News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Sadr city morning after attacks - Play Video
Iraq's president warns of civil war after bombings - Video
48 Die in Attack on Baghdad Shiite Slum
Iraqi Judge Admits Ordering Shiite Trials

Operation Enduring Freedom
U.S. Forces Nab 11 Alleged Afghan Terrorists
Taliban's Omar orders execution of foreign hostages - Video
Afghan Bombing Kills Four U.S. Troops

Homeland Security / War on Terror
FBI Agent Faces Cross by Moussaoui Defense
Anti-terror ties focus of Rice's Indonesia visit - Video

Troops on Trial
Dog Handler Faces Abu Ghraib Charges

Other Military News
Most Americans not Fit to Join

Dubai Port Proposal
Democrats see political port in Dubai storm

Hamas Rising
Fatah faces US cut off if it join Hamas government

Worldwide Wackos
Iran Nixes Russian Nuke Deal- Video: Tehran Refuses Offer
Bush campaign against Iran's religious leaders - Wash Post

Politics
Republicans look to a future without Bush
Feingold Proposes Bush Censure Over Spying

Oddities
Ex-Convict Priest Meets His Calif. Flock

Other News of Note
Texas Wildfires Wreak Havoc
Midwest Twisters Kill Three
Videos: Storms Move East - Terrible Tornadoes
Bouncer Blood Match - Police to seek indictment
Video: Blood Match in Coed's Murder

Fox News
U.N.: Afghan Bird Flu Deadly- Bird Flu Reported in Myanmar
Defense Gets Crack at Ex-Enron CFO Fastow
Milosevic Had Heart Attack, Preliminary Autopsy Indicates
Survey: Gas Up 11 Cents
Archeologists Find 17 Statues of Ancient Egyptian Goddess
Stocks to Watch: Nortel
NCAA Brackets Released- Print Out Your Bracket (pdf)
FULL SPORTS COVERAGE

Reuters: Top News
Rodriguez lifts US to win over Japan
Fires destroy six Australian homes
Asia stocks surge, Exporters up
Microsoft takes on Yahoo, Google for Web ad dollars
McClatchy to buy Knight-Ridder for $4.5 billion
Nasdaq could offer LSE share alternative: sources
Northern Foods warns biscuit slide to hit profit
Samsung Elec to invest $1.15 bln on memory lines
McClatchy to buy Knight-Ridder for $4.5 billion
Toyota, Fuji to develop hybrid for Subaru cars: paper
Memory chip testers readying IPOs
US stocks seen up, takeover bids in focus
BAA shares higher on possible bid war
LSE soars as Nasdaq reignites bid battle talk
Stocks to eye bond yields and CPI
AstraZeneca gains as Crestor drug proves its worth
TiVo's Worrisome Future
Digital cinema may not be ready to roll
Dan Brown "astounded" at copying claim
Lowering homocysteine doesn't protect heart-studies
Digital in front-row seat theater owners' confab
Wireless networking baffles some customers
Investors wary of Guatemala gold mine opposition

AP World News
Tokyo Stock Exchange to Delist Livedoor
Rapper Young Jeezy Arrested in So. Florida
Duke Rallies to Take NCAA's Top Seed
Sean Connery Has Surgery for Kidney Tumor
Doubt Cited on Aspirin-Blood Thinner Combo
Deadly Bird Flu Expands in Africa, Europe
Billy Graham Returns With Big Easy Sermon
Kia Motors to Set Up First U.S. Plant
New Credit Card Minimums May Hurt Banks
Safer Method Found to Treat Heart Failure

Military.com
Israel Told US of Withdrawal Plan
Biden: Troops Should Come Home in Summer

CENTCOM: News Releases
IRAQI EOD TEAM HELPS MAKE ROAD SAFER

MND-B SOLDIERS UNCOVER THREE WEAPONS

Department of Defense
Khalilzad: Iraqi Leaders Make Progress - Story
U.S. Army Must Transform to Remain Relevant - Story
Leaders Outline Force Structure Changes
Troops Find Weapons; Iraqis Dispose of IED - Story
Bush: Ending IED Threat Remains Top Priority - Story - Remarks

