News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Italy to pull 1,100 troops from Iraq
U.S. Colonel: Troop Morale 'Absolutely Tremendous'
Iraqi Leaders Clash Over Security Posts

Operation Enduring Freedom
U.S.-led Strike Kills Taliban Leaders in Afghanistan
'Fighting Deuce' MPs Patrol Afghan Mountains
Afghan Lawmakers Nix Supreme Court Nominee

Troops on Trial
Marines May Face Murder Charges in Iraqi Deaths
Official: Iraq civilian deaths unjustified
Defense Rests in Dog Handler's Trial

Other Military News
Top veteran official joins pentacle debate

Hamas Rising
Hamas Militia Returns to Streets of Gaza

NSA / CIA
Senate confirms Hayden as CIA director

Worldwide Wackos
Galloway under fire for saying killing Blair 'morally justified' (What a peach this guy is, eh?)

Homegrown Moonbats
Judge: Sex offender too short for prison (Yep, believe it or not...)

Politics / Government
Attorney General prepared to quit over Jefferson probe: NYT
Bush leaning toward friend Evans for Treasury: NYT
House leaders concede FBI right to search
Gunfire false alarm closes Capitol
Time ordered to give documents to Libby

Media in the Media
China sets trial date for detained NYT researcher

Oddities
Lovesick swan falls in love with swan paddle boat
Strongwoman seeks phone books to save show

Other News of Note
Doc interrupts surgery to donate his blood

Fox News
37 Million Expected to Travel for Holiday Weekend
N.C. Bus Accident Injures 40
Myanmar Extends Detention of Democracy Activist
FBI: Murder Couple Caught With 5-Year-Old Child
Dozens of Houses Torched in East Timor Capital
Severe Storms Leave 5 Dead Across Midwest
Students Face Jail Over Pot-Brownie Senior Prank
Hate Crimes Up in Germany Before World Cup
Space Center
Video Gaming Center
Indonesian Quake Deaths Rise - Government reports 1,400 dead

Reuters: Top News
Indonesia quake death toll climbs to 2,276 - Video
WHO tests show Indonesian girl died of bird flu
Kyoto states to discuss post-2012 cuts
Flaw found in Symantec business antivirus software
Earthlink to build New Orleans Wi-Fi network
Religion, politics mix awkwardly for China's Muslims
British mothers hooked on "powerpramming"
Children called "missing face" of AIDS pandemic
Avoid ADHD drugs, Canada tells heart patients
Gwen Stefani gives birth to boy
Michael Jackson cheered in Tokyo in rare public appearance
Forex industry primed for future China reforms
Mittal vows to press ahead with Arcelor bid: paper
CBS, Stern settle legal dispute
US FDA approves Merck vaccine to prevent shingles
Telefonica commits to clutch of targets, shares up
EchoStar, Universal Music settle channel dispute
Stocks end higher, buoyed by banks and data
Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks to be volatile; inflation, jobs eyed
US Air shares gain on strong summer outlook
Icahn group prepares KT&G bid: brokerage - Video
Arcelor/Severstal deal sends steel stocks soaring - Video

AP World News
Christian Brando fined for court behavior
Mavs clamp down on Suns to tie West finals
5 die after storms hit Ind., Ky., Tenn.
Mo. suspects in taped rape, killing nabbed
WHO puts Tamiflu maker on bird flu alert
37 million expected to travel this weekend
Knife-wielding teen wounds 27 in Berlin
Hurricanes blank Sabres to tie series
Webb improves to 8-0 as Diamondbacks win
Robertson says he leg-pressed 2,000 pounds

Military.com
Fallen Troops' Families Split on Bush Talk
Afghanistan Shows Need for More Training

CENTCOM: News Releases
IRAQI OIL TERMINAL FIRE BURNS ITSELF OUT

COALITION FORCES CAPTURE SIX TERRORISTS IN RAMADI

Department of Defense
U.S., U.K. to Increase Interoperability - Story
International Community Must Unite, Blair Says
Cheney Urges Navy Grads to Know the Enemy - Story - Remarks
Iraqi General Committed to Reforming Military - Story - On Assignment
Iraqi Security Forces Taking Larger Role - Story - Video - Transcript

ON THE GROUND
Iraqis Adapt British Military Academy as Model - Story - On Assignment
Center Helps Iraqis Shape Military Culture - Story - On Assignment
Troops Restore Base to Hand Back to Iraqis - Story
U.S. Army Mechanics Train Iraqi Counterparts - Story

IN IRAQ
Training Ensures Marines Ready for Combat
Injured by Bombs, Iraqi Gets Prosthetic Hand

IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghan Border Police, Villagers Secure Border
Abizaid Visits 'Mountain Lion' Battlefields

IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
U.S. Admiral, African Traditional Leader Meet

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Partners Repair Soldier's Home - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Forces Detain 21 Terror Suspects
Bush, Blair Reaffirm Commitment
Oil Terminal Fire Burns Itself Out
Official Requests Probe of Death
Suicide Bombings Mask Progress
Renewal In Iraq
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
Forces Detain Two Suspects
Forces Kill 24 Enemy Fighters
Afghan Progress Frustrates Taliban
Up to 80 Taliban Believed Killed
Forces Kill 20 Enemy in Firefight
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Rumsfeld: War's Sacrifices Tragic
U.S. Ops, Basing in Europe Change
EUCOM Supports War on Terror
NATO Sheds Cold War Mentality
Nations Focus on Homeland Defense
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

