News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Patriot Act Renewal Likely
U.S. unit wins praise for tactics against fighters in Iraqi town
Iran calls on UK troops to pull out of Basra
Gunmen Kidnap Iraqi Bank Boss, His Son
Second Bird Flu Fatality Eyed in Iraq
Iraq Death Squad Probed- Video: Iraq Update

Operation Enduring Freedom
Iraq-style guerrilla tactics surface in Afghanistan, raising red flags

Abu Ghraib Recycled
Iraqi Government Condemns Abu Ghraib Abuse

Troops on Trial
Coast Guard senior cadet charged with rape

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Lawmakers Object to UAE Firm's Plan to Run 6 US Ports
U.N.: Close Down Gitmo
White House spurns call in U.N. report to close Guantánamo Bay center

Cartooning Muhammad
Riot Roundup
Iran Renames Danish Pastries
Anger in Asia as cartoon protests flare
Cartoon Protesters Arrested in Pakistan
Pope approves of peaceful cartoon protests
Why people are dying over cartoons, where to view them
Mixed rules on free speech in Europe
What Muslims see in prophet's image
Boycotts over cartoons costing Danish companies millions

Other Military News
U.S. Army Gives Away Last MASH Unit to Pakistan
TV's "Hawkeye" salutes end of real MASH
Authorities: Cocaine boat tried to ram Navy frigate (Bad decisions of the century, #32)
Coast Guard Seizes Ton of Cocaine
Construction Begins on Air Force Memorial

NSA Eavesdropping
Intel Chairman Claims Progress in Wiretap Law Fix- Gov't Ordered to Produce Docs
Senate panel won't investigate NSA

Hamas Rising
Israel to impose tougher sanctions on Palestinians
Russia Wants Hamas to Join Peace Process
Turks, Hamas meet; Israel voices concern

Worldwide Wackos
Japanese firms searched over N.Korean bio weapon link
US pursues "inoculation" strategy to curb Chavez
Chavez Calls U.S. Foreign Policy 'Crazy' (A little bit of the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think?)
France Accuses Iran of Making Nuclear Arms (OK, how bad do you have to be when France is fed up with you? Maybe I don't want to know...)
Lawmakers seek info on cheap Venezuela oil
Pageantry, politics on Kim's birthday

Homegrown Moonbats
Wis. referendums call for troop withdrawal

VP Shooting Accident
President Approves of Cheney Explanation

Other Political News
Bush requests more war, hurricane emergency money
Gonzales won't step aside in Abramoff case
'MASH' actor supports former Ill. governor
Wisconsin becomes 1st state to try to ban 'intelligent design'
Maryland comptroller, 84, ogles 'pretty girl' (This one cracks me up)

U.N. News
Bolton Launches Talks on Replacing Annan

XX Winter Olympics
American Brings Home Gold
Full Olympics Coverage
Russian Olympian Busted
Bodie 'Could Give Up Tomorrow'
WINTER OLYMPICS (Reuters)
Doping rocks Games
Snowboard cross brings Nascar to the slope

Oddities
Well, it's easy to get them to hold still...
Singer's body exhumed 39 years after death
Australia trials tiger poo in fight against pests
Cops: Burglary victim was burglar too (Ah, sweet irony)
Family ties: Mom, daughter become grandma, mother within 90 minutes
Man obsessed with doorknobs going to jail
Man in animal case argues he shouldn't have to register as sex offender
100 acceptance letters sent by mistake

Other News of Note
Post office to reissue Reagan stamp

Fox News
Northern Plains Expects Chill
Entwistle Pleads Not Guilty
Powerball Record: $365M
Stocks to Watch, Feb. 17
Pelosi Wants Ethics Probe into Budget Bill
Lawyer: No Charges Likely for Gretzky, Wife
Landslide Blankets Philippines Village - 10 Confirmed Dead
Greenland Glaciers Losing Ice at Faster Rate
FULL SPORTS COVERAGE

