-- General William T. Sherman

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
US military frees two Reuters journalists in Iraq
Saddam Judge Out? - Chief judge asks to resign
No Word from Kidnappers of American Journalist in Iraq

Operation Enduring Freedom
Bomb Hits Canadian Convoy In Afghanistan; Two Killed
Gunmen Kill Former Taliban Minister

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Pakistanis Protest Airstrike - Attack kills at least 17
Zawahri missed dinner that prompted US strike
7 in Spain Accused of Aiding Insurgents

Politics
Poll shows embattled DeLay trailing in Texas race

Supreme Court
Alito Vote Set for Next Week
Bush calls for prompt US Senate vote on Alito

Oddities
Cheeky fencer foiled in bid for team
Sober driver flees police drink check, crashes

Fox News
Emir of Kuwait Dies at 79
Florida Teen Shot by SWAT Team at School Brain Dead
Suspects Identified in Beating of Florida Homeless Men
Sago Miners Ponder Return
Would-Be Pope Assassin Fails to Report to Police
NFC Playoffs
AFC Playoffs
Alaskan Volcano Erupts
Back to Earth - Seven-year space voyage ends
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Kuwait says emir's death won't change oil policy
Fla. boy shot by police unlikely to live: reports
Iran calls for atomic talks Video
Fla. boy shot by police unlikely to live: reports
Smooth landing for NASA probe carrying comet dust
Japanese whaler harpoon in near-miss with protesters
Women in quake-hit Pakistan break old barriers
Doctor made up cancer study: hospital
US says two flu drugs unlikely to work
Employees, take heart: 2006 may bring pay raises
Snow details tax breaks for hybrid cars
Lucent cuts '06 revenue forecast, shares fall
Genomic Health says Medicare to cover cancer test
Managed-care stocks dip after analyst downgrade
LSI Industries fall after outlook
Nortel stock slides on rival's sales warning

AP World News
Iran Announces Conference on Holocaust (this guy is just nuts)
Israel OKs Palestinian Voting in Jerusalem
Iran's Leader Shrugs Off Sanctions Threat
UN Halts Flights to Quake-Scarred Kashmir
16 Die After Boat Capsizes in Philippines
N.Korea Gives Posthumous Medal to American
Left-Leaning Candidate Surges in Peru
Suspected Nepal Rebels Attack Police Posts
Women March in Milan to Keep Abortion Law

Military.com
Crypt Sentries Sent to War
U.S.-Afghan Troops Kill Six Militants
Military Copter Crashes Common in Winter
Soldiers Upgrading Armor on Humvees
Gonzales to Testify on Domestic Spying
Pentagon Accelerates Future Bomber Plans

Department of Defense
Sinise Discusses Support for Troops - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Combat Operations Continue
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
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
Afghanistan 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

