iraqis Making Connection to the Outside World Online
Destroyer Skipper Relieved
Russian, not Coast Guard, Icebreaker Will Clear Path in Antarctica
Osprey Contract Awarded

CENTCOM: News Releases
SECURITY BERM UNDER CONSTRUCTION
MALE IRAQI DETAINEE DIES
SUICIDE BOMB EXPLODES IN RAMADI UPDATE
SUICIDE BOMB EXPLODES IN RAMADI
WEAPONS SEIZED, 11 SUSPECTS DETAINED

Department of Defense
President Meets With Former Secretaries - Story Remarks
Bush Announces Pentagon Appointments Video
Bush Kicks Off National Foreign Language Initiative
Pace: Bombs Reflect Terrorists' Desperation - Story Video
Joint Chairman Encourages Military Service
Troops Nab Terror Suspects, Find Weapons - Story

ON THE GROUND
U.S., Iraqi Crews Share Airspace, Mission - Story
Engineers Complete Eastern Afghan Road - Story
U.S. Paratroopers Complete Operation Pizmah - Story

IN IRAQ
Chief of Naval Ops Visits Seabees, Corpsmen
Busy Tuesdays for 3rd COSCOM Motorpool
Food Service Marines Boost Morale One Plate at a Time
Bulldogs Clamp Down on Insurgency

IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
Good Eats 24/7 Means Happy Troops

FACE OF DEFENSE
Army Biathlete Makes Winter Olympics Team - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Anheuser-Busch Extends Tribute - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Roadside Bomb Kills 5 U.S. Troops
Iraqis Undeterred by Bombing
Capable Police Vital to Security
Casey: '05 Was 'Monumental' Year
Police Open New Station in Tal Afar
Azady Police Station Expands
Ninawa Province Gets Water Wells
Report: Strategy for Victory in 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
Army Establishes Justice System
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Bush: 2006 to Build on Progress
Cheney: U.S. Resolve Will Continue
Aircraft Fly Missions Jan. 4
USS Ronald Reagan Deploys
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
Training Builds Patients' Skills
Pace: Troop Morale High
National Guard, Reserve Update

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

Today in History
1066 - King Harald of England crowned
1099 - Henry V crowned German king
1227 - Ferrand of Portugal freed from the Louvre
1352 - French king Jean II introduces Order of the Star
1453 - Emperor Frederik III becomes archduke of Austria
1496 - Moorish fortress Alhambra, near Grenada, surrenders to the Christi
1497 - Jews are expelled from Graz (Syria)
1535 - City of Lima Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro
1540 - King Henry VIII of England married his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves
1579 - Artois/Hainault/Dowaai sign pro-Spanish Union of Arras
1622 - Pope Gregory XV forms Congregatio the Propagande Fide
1639 - Virginia is 1st colony to order surplus crops (tobacco) destroyed
1663 - Great earthquake in New England
1681 - 1st recorded boxing match (Duke of Albemarle's butler vs his butcher)
1690 - Emperor Leopold's son Jozef chosen Roman Catholic king
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army draws to Glasgow
1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Curtis
1773 - Massachusetts slaves petition legislature for freedom
1781 - Battle of Jersey (Island in the UK)
1784 - Turkey & Russia sign treaty in Constantinople
1832 - New England Anti-Slavery Society organizes (Boston)
1838 - Samuel Morse made 1st public demonstration of telegraph
1839 - 2 day storm off Irish & English coast immortalized as "The Big Wind"
1842 - 4,500 British & Indian troops leave Kabul, massacred before India
1857 - Patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel Wetherill, Pennsylvania
1861 - New York City NY mayor proposes New York become a free city, trading with N & S; Florida troops seize Federal arsenal at Apalachicola
1873 - US Congress begins investigating Crédit Mobilier scandal
1893 - Great Northern Railway connects Seattle with east coast
1896 - Cecil Rhodes resigns as premier of Cape colony
1898 - 1st telephone message from a submerged submarine, by Simon Lake
1900 - Boers attack at Ladysmith, about 1,000 killed or injured
1907 - Maria Montessori opens her 1st (Montessori) school (Rome)
1912 - New Mexico becomes 47th US state
1914 - Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch founded
1922 - Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments
1927 - US marines sent to Nicaragua
1929 - Alexander I establishes a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia
1930 - 1st diesel engine automobile trip (in a Packard sedan) completed
1936 - Barbara Hanley became Canada's 1st woman mayor (Webbwood, Ontario)
1938 - Bronze memorial statue of Henry Hudson erected in the Bronx
1941 - FDR's "4 Freedoms" speech (speech, worship, from want & from fear)
1942 - 1st around world flight (Pan Am "Pacific Clipper"); Bob Feller enlists in Navy & reports for duty to Norfolk Virginia
1945 - Future President George Bush marries Barbara Pierce in Rye NY
1950 - Britain recognizes Communist government of China
1957 - Elvis Presley makes his 7th & final appearance on Ed Sullivan Show
1958 - Gibson patents the Flying V Guitar
1964 - Rolling Stones' 1st tour as headline act (with Ronettes)
1967 - 2 homemade buses collided on a mountain road in Terpate, Philippines plunging off a cliff, killing 84, injuring 140
1967 - "Milton Berle Show" last airs on ABC-TV
1968 - Surveyor 7 (last of series) launched by US for soft-landing on Moon; Dr. N.E. Shumway performs 1st US adult cardiac transplant operation
1971 - Cecil Partee elected president pro tem of Illinois state senate; Berkeley chemists announces 1st synthetic growth hormones
1972 - Vladimir Bukovski is exiled from USSR
1973 - "Schoolhouse Rock" premieres on ABC-TV with Multiplication Rock
1978 - 1st postage stamp copyrighted by US (Carl Sandburg stamp); US hand over St Stephan crown to Hungary
1980 - Indira Gandhi's Congress Party wins elections in India
1986 - British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns; STS 61-C scrubbed at T-31 seconds because of liquid oxygen valve problem
1987 - 100th US Congress convenes; Astronomers at University of California see 1st sight of birth of a galaxy
1991 - Jorge Serrano Elías elected President of Guatemala
1993 - Bill Wyman announces he will leave Rolling Stones; Jean Mueller discovers comet Mueller/1993a