News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
U.S. choppers back Iraqi raid of Baghdad
Clashes in Baghdad - Video
Highly anticipated Iraq report may fall flat
Video: Bush prepares for changes in Iraq
Bush to take weeks to decide Iraq policy: official

Operation Enduring Freedom
U.S. Units Steadily Secure, Rebuild Afghanistan

Homeland Security / War on Terror
The Feds Are Watching ...
Judges Fear Dangers on Online Database Outing 'Rats'
Feds Issue Warning of Possible Cyber Attack
Sri Lanka President's brother escapes bomb blast
Indicted: Romanian hacked U.S. computers
Phoenix airport to test X-ray screening

Other Military News
Mud cleared from USS Intrepid's way

Mid-East Ceasefire / Hamas Rising / Israel at War
More Than 10,000 Flood Beirut in Hezbollah Protest
Rice sees hope for Mideast truce
Hezbollah challenge tests U.S. power

Religion of Peace??
Pope Urges Interfaith Peace to End Turkey Visit
Pope hailed for praying toward Mecca like Muslims - Video
Pakistani Islamists protest as new rape law signed


Worldwide Wackos
Chavez vows to thwart vote coup plot - Video
Powell says U.S. should talk to Iran, not attack

Immigration / Border Control
Kidnappings raise fears near U.S. border

Politics / Government
U.S.-British "special relationship" questioned
U.S. overstates China nuclear clout, report says
GOP moderates vow to explore new avenues
Ex-mayor pleads guilty to 243 felonies

U.N. News
World AIDS Day: Programs fail to reach high-risk groups: U.N.

Science / Nature
Experts: Fragments an ancient computer
200 Feared Dead From Typhoon in Philippines
Single massive asteroid wiped out dinosaurs: study
Hundreds feared dead in Philippine landslides

News from My Neck of the Woods
Native American Skull Found on Long Island, N.Y.
Mystery witness sought in NYPD shooting

Oddities
Photog: 'That Was No Oops'
Partying Without Panties: What Do You Think of Britney?
Please fasten your seatbelt and cross your legs..
"I'll be sick, for Christmas, you can plan on me"

Other News of Note
New rules require employers to track e-mails, IMs
Report: Russia to Answer Queries on Spy's Death
Guilty plea in theft of Roosevelt's gun

Fox News
'Apocalypto' Is More 'Mad Max' Than Mayan
Stocks to Watch: The Cheesecake Factory

Reuters: Top News
World AIDS Day: Video: AIDS vaccine future
World AIDS Day: Video: The media spotlight on AIDS
Britain gives go-ahead to GMO potato trials
News Corp in talks to take MySpace to China: WSJ
Microsoft launches Vista version of Windows
Women sacrificed to sex trade in Nigerian city
Want great sex? Wait, says S.African chastity campaign
Indians want AIDS drugs, Indonesians worry about sex
Preteen daters more likely to take up smoking: study
Madonna accepts Malawi adoption ruling: lawyer
Oil falls below $63 on profit-taking
OmniVision slumps after results, outlook lag
Italy to halve Alitalia stake
HandHeld Entertainment shares jump on deal
Gold hits 16-week high on weak dollar, silver firms
December volatility dilemma
Saturated by alternatives
Warner Music posts profit but revenue down
Boeing eyes $15 billion in Indian work: report
Financial firms warned of Qaeda cyber attack
News Corp in talks to take MySpace to China: WSJ
EADS close to deal on Airbus A350 launch: source
Kellwood profit hit by restructuring costs

AP World News
Report sparks changes at pharmacy chains
Study: U.S. workers prefer PPOs, HMOs
Morgan Freeman releases new movie on Web
Baze is 1 win away from making history
Mexican president-elect swears in staff
Bengals use stout D to beat Ravens 13-7
'The View' kind to drunken DeVito
Kerkorian reportedly sells full GM stake
Orca rejoins SeaWorld show after attack
Obituaries in the news
La. forecasts bumper pecan harvest