ON THE GROUND
Division Commander Visits Baghdad Residents - Story - Photos
Ceremony Transfers Base Control to Iraqi Army - Story
USS Ardent Aids Stranded Iraqi-Owned Vessel - Story

IN IRAQ
Troops Deliver Essentials, Toys to Iraqi Orphans
Iraqi Troops Ride Recon Off the Beaten Path
Lifesaver Course Designed for Combat in Iraq

IN AFGHANISTAN
'Muleskinners' Assume Joint Logistics Mission
Medical Assistance Visit Aids Bamian Residents
Civil Affairs Mission Helps Afghan Villagers

FACE OF DEFENSE
Assistant District Attorney Helps Troops in Iraq - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
ASY Groups Meet President Bush - Story
Marine, JROTC Unit Push VFW Effort
Dallas Gives Heroes Warm Welcome

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
8 Suspects Held; Weapons Found
Bomb Kills Marine Near Fallujah
U.S., Iraq Goal: Prevent Civil War
U.S., Iraqi Operations Successful
Iraq Fed Up With Insurgency Video
No Immediate Plans to Close Prison
Casey: Iraqis Resist Terrorists' Lure
Iraqis Graduate From Training
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
IED Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops
Jones Sees Demise of Terrorists
Bush Pleased with Afghan Progress
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Commander: USNORTHCOM Prepared
Bush: Al Qaeda Still Biggest Threat
Bush Signs Patriot Act Extension
Democracy Promotes Human Rights
Special Ops: 'Leading Role' in Fight
African Issues Affect U.S. Security
NATO 'Reinventing' Itself
Fact Sheet: Budget Request
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
Report: Reserves Must Transform
U.S. Forces Train Nigerien Troops
Rumsfeld, Rice Urge Budget Action
Photos: Rumsfeld, Rice Testify
Pace Details Funding Needs
Abizaid Stresses Need for Funds
EUCOM: Funds Needed
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
0483 - St. Felix III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0607 - 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1138 - German king Koenraad II von Hohenstaufen crowned
1519 - Cortez lands in México
1560 - Spanish fleet occupies Djerba, at Tripoli
1567 - Battle at Oosterweel: Spanish troops destroy Geuzenleger
1569 - Battle of Jarnac, Count of Anjou defeats Huguenots
1591 - Battle at Tondibi: Moroccans army under Judar beats sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai
1639 - Cambridge College renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard
1656 - Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam
1677 - Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1759 - 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1781 - Sir William Herschel sees "comet" (really discovered Uranus)
1790 - John Martin, 1st American-born actor, performs in Philadelphia
1852 - Uncle Sam cartoon figure debuts in the "New York Lantern" weekly
1861 - Jefferson Davis signs bill authorizing use of slaves as soldiers
1865 - US Confederate Congress calls on black slaves for field service
1868 - Senate begins President Andrew Johnson impeachment trial
1869 - Arkansas legislature passes anti-Klan law
1884 - Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins; US adopts Standard Time
1887 - Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs
1888 - Great Blizzard of 1888 rages
1894 - J.L. Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate
1900 - British troops occupy Bloemfontein, Orange-Free state
1904 - Bronze statue of Christ on Argentine-Chilian border dedicated
1913 - Kansas legislature approves censorship of motion pictures
1915 - Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson tries to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane, but the pilot substituted a grapefruit
1918 - American Red Magen David (Jewish Red Cross) forms
1920 - Wolfgang Kapp's coup attempt in Berlin fails
1921 - Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China
1923 - Lee de Forest demonstrates his sound-on-film moving pictures (New York NY)
1925 - Tennessee makes it unlawful to teach evolution
1928 - 450 die in St. Francis Valley Dam burst (California)
1930 - Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory
1933 - US Banks reopen; Josef Göbbels becomes German minister of Information & Propaganda
1935 - Driving tests introduced in Great Britain
1938 - Anschluß-Austria annexed by Nazi Germany
1940 - Finland-Russian cease fire signed, Finland gives up Karelische
1941 - A. Bougne forms AGRA (Amis du Grand Reich Allemand)
1942 - Julia Flikke, Nurse Corps, becomes 1st woman Colonel in US Army
1943 - Failed assassin attempt on Hitler during Smolensk-Rastenburg flight
1944 - USSR recognizes Italian Badoglio government
1945 - Queen Wilhelmina returns to Netherlands; Sicherheitsdienst arrest Dutch resistance fighter Henry Werkman
1951 - 2nd Dutch government of Drees forms; Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany
1954 - Viet Minh General Giap opens assault on That Bien Phu
1955 - Bir BSD Mahendra succeeds Tribhubana as king of Nepal
1957 - Bloody battles after anti-Batista demonstration in Havana, Cuba
1958 - Govt troops land in Sumatra, Indonesia
1961 - Elizabeth Gurley Finn (70) becomes president of US Communist Party; JFK sets up the Alliance for Progress; Landslide in USSR, kills 145; Old type, black & white notes cease to be legal tender
1962 - Yugoslavia grants 1,000 prisoners amnesty
1963 - 2 Russian reconnaissance flights over Alaska
1963 - Indonesia & Netherlands recover diplomatic relations
1964 - Turkey threatens Cyprus with armed attack
1967 - Congo sentences ex-premier Moïse Tsjombe to death
1969 - Apollo 9 returns to Earth
1970 - 100 year Beehive anniversary ends in brawl in Amsterdam; Digital Equipment Corp introduces PDP-11 minicomputer
1973 - Syria adopts constitution
1974 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens near Paris, France
1978 - Moluccans "suicide commandos" occupy Province house
1980 - Ford Motor Co found innocent in death of 3 women in a fiery Pinto
1981 - Attempt on Pope John Paul II's life by Mehemet Ali Agca
1985 - Funeral services held for Konstantin Chernenko (Moscow)
1986 - Soyuz T-15 carries 2 cosmonauts to Soviet space station Mir; Space probe Giotto encounters Halley's Comet
1987 - John Gotti is acquitted of racketeering
1989 - 27th shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8) launched, 1st woman to do the countdown; FDA orders recall of all Chilean fruit in US
1990 - Nicholoas Braithwaite elected premier of Grenada
1991 - Exxon pays $1-billion dollars in fines & cleanup of Valdez oil spill (Prince William Sound, Alaska)
1992 - 570 die in a Turkish earthquake
1993 - Blizzard of '93 hits north-east US
1994 - 33.3% of Austria votes for ultra-right FPÖ; Oil tank/airship crash at Bosporus (huge fire/15+ killed); President Mangope of Bophuthaswana deposed
1995 - Anti fascist Kazakhstan anti-parliament forms; Istanbul police shoot dead 16 Alawitische demonstrators
1996 - Thomas Hamilton kills 16 kindergardeners, their teacher & himself in Dunblane, Scotland