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
0708 - Sisinnius begins his reign as Catholic Pope (dies 20 days later)
0946 - Caliph al-Mustaqfi blinded/ousted
1535 - Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
1552 - France signs secret treaty with German Protestants
1562 - 3rd sitting of Council of Trente opens
1582 - Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, loses access to the Baltic
1586 - Battle at Boxum: Spanish troops under Tassis beat state army
1777 - People of New Connecticut (Vermont) declare independence from England
1780 - Continental Congress establishes court of appeals
1797 - 1st top hat worn (John Etherington of London)
1831 - 1st US-built locomotive to pull a passenger train makes 1st run; Mr & Mrs Pierson of Charleston SC make 1st US railroad honeymoon trip
1833 - HMS Beagle anchors at Goeree Tierra del Fuego
1844 - U of Notre Dame receives its charter in Indiana
1851 - General Arista replaces Mexican President Herrera
1861 - Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis
1863 - 1st US newspaper printed on wood-pulp paper, Boston Morning Journal
1865 - Fort Fisher, NC falls to Union troops
1870 - Donkey 1st used as symbol of Democratic Party, in Harper's Weekly
1892 - Basketball rules published in Triangle Magazine, Massachusetts
1895 - French fleet reaches Majunga, Madagascar
1907 - 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr. Lee de Forest; Gold dental inlays 1st described by William Taggart, who invented them
1915 - Japan claims economic control of China
1919 - 2 million gallons of molasses "Tidal wave" Boston MA, drowning 21; Pianist & statesman Ignace Paderewski becomes 1st premier of Poland; Semana Tragica (Tragic Week) Bloodbath in Buenos Aires
1922 - Irish Free State forms; Michael Collins becomes 1st premier
1923 - Lithuania seizes & annexes the country of Memel
1925 - Hans Luther forms German government, with DNVP
1934 - 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die
1940 - German U-Boot torpedoes Dutch trade ship Arendskerk (Eagle's Church)
1942 - FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WWII; Cubs drop plans to install lights at Wrigley due to WWII
1943 - 1,000 workers complete the air conditioning system for the Pentagon; Japanese driven off Guadalcanal; 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught
1944 - European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany; General Eisenhower arrives in England; Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
1945 - Every Amsterdammer gets 3 kg sugar beets; Red Army frees Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp
1949 - Mao's Red army conquers Ten-tsin
1950 - 4,000 attend National Emergency Civil Rights Conference in Washington DC
1951 - "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000; Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest
1953 - 16 car Federal Express train loses brakes & crashes in Washington, DC station; German Democratic Republic Minister of Foreign affairs Georg Dertingen arrested for "espionage"
1955 - USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic
1964 - Teamsters negotiate 1st national labor contract
1969 - Soyuz 5 launched by Soviet Union
1970 - Republic Biafra disbands/joins Nigeria
1971 - Aswan Dam officially opens in Egypt
1973 - 4 Watergate burglars plead guilty in federal court; President Nixon suspends all US offensive action in North Vietnam
1974 - Expert panel reports 18½-m gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures; "Happy Days" begins an 11 year run on ABC
1975 - Space Mountain opens (Disneyland); Portugal signs accord for Angola's independence
1976 - Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot President Ford; US-German Helios B solar probe launched into solar orbit
1977 - Coneheads debut on "Saturday Night Live"
1981 - "Hill Street Blues" premieres on NBC-TV
1983 - Dutch political party DS'70 disbands
1985 - Tancredo Neves becomes 1st elected President of Brazil in 21 years
1988 - Arab uprising in Israel begins
1991 - UN's deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait passes - (they don't)
1992 - EC recognizes Slovenian and Croatian independence; Supreme Court rules 5-3 that Joseph Doherty isn't entitled to asylum
1993 - 7.5 earthquake strikes northern Japan, 2 die; Top mafia leader Salvatore "Totò" Riina arrested in Palermo
1997 - Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with Mir Space Station
1998 - NASA announces John Glenn, 76, may fly in space again

Birthdays
1432 - Afonso V "the African", King of Portugal (1438-1481)
1507 - Johann Oporinus (Herbster), Swiss book publisher (Koran)
1815 - Henry Morris Naglee Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1817 - Lewis Golding Arnold, Union Brigadier General
1821 - Lafayette McLaws, Confederate Major General
1841 - Lord Frederick Stanley, presenter of hockey's Stanley Cup
1868 - Noach Zjordanija, Georgian veterinarian/premier (1918-21)
1870 - Johan Peter Koch, Danish officer/explorer (Greenland)
1893 - Dragisa Cvetkovic, Serbian premier of Yugoslavia (1939-41)
1902 - Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Faisal al-Saud. king (Saudi Arabia)
1908 - Edward Teller, fathered H-bomb (Manhattan Project)
1918 - Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt (1954-1970)
1929 - Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader (Nobel 1964)
1945 - Marie-Christine AHI von Leibnitz, German/British princess

Passings
0069 - Servius Sulpicius Galba 6th emperor of Rome (68-69), killed by Praetorian guard in the Forum Rome, at 70
1208 - Peter of Castelnau French nobleman, murdered
1705 - Walraad the Young, Earl of Nassau-Ottweiler/Governor of Nijmegen, dies
1896 - Matthew B Brady US photographer (Civil War), dies at about 72
1919 - Karl Liebknecht Marxist revolutionary, murdered at 47; Rosa Luxembourg, Marxist revolutionary, murdered
1922 - John Kirk Barry, Dr/explorer David Livingstone's companion, dies at 89
1934 - Patrick O'Malley, US policeman, killed by John Dillinger
1949 - Pompeo Aloisi, Italian baron/diplomat/senator, dies at 63
1965 - Pierre Ngendandumwe, premier of Burundi, murdered
1968 - Bill Masterson 1st NHLer fatally injured during game (Jan 13), dies; Leopold Infeld, Polish nuclear physicist (Motion & Relativity), dies at 69
1981 - Emanuel Celler (Representative-NY, 1923-73), dies at 92
1983 - Meyer Lansky, reputed mobster, dies in Miami Beach FL at 81
1987 - Ray Bolger, actor/dancer (Wizard of Oz), dies at 82
1988 - Sean MacBride, commander of Irish Republican Army, dies at 83
1993 - Huub H. Jacobse, Dutch MP (VVD), dies at 68
1996 - Moshushu II, King of Lesotho (1966-90), dies at 51
1998 - Gulzarilal Nanda, temporary PM of India (1964, 66)

Reported Missing in Action
1968
Skarman, Orval H., USMC (MN); did not return from R&R