Reuters: Top News
Two China ships sink, 57 missing
H5N1 virus likely in Hungary swans: vet institute
"Happy Hooker" Hollander says she won't fade away
Battered northern Uganda backs calls for change
Bone marrow transplant disease predictable: study
CSL encouraged by small-dose bird flu vaccine test
VNU settles U.S. antitrust suit, sees 2005 charge
Time Warner CEO says looking at Univision: report
Toyota market cap passes Wal-Mart as shares rise
LSE doubles cash return in defence against bid
Schwarz 2005 loss widens, sees breakeven in 2006
Lagardere boosts TV presence with Vivendi deal
Mack-Cali in deal for New Jersey real estate rival
Community Bank Shares of Indiana to buy Bancshares
Tele2 profit falls in Q4, split-up talk revived
Agfa shares revisit January highs on price rises
HP shares surge to five-year high on strong profit
Grocer Wild Oats posts profit; shares jump
US stocks jump on HP, JC Penney; Dell slips late Video
Rising costs at XM Satellite
Tips for dual-nest snowbirds
Virus attacking Apple Macintosh PCs found: experts
Toshiba to boost HD-DVD

AP World News
Experts Locate Sunken Egyptian Ferry
Haitians See Hope in Preval's Election Win
77 Ecuadoreans Rescued Off El Salvador
Greek Hiker Finds 6,500-Year-Old Pendant
Child Fatally Stabbed on Street in Japan
Few Mexican Migrants Seek Absentee Ballots
German Girl Rescued After Dropping Notes

The Seattle Times
NY police shoot woman in stabbing incident
Search for wayward whippet called off
Feds end investigation of Spokane mayor
Where the buffalo fall: Montana resumes hunts
Clot-dissolving technique may improve stroke recovery
Gym teacher accused of taking bribes
Mountain of problems faces Haiti's new leader
China paper to resume, but without top editors

Chicago Sun-Times
Parents of teen missing in Aruba sue man
Downstate toddler drives through car wash, into house
Firefighters idly watch as blaze destroys non-member's property
Haiti's poor have high hopes Preval will cure ails
Taiwan telling wrongdoers they must play for their crimes

Boston Globe: World
Concern mounts as bird flu spreads to a 5th EU nation
Rice says genocide continuing in Darfur
Japan town strict about saving fuel
Architects meet in Rotterdam on New Orleans

Military.com
Bad Publicity Puts Pentagon on Defensive
End to Pay Disparity
Navy, Marines $7 Billion Short in '07

Department of Defense
Military Needs Flexibility to Fight Terror - Story
Iraqis Conducting More Independent Ops - Story - Video
Iraqi, U.S. Forces Detain 106, Find Weapons - Story
Casey: Certification Critical to Iraq’s Future - Commentary

ON THE GROUND
10th Mountain Troops Join 'Team Paktika' - Story

IN IRAQ
Cadets First Graduates of Year-Long Training

IN AFGHANISTAN
Bagram’s New Hospital Nears Completion
Pacemaker Engineers Train Afghan Army

IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
Deployed Fuels Flight Makes Airlift Delivery
UAV Flies Home After 4,000 Combat Hours

FACE OF DEFENSE
Engineer Helps Rebuild Iraq - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
'Apprentice' Winner Credits Military - Story
Cooks Sizzle Up Steaks for Troops
Rockie Lynne's ASY Musical Tribute