Birthdays
1599 - Johannes Berchmans, Dutch Jesuit/saint
1615 - Innocent XII [Antonio Pignatelli], Pope (1691-1700)
1696 - Louis F.A.D. Duke de Richelieu, French marshal
1741 - Jozef II, Arch Duke of Austria/Roman Catholic German emperor (1765-90)
1764 - Charles Earl Grey (Whig), British Prime Minister (1830-34)
1768 - Charles Louis W.J. van Keverberg, Dutch civil servant
1798 - Abigail Powers Fillmore, US First Lady - Millard Fillmore (1850-53)
1818 - Albion Parris Howe, Union Brevet Major General (Union Army)
1820 - Louis Herbert, Confederate Brigadier General
1855 - Percival "Percy" Lowell, US astronomer (predicted discovery of Pluto)
1904 - Henry Iliffe Cozens, pilot
1909 - Gilbert Inglefield, Mayor of London (1967-68)
1911 - L[aFayette] Ron Hubbard, sci-fi writer/Scientologist (Dianetics)
1912 - James Friell, political cartoonist
1913 - William J. Casey, headed CIA during Iran-contra scandal (1981-87)
1916 - (Corinne) Lindy (Claiborne) Boggs (Representative-LA)
1918 - Faye Glenn Abdellan, US government official (health services)
1920 - Frans van der Elst, Flemish attorney/MP (Volksunie)
1921 - Allan Jaffee, comic strip cartoonist/illustrator (MAD Magazine)
1926 - Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine President (1983-89)
1933 - Frank H. Murkowski (Senator-AK)
1936 - Clarence Nash, animation voice (Donald Duck)
1937 - Fofo I.F. Sunia (Representative-American Samoa)
1958 - Rick A. Lazio (Representative-NY)

