and all nations must be admitted to them."

-- Pierre de Coubertin

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Al-Jaafari to Lead Iraq
Hussein Plans Hunger Strike
Insurgents Fire Mortar Into Green Zone
Bombs, Shootings Kill at Least 3 in Iraq
Lawyer: Saddam Not Planning Hunger Strike
Blair Vows Probe of Alleged Abuse in Iraq
Saddam faces showdown with court over boycott

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Musharraf: Al-Zawahiri's Kin Killed in U.S. Attack

Hamas Rising
Israel Cautions Against Legitimizing Hamas
Olmert softens tone on Russia-Hamas talks

Cartooning Muhammad
Muhammad cartoon protests aren't unique to Islam
Iran: U.S. Should Pay 'Heavy Price' for Cartoon Crisis
(That's right - it's all our fault. It has nothing to do with the fact that Iran and Syria are inciting riots over cartoons first published - with no reactions - in September, and certainly isn't related to the fact that Iran is about to be referred to, and Syria is being looked at by, a Security Council that a Dane is poised to take over....oh, no.....not at all....)

Iranian Doublepeak
Iran Reaffirms Nuclear Treaty Commitment

Politics
Bush acknowledges problems in drug plan's rollout

XX Winter Olympics
Kwan Exits Olympics
Favorite White spins his way to gold
WINTER OLYMPICS
Rahlves takes on Austrian downhillers

News from my Neck of the Woods
Snow Whips East Coast
Blizzard smacks region with foot of snow
Delta cancels East Coast shuttle Sunday

Fox News
Alleged U.S. Fire Kills Two Nomads in Pakistan
Iran Minister: We're Committed to Nuke Treaty
Sharon's Survival Unlikely After Intestinal Surgery
Murder Suspects Among 7 Escapees From Ill. Jail
FEMA Stops Paying for Katrina Evacuees' Hotel Privileges
Woman, 3 Kids Found Dead in Western Ohio
9 Hurt in Latest L.A. Jail Riot
Fossett Breaks Record
Mardi GrasTakes Stabs at Katrina Aftermath Debacle
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Rumsfeld says US deepening ties with Algeria
Indonesia says two more bird flu cases confirmed
Greeks find largest Macedonian tomb of nobles
China bans discrimination against AIDS sufferers
Japanese women treat themselves on Valentine's Day
Bayer might bid for Pfizer units: report
GM and UAW in talks over jobs for Delphi workers: paper
G8 seeks stable energy supply
Qualcomm says Broadcom injunction move fails
Genentech, Biogen get OK for new lymphoma drug use
Sony BMG chairman, CEO swap jobs to resolve rift
Acorda shares rise in market debut
GE's stock glide downward surprises some investors
Pfizer 2006 profit view disappoints
US stocks gain on Aon earnings and techs' rebound
Lionsgate pares losses after earnings miss
Salesforce shares off 9 pct on contract-loss talk
Key to stock screens
Looking at Indonesia: Telecoms
Big Oil: Politics overshadows

AP World News
Sharon in Critical Condition After Surgery
Shark Frenzy Closes Australian Beaches
Preval Backers March As Haiti Counts Votes
Fossett Breaks Flight Distance Record
Rumsfeld Seeks Closer Ties With Algeria
Nepal Rejects Foreign Criticism of Vote
Pilot Arrested, Suspected of Being Drunk
Embattled Syrian Leader Shakes Up Cabinet
Elephants Raise Funds for Their Upkeep
Sudanese Plane Explodes, Killing 20

Military.com
U.S. Troops Detain Insurgents
Brown Shifts Katrina Blame to DHS

CENTCOM: News Releases
WORKSHOP HONES AFGHANS' ENGINEERING SKILLS

AFGHAN NATIONAL POLICE OPEN FAMILY RESPONSE UNIT

MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION CENTRAL SOUTH PROVIDES HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Department of Defense
IN IRAQ
Central-South Division Gets New Commander