Military.com
Army and Navy to Face Off
ALERT: VA Retro Pay Update
Op-ed: More Troops?
Blog: The Taliban Press
DT: Nike + iPod = Surveillance
Kit Up!: Not So Silly String
Holiday Space 'A' Travel Info

CENTCOM: News Releases
TWENTY-EIGHT BODIES FOUND SOUTH OF BAQUBAH

CCCI CONVICTS 41 INSURGENTS

SENIOR COALITION COMMANDER IN DIYALA PROVINCE SAYS BAQUBAH STILL FUNCTIONING

ILLEGAL CHECKPOINT FOUND, IRAQIS RESCUED

WEAPONS CACHE DISCOVERED IN NW BAGHDAD

COALITION FORCES KILL 14 INSURGENTS

EIGHT TERRORISTS KILLED DURING EARLY MORNING RAID NEAR BAQUBAH

IED ATTACK IN MUQDADIYAH

ELEVEN HIGH LEVEL ANSAR AL SUNNA TERRORISTS CAPTURED

MARINES RESCUE HOSTAGE, UNCOVER CACHES

ARABIAN SEA MARITIME MISHAP

USJFCOM
Exercise preps 82nd Airborne Division staff for Afghanistan deployment
Milestone reached in development of Cross Domain Collaborative Information Environment - podcast
Liveblogging: Unified Endeavor 07-1
Omni Fusion ties Army into UR 2015 - podcast

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
President: U.S. Forces to Stay In Iraq 'Until Job Complete' - Story
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Army Engineers Aid Iraq Reconstruction Efforts - Story

IN IRAQ
'Port Dawgs' Limit Ground Convoys, Save Lives
U.S., Coalition Forces Train, Support Iraqi Airmen
Musicians Perform for Troops, Visit Wounded
Training Takes Over As Medics Treat Soldiers
Battle Tanks Bring the Thunder to Camp Fallujah
Marines Rescue Iraqis, Capture Terrorists
Troops in Iraq Face 'Observant, Adaptive Enemy'

IN AFGHANISTAN
Military Missions Change as Afghan Army Evolves
Gainey Visits Deployed Troops for Thanksgiving

BACKGROUND
IRAQ
Renewal In Iraq
Iraq: Security, Stability
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Weekly Reconstruction Report (PDF)
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
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