Passings
1202 - Mieszko III the Elder, Grand Duke of Poland (1173-77, 1200-02)
1516 - Vladislav II Jagiello, King of Bohemia (1490-1516), dies at 60
1569 - Louis Condé, French prince/co-leader of Hugenots, dies in battle
1573 - Michel de l'Hôpital, Chancellor of France (1560-68), dies at about 65
1837 - Nikita P. Panin, Russian diplomat/minister of Foreign affairs, dies at 66
1881 - Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, assassinated at 62
1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd US President (1889-1893), dies in Indianapolis at 67
1906 - Susan B[rownell] Anthony, American suffragist, dies at 85
1915 - Sergei J. Witte, Dutch count/premier of Russia, dies at 65
1938 - Clarence S. Darrow, Scopes Monkey Trial attorney, dies in Chicago at 80
1941 - A. Coenradi, Bernard Ijzerdraat, E. Hellendoorn, J. Eyl, Dutch resistance fighters, executed; Isaak E. Babel, Russian writer (Zakat, Marija), executed at 46
1946 - Werner von Blomberg, German minister of Reichswehr, dies at 67
1951 - Alfred Hugenberg, German Roman Catholic president-director of Krupp/media magnate, dies
1955 - Maharajadhiraja Tribhuvana Bir Bikram Yung Bahadur Shum Shere; Yung Deva, King of Nepal (191.-55), dies at about 48
1964 - Kitty Genovese, stabbed to death in Queens - 40 neighbors looked on
1975 - Ali Sastroamidjojo, Indonesian attorney/minister/premier, dies at 71
1977 - Fanie Lou Hamer, freedom fighter
1982 - Wilfred Hawker, Suriname Sergeant-Major, executed
1986 - Alvaro Fayad Delgado, Colombian guerilla leader (M-19)
1995 - Abdul Ali Mazari Afghan shite leader, shot to death; John Silverlight journalist, dies at 75; Leo Kaplan, lawyer (ASCAP), dies at 89; P.C.J. van Lierde, Dutch vicar-general of Vatican (1951-91), dies at 87
1996 - Brian Hulls, television news cameraman, dies at 48

Reported Missing in Action
1966
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their AC47D disappeared over Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam:
Davis, Gene E. (IN)

Duvall, Dean A. (IN); aerial gunner

Henninger, Howard W. (CA); pilot

Morgan, Edwin E. (NC); aerial gunner

Olson, Gerald E. (FL)

Pasekoff, Robert E. (PA)

Pauley, Marshall I. (WV); aerial gunner

Also reported MIA this day in 1966:
Parker, Udon, US Army (AL); fell into a stream and was swept away - Killed, body not recovered

1967
Harris, Paul Winiford, USMC (OH); UH34D shot down (w/Terwilliger)

Terwilliger, Virgil Byron, USMC (OH); UH34D shot down (w/Harris)

1968
The following personnel reported MIA when their UH1B was hit by enemy fire and forced to land (crew forced to attempt to evade on the ground):
Evans, Cleveland, Jr., USMC (AR); passenger

Heitman, Steven W., US Army (IN); passenger

Watson, Jimmy L., US Army (NC); pilot

Also reported MIA this day in 1968:
Byrne, Joseph Henry, USAF (IL); A1E shot down (w/Collins)

Collins, Guy Fletcher, USAF (FL); A1E shot down (w/Byrne)

Westbrook, Donald E., USAF (TX); A1E shot down while searching for survivors of the attack on Lima 85, Phou Pha Thi, Laos

1971
Creed, Barton S., USN (NY); A7E shot down, believed captured