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
1529 - Thirty Hungarian Jews are charged with conducting a blood ritual, and burned at the stake.
1679 - The Habeaus Corpus Act (no false arrest / imprisonment) passes in Great Britain.
1703 - Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg (later renamed Leningrad).
1813 - The U.S. captures Fort George, Canada.
1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse completes the first telegraph line.
1862 - Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (Slash Church, Peake's Station)
1863 - The CSS Chattahoochie explodes on the Chattahoochie River in GA, killing 18; Siege of Port Hudson, LA.
1883 - Czar Alexander III is crowned in Moscow.
1896 - The first major tornado to strike the urban U.S. hits in St. Louis and East St. Louis, killing 255 and leaving thousands homeless.
1905 - The Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Straits of Tushima.
1907 - Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Fransisco.
1918 - Battle of Aisne.
1919 - A U.S. Navy flying boat complets the first transatlantic flight - it takes 11 days; Charles Strite patents the pop-up toaster.
1921 - After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty.
1927 - Japan intervenes in the Chinese civil war.
1930 - Richard Drew invents masking tape.
1931 - The first full-scale airplane testing windtunnel opens at Langley Field, VA; the first flight into the stratosphere occurs, in the first balloon with a pressurized cabin.
1933 - The Austrian communist party is banned.
1935 - The Supreme Court declares FDR's National Recovery Act unconstitutional.
1936 - The RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage, to New York.
1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge is dedicated.
1940 - The British and French begin Operation Dynamo; the evacuation of Dunkirk.
1941 - Allied troops begin evacuating Kreta; FDR proclaimes an "unlimited national emergency" due to Germany's sinking of the Robin Moor ; the German battleship Bismarck is sunk by the British naval force.
1942 - Dorie Miller is awarded the Navy Cross for his acts at Pearl Harbor;Hitler orders the murder of 10,000 Czechoslovakians; the Italian army begins the siege of the French western Fort Bir Hachim; Nazi Reinhard Heydrich is shot and mortally wounded in Prague.
1943 - The U.S. forbids racial discrimination in the war industry.
1944 - The Allies land in Biak, Indonesia, in Operation Horlicks; the Japanese advance in Hangkhou, China.
1948 - Arabs blow up a Jewish synagogue - Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid.
1951 - Chinese Communists force the Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing.
1960 - A military coup overthrows Turkey's democratic government.
1963 - Jomo Kenyatta is elected as the first prime minister of Kenya.
1966 - The 55th German F-16 Starfighter crashes; 6 French fighters crash above Spain.
1968 - The nuclear submarine USS Scorpion is lost, five days before its scheduled return to port in Norfolk. The cause is still unknown.
1969 - Construction begins on Walt Disney World.
1977 - 2 Boeing 747s (Pan Am & KLM) collide in the Canary Islands, killing 582.
1980 - South Korean police end a people's uprising; 2,000 people are killed.
1981 - John Hinckley attempts suicide by overdosing on Tylenol.
1985 - Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
1986 - President Reagan orderes 2 Poseidon-class submarines dismantled.
1988 - The Senate ratifies a treaty eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles.
1994 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after 20 years in exile.
1997 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin signs a historic treaty with NATO.

Birthdays
1818 - Amelia Jenks Bloomer, suffragette; known for her pantaloons
1819 - Julia Ward Howe, American author/lecturer (Battle Hymn of the Republic)
1823 - Union Major General John Gray Foster Major General
1836 - Confederate Brigadier General Edwin Gray Lee
1837 - Confederate Major Genreal Robert Frederick Hoke
1897 - John Douglas Cockroft, English physicist (Radar), Nobel prize winner
1911 - Hubert Humphrey, Senator-MN, 38th Vice President, 1969 Presidential candidate
1915 - Herman Wouk, novelist (Caine Mutiny, Winds of War)
1918 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japanese Prime Minister
1923 - Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
1930 - William S. Sessions, director of the FBI
1944 - Christopher J. Dodd (Senator-CT)
1947 - Peter DeFazio (Representative-OR)

Passings
1647 - Achsah Young, first woman known executed as a witch (Massachusetts)
1790 - Jeremiah Carlton, laziest man in history, inherited a fortune at 19, went to bed and stayed there for the next 70 years
1863 - Union Brigadier General Edward Payson Chapin
1910 - Robert Koch, German bacteriologist (TB, Cholera), Nobel prize winner
1941 - Günther Lütjens, German Admiral (Bismarck)
1951 - Thomas Blamey, soldier

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Lynn, Doyle W., USN (PA); F8D shot down, KIA/BNR

1966
Monahan, Robert W., Civilian; Released by Viet Cong January, 1967

Scales, Thomas R., Civilian; Released by Viet Cong January,1967 - deceased as of 1998

1967
Blackwood, Gordon B., USAF (CA); F105D shot down, remains returned, ID'd November, 1989

1970
Lee, Glen H., USAF (HI); F4D shot down, remains returned, ID'd August, 1994

1971
Knuckey, Thomas W., US Army (NJ); OH58A shot down (w/Taylor), remains ID'd August, 1993

Taylor, Phillip C., US Army (NY); OH58A shot down (w/Knuckey), remains ID'd August, 1993

1972
Latendresse, Thomas B., USN (WA); A4F shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well in 1998