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Groups Share Ideas, Concerns - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
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
1049 - Bruno, Count of Egesheim & Dagsburg crowned Pope Leo IX
1111 - German King Hendry V arrives at St Peter, Rome
1130 - Pope Innocent II elected
1502 - Granada Muslims forced to convert to Catholicism
1528 - Treaty of Dordrecht between emperor & ecclesiastical power
1577 - Spanish land guardian Don Juan of Habsburg signs "Eternal Edict"
1624 - English parliament comes together
1733 - Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah
1762 - English fleet occupies Martinique
1763 - John Casteret appointed British minister of foreign affairs
1772 - Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India
1793 - 1st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves
1818 - Chile gains independence from Spain
1821 - Mercantile Library of the City of New York opens
1825 - Creek Indian treaty signed; Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west by Sept 1, 1826
1832 - Ecuador annexes Galápagos Islands
1839 - Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick leads to Aroostook
1840 - Housatonic Railroad opens
1850 - Original Washington's Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300
1861 - State troops seize US munitions in Napoleon AK
1865 - Henry Highland Garnet, is 1st black to speak in US House of Representatives
1870 - Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada
1873 - Congress abolishes bimetallism & authorizes $1 & $3 gold coins
1874 - King David Kalakaua of Sandwich Island HI, is 1st king to visit US
1876 - Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop
1877 - 1st news dispatch by telephone, between Boston & Salem, MA; US railroad builders strike against wage reduction
1878 - Frederick Thayer patents the catcher's mask (pat # 200,358)
1879 - 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Square Garden, NYC); News about slaughtering of Isandlwana reaches London
1882 - Social-Democratic Union forms in Amsterdam
1886 - 2nd British government of Salisbury forms
1908 - New York to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in New York NY; George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel
1909 - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded; Netherlands' SDAP suspends Marxist Tribune group (Gorter & Wijnkoop)
1912 - Last Ch'ing (Manchu) emperor of China, Henry P'u-i, abdicates
1915 - Cornerstone laid for Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
1921 - Soviet troops invade Georgia (theirs, not ours); Winston Churchill becomes British, minister of Colonies
1924 - President Calvin Coolidge makes 1st presidential radio speech
1925 - 1st federal arbitration law approved by Congress; Estonia forbids Communist Party
1927 - British expeditionary army lands in Shanghai
1932 - Communist Party of Holland forms Unemployed Combat Committees
1933 - German vice-chancellor von Papen demands Catholic aid for Nazis
1934 - France hit by a general strike against fascists & royalists
1935 - Great airship, USS Macon, crashes into Pacific Ocean
1938 - Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg visits Hitler in Berchtesgaden
1938 - German troops entered Austria
1941 - Jewish Council for Amsterdam forms, under Ascher/Cohen; Occupation Police arrest "Jewish Foursome"
1942 - 3 German battle cruisers escape via Channel to Brest N Germany
1943 - General Eisenhower departs Algiers to Tebessa
1944 - Wendell Wilkie (R) enters presidential race
1945 - San Francisco selected for site of UN Conference
1947 - Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia
1948 - 1st Lieutenant Nancy Leftenant becomes 1st black in army nursing corps
1949 - Panic in Quito, Ecuador, after "War of the World" played on radio; Unidentified aircraft bomb Jerusalem
1950 - Senator Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees; Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb
1953 - USSR breaks relations with Israel
1955 - President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam; Soviets decides space center built in Baikonur, Kazachstan
1957 - Researchers announce Borazan (harder than diamonds) been developed
1958 - General Miguel Ydegoras Fuentes elected President of Guatemala
1960 - Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers
1961 - USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus
1963 - Argentina asks extradition of Ex-President Peron
1973 - 1st US POWs in North Vietnam released - 116 of 456 flown to Philippines
1979 - Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched
1981 - Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN, becomes deputy director of CIA; Cape Verde amends its constitution
1984 - Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean skate "Bolero" at the Olympics receiving all perfect scores for quality & the gold medal
1989 - 5 Pakistani Moslem rioters killed protesting "Satanic Verses" novel
1991 - Iceland recognizes Lithuania's independence
1994 - 17th Olympics Winter games open in Lillehammer, Norway
1995 - PRI loses/PAN wins Mexican regional elections
1997 - Fred Goldman says he will settle for a signed murder confession from O J Simpson in lieu of his $20.5 million judgement
1998 - 250-car Italy pile-up due to fog, 4 die & 50 hurt; Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740; US district judge T. Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional

Birthdays
1211 - Henry VII Roman, Catholic German king (1220-35)
1438 - Adolf van Egmond, Duke of Gelre/earl of Zutphen
1474 - Lorenzo Campeggi(o), Archbishop of Bologna/diplomat
1588 - John Winthrop, English attorney/puritan/1st Governor of Massachusetts
1768 - Francis II Florence, last Holy Roman emperor (1792-1806)
1775 - Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams
1809 - Charles Darwin, discovered evolution (Origin of species); Abraham Lincoln, (R) 16th President (1861-65)
1828 - Robert Ransom, Jr., Confederate Major General (Confederate Army)
1831 - John Morrissey, boxer/developer of Saratoga Springs horse race track
1838 - Charles Carroll Walcott, Union Brevet Major General
1841 - Gijsbert van Tienhoven, Dutch mayor (Amsterdam)/foreign minister
1868 - Johan H.A. Schaper, Dutch MP/founder (SDAP)
1869 - Hendrik P. Marchant, Dutch minister of Education/Arts (VVD)
1893 - Omar Bradley, General of the Army WWII, "The GI General"
1911 - Sylvstre A. Guzman Fernandez, President (Dominican Republic)
1914 - Nello Celi,o Swiss President
1915 - Andrew J. Goodpaster , US General/Supreme Commander (NATO-Europe)
1923 - James Abdnor (Senator-SD, 1981-87)
1930 - Arlen Specter (Senator-R-PA, 1981- )
1931 - Constance A. Morella (Representative-MD)
1933 - Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev, cosmonaut
1936 - Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist/dissident
1940 - Hank Brown (Representative-CO, 1981-88)
1941 - Naomi Uemura, mountain climber (1st Japanese to scale Everest)
1956 - Paula Zahn Omaha NB, news anchor (ABC, CBS This Morning); Ad P. Melkert, Dutch minister of Social Affairs

Passings
1128 - Toghtekin, slave/atabek of Damascus
1242 - Hendrik VII, Roman Catholics German king (1220-35), commits suicide
1554 - Lord Guildford Dudley Jane Grey's husband, beheaded
1771 - Adolf Frederik, King of Sweden (1751-70), dies at 60
1942 - Grant Wood, US painter (American Gothic), dies at 49
1945 - Henrietta Szold, founder (Hadassah, Youth Aliyah); Walraven [Wally] van Hall, Dutch banker/resisted Nazis, executed at 39
1958 - Marcel Cachin 1st communist French senator, dies at 88
1971 - James Cash Penney, founder (J C Penney), dies at 95
1984 - Anna Anderson Manahan (claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia) dies in VA
1993 - James Bulge,r English child beaten to death at 2, by 10 year old boys

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Sullivan, Martin J., USN (MA); F4B crashed in water, Killed, body not recovered

Weissmueller, Courtney E., USAF (FL); F100D shot down

1968
The following US Army personnel lost when their UH1H was shot down:
Brown, Harry Willis (SC); medic

Groth, Wade L. (MI); crewchief

Gunn, Alan W. (TX); pilot

Roe, Jerry L. (TX); aircraft commander

1969
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their RU1A was shot down:
Fisher, John B. (FL); released by Sihanouk March, 1969

Osburn, Laird P. (WV); released by Sihanouk March, 1969 - alive and well as of 1998

Pryor, Robert J. (TN); released by Sihanouk March, 1969

1970
Bradshaw, Robert S. III, USMC (TX); F4B shot down (w/Breeding), KIA, body not recovered

Breeding, Michael Hugh, USMC (KS); F4B shot down (w/Bradshaw), KIA, body not recovered

1971
Mc Leod, Arthur E., US Army (NY); AH1G shot down (w/Wilkinson), remains ID'd August, 1999

Wilkinson, Clyde D., US Army (TX); AH1G shot down (w/McLeod), remains ID'd August, 1999