CASUALTIES
Officials Identify Army Casualty - Story

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

National Hurricane Center

Today in History
1167 - Northern Italian towns form the Lombardi League.
1626 - Pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh, tyrannical Governor of Jerusalem, is driven out.
1640 - Portugal regains independence after 60 years of Spanish rule.
1641 - Massachusetts becomes the first colony to give statutory recognition to slavery.
1742 - Empress Elisabeth orders the expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
1783 - Charles and M.N. Roberts ascend 2,000' in a hydrogen balloon.
1804 - Emperor Napoleon marries Joséphine of Martinique.
1821 - Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) proclaims its independence from Spain.
1824 - The House of Representatives begins to end the election deadlock between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Harris Crawford and Henry Clay - Adams is eventually declared President.
1831 - The Erie Canal closes for an entire month due to cold weather.
1835 - Hans Christian Andersen publishes his first book of fairy tales.
1843 - The first chartered mutual life insurance company opens
1864 - Raid at Stoneman: Knoxville, TN to Saltville, VA; Skirmish at Millen Brutal, GA.
1868 - John D. Rockefeller begins his anti-oil war.
1878 - The first White House telephone is installed.
1887 - The Sino-Portuguese treaty recognizes Portugal's control of Macao.
1891 - James Naismith creates the game of basketball.
1896 - In New York, the first certified public accountants receive their certificates.
1903 - "The Great Train Robbery", the first Western film, is released.
1906 - In Paris, Cinema Omnia Pathe, the world's first cinema, opens.
1909 - The Carlisle Trust Company in PA is the site of the first Christmas Club payment.
1913 - In Pittsburgh, the first drive-up gasoline station opens; Ford introduces the continuous moving assembly line (it produces a car every 2 hrs 38 minutes)
1918 - The Danish parliament passes an act granting independence to Iceland; in Belgrade, the Serbian-Croatian-Slovic kingdom is proclaimed.
1919 - Lady Nancy Astor is sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
1921 - The first U.S. helium-filled dirigible makes its maiden flight.
1925 - The Treaty of Locarno is signed.
1929 - Edwin S. Lowe invents the game of BINGO.
1933 - Rudolf Hess and Earnest Röhm become ministers in Hitler's government.
1936 - Bell Labs tests a coaxial cable for TV use.
1939 - SS-Führer Himmler begins the deportation of Polish Jews.
1941 - The U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) organizes; the British cruiser Devonshire sinks the German sub Python; Japanese emperor Hirohito signs a declaration of war.
1942 - Gasoline is rationed in the U.S.
1943 - FDR, Churchill and Stalin agree to Operation Overlord (D-Day).
1948 - The Arabic Congress names Abdullah of Trans Jordan, King of Palestine.
1951 - The Golden Gate Bridge closes due to high winds.
1954 - Nationalist China and the U.S. sign a dike agreement.
1955 - Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus she is riding on.
1958 - In Chicago, Our Lady of Angels School burns, killing 92 students and 3 nuns.
1959 - 12 nations sign a treaty for the scientific peaceful use of Antarctica; the first color photograph of Earth is received from outer space.
1964 - Martin Luther King speaks to J. Edgar Hoover about his slander campaign.
1965 - The airlift of refugees from Cuba to the U.S.begins.
1967 - Queen Elizabeth inaugurates the 98-inch (249-cm) Isaac Newton telescope.
1969 - The U.S. government holds its first draft lottery since WWII.
1971 - The People's Republic of South Yemen renames itself the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.
1974 - A Boeing 727 crashes in Upperville VA, killing 92.
1975 - U.S. President Gerald Ford visits the People's Republic of China.
1976 - Angola is admitted to the U.N.
1978 - President Carter more than doubles the size of the national park system.
1980 - The U.S. Justice Department sues Yonkers, citing racial discrimination.
1983 - Rita Lavelle, former head of the EPA, is convicted of perjury.
1987 - Digging begins to link England and France under the English Channel (the Chunnel).
1988 - 596 are dead after ca yclone hits Bangladesh; half a million are left homeless; Benazir Bhutto is named the female PM of a Muslim country (Pakistan).
1989 - East Germany drops the communist monopoly from its constitution; U.S.S.R. President Mikhail S. Gorbachev meets Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
1990 - British and French workers meet in the English Channel's tunnel; Iraq accepts G.H.W. Bush's offer for talks; Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia hold their first joint session.
1991 - The Ukranian people vote for independence; the U.S.' 75th manned space mission (STS-44 - Atlantis 10) lands.
1992 - Two C-141B Starlifters collide in Montana and crash, killing 13; Amy Fisher is sentenced to 5-15 years for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
1994 - PTL leader Jim Bakker is released from jail.
1997 - Westinghouse formally changes its name to CBS.

Birthdays
1671 - Francesco Stradivari, Italian violin maker
1726 - Oliver Wolcott, judge / signer of the Declaration of Independence
1826 - William Mahone, Confederate Major General
1832 - Archibald Gracie, Jr., Confederate Brigadier-General
1835 - Micah Jenkins, Confederate Brigadier-General (Led Hoods Division at Chickamauga)
1844 - Alexandra, Danish princess/Queen of Great Britain & Ireland
1873 - Charles JM Ruys de Beerenbrouck premier of Netherlands (1918-25, 29-33)
1878 - Arthur B. Spingarn, NAACP chairman (1940-65)
1899 - Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society
1912 - Minoru Yamasaki, architect (World Trade Center, New York)
1919 - Anne Cox Chambers , U.S. ambassador to Belgium (1977-81)
1923 - Stansfield Turner, CIA director
1932 - Robert T. Herres, USAF / astronaut
1935 - Woody Allen, a.k.a.Allen Stuart Konigsberg, actor (Annie Hall)
1940 - Richard Pryor