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
4 Insurgents Killed, 16 Detained
Images Could Harm U.S. Troops
Air Strike Destroys Bunker
Ambassador Welcomes Certification
Terrorists Kill Iraqi Officer, Son
Iraqi Navy Protects Oil Platforms
Forces Capture, Kill Insurgents
Iraqi Army Leads Operation
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
Afghan Engineers Attend Workshop
IED Kills 4 U.S. Troops
Afghans Evacuated for Treatment
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Army Modernizes to Win Long War
'Gitmo' Detainees Being Held Legally
Rice Topic: Spreading Democracy
U.N. Inspectors Declined Gitmo Visit
Rumsfeld Thanks Morocco
Low Possibility Al Qaeda in N. Africa
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
Program Provides Financial Tools
Guard Transformation 'Remarkable'
Carrier Roosevelt Wraps Up Mission
Insurance Program Helps Wounded
More Health Screening for Troops
Reimbursement Policy Updated
Reservists Support Customs Mission
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
1370 - Battle at Rudau - Germany beats Lithuania
1568 - Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay annual tribute to Sultan for peace
1598 - Boris Godunov chosen tsar of Russia
1621 - Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony
1670 - France & Bavaria sign military assistance treaty
1676 - Kings Charles II & Louis XIV sign secret treaty
1691 - Thomas Neale granted British patent for American postal service
1714 - Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XI's "Unigenitus" degree
1772 - 1st partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia, joined later by Austria
1776 - 1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire" published
1791 - Messier catalogs M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra)
1801 - House breaks electoral college tie, chooses Jefferson President over Burr
1817 - 1st US city lit by gas (Baltimore)
1818 - Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents "draisine" (early bicycle)
1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leaves Tasmania
1848 - Toscane gets liberal Constitution
1854 - British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
1864 - Confederate sub H.L. Hunley sinks Union ship Housatonic (1st submarine to sink an enemy ship)
1865 - Columbia, SC burns down during the Civil War (Battle of Charleston)
1867 - 1st ship passes through Suez Canal; Gyula Andressy becomes premier of Hungary
1870 - Mississippi becomes 9th state re-admitted to US after Civil War; Esther Morris appointed 1st female judge
1876 - Sardines 1st canned (Julius Wolff-Eastport, ME)
1878 - 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
1880 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination attempt
1883 - A. Ashwell patents free-toilet in London
1896 - London Country Councils' Muzzling Order becomes effective
1897 - National Congress of Parents & Teachers (PTA) organizes (Washington DC)
1905 - Frances Willard becomes 1st woman honored in National Statuary Hall
1906 - Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice marries in the White House
1911 - 1st amphibian flight to & from a ship, by Glenn Curtiss, San Diego
1913 - New York Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp to US public; 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
1915 - Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WWI, is mortally wounded
1926 - Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham UT, 40 die
1930 - French government of Tardieu falls
1931 - 1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball)
1933 - 1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published; US Senate accept Blaine Act, ending prohibition
1934 - 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College, PA)
1938 - 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London)
1940 - British destroyers board German Altmark off Norway
1943 - Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews; General-Major Bradley flies to Washington, DC; Hitler visits field marshal von Mansteins headquarters in Zaporozje; New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio enlists in the US Army
1944 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins - US victory on Feb 22; US begins night bombing of Truk
1947 - "Voice of America" begins broadcasting to USSR; Dutch Roman Catholic bishops publish manifest against "godless communism"
1949 - Chaim Weizman elected 1st President of Israel
1949 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button USA
1950 - 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York
1953 - Baseball star/pilot Ted Williams uninjured as plane shot down in Korea
1957 - Suez Canal reopens
1958 - Comic strip "BC" 1st appears
1959 - 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg
1962 - Storm in Hamburg, kills 265
1964 - US House of Reps accept law on civil rights; US Supreme court rules 1 man 1 vote (Westberry vs Sanders)
1965 - US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures; US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute
1966 - French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit
1967 - Kosmos 140 (Soyuz test) launches into Earth orbit
1968 - Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, MA, opens
1969 - Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime minister
1972 - President Nixon leaves Washington, DC for China; British Parliament votes to join European Common Market
1974 - 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt
1976 - Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau)
1979 - China invades Vietnam
1981 - Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history
1983 - Netherlands adopts constitution
1985 - 1st class postage rises from 20¢ to 22¢; 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon)
1986 - 1st Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles; Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sells capsule drugs; Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad
1988 - US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed
1989 - 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole"
1989 - Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya form common market
1993 - Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die
1995 - Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Railroad in New York; Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked
1997 - Carl Sagan Public Memorial at Pasadena, CA
1998 - Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of capital murder; Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax

Birthdays
1490 - Charles de Bourbon officer/governor (Lombardy)
1519 - François de Guise [Balafré], French general strategist (Calais)
1723 - Tobias Mayer "method of lunars" for longitude determination
1804 - Samuel Read Anderson, Confederate Brigadier General
1817 - Frederick Douglass, famous African-American
1824 - William Farrar "Baldy" Smith, Union Major General
1837 - Francis Jay Herron, Union Major General
1854 - Friedrich A. Krupp, German arms manufacturer
1855 - Otto Liman von Sanders, German general in Turkey (WWI)
1874 - Thomas J. Watson, Sr., representative/founder (IBM)
1880 - Alvaro Obregon, General/President of Mexico (1920-24)
1884 - Arthur Vanderpoorten, Flemish minister of Internal affairs (1940)
1888 - Otto Stern, German/US physicist (Stern-Gerlach-experiment, Nobel 1943)
1889 - H(aroldson) L. Hunt, Texas oil multi-millionaire
1906 - Galo Plaza Lasso, President of Ecuador (1948-52), head of OAS (1968-75)
1914 - (Bert de) Wayne Morris, WWII-pilot/actor (Paths of Glory)
1918 - Charles A. Hayes (Representative-IL)
1929 - Yasser Arafat PLO-leader (Achille Lauro, Nobel 1994)
1933 - Craig Thomas (Representative-WY)
1938 - Mary Frances Berry, educator/head (US Commission on Civil Rights)
1942 - Huey Newton, Black Panther leader
1944 - Bernie Grant, British politician (Labour)
1945 - Willie J.L. Swildens-Rozendal, Dutch MP (PvdA)

Passings
0364 - Flavius Jovianus, Christian emperor of Rome (363-64), dies at about 32
0956 - Hugo the Great, Earl of Paris/duke of Francia, dies at about 55
1612 - Ernst of Bayern, Prince/Bishop of Luik/archbishop of Cologne, dies at 57
1688 - Reverend James Renwick, hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian
1874 - (Lambert) Adolphe J. Quetelet, Belgian astronomer/sociologist, dies at 77
1905 - Serge Alexandrovich, Governor-General Moscow, murdered
1912 - Aloys von Aerenthal, foreign minister (Austria-Hungary), dies at 57; L. Oates, British explorer (Antarctica)
1918 - Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian PM (1896-1911)
1934 - Albert I LCMM von Saksen-Coburg, King of Belgium (1909-34), dies at 58
1977 - Quincy Howe, newscaster (CBS Weekend News), dies at 76
1991 - Enrique Bermudez, commandant (Contra)

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Sooter, David W., US Army (CA); OH23G shot down - released by DRV March, 1973 - deceased, 1968

1968
The following USN personnel reported MIA when their OP2E was shot down - remains returned 1993:
Ashby, Clayborn W., Jr. (KY)

Coons, Chester L. (ND)

Dawson, Frank A. (CA)

Donato, Paul N. (MA)

Hayden, Glenn (CA)

Kravitz, James S. (CA)

Martin, James E. (UT)

Thurman, Curtis F. (MO)

Wonn, James C. (PA)

1972
Cutter, James D., USAF (KY); F105G shot down (w/Fraser), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Major - alive as of 1996

Fraser, Kenneth J., USAF (NY); F105G shot down (w/Cutter), released by DRV March, 1973 - alive as of 1998

Hawley, Edwin A., Jr., USAF (AL); F4D shot down (w/Irwin), released by DRV (injured) February, 1973

Irwin, Robert H., USAF (NY); F4D shot down (w/Hawley) - remains returned July, 1989 - ID'd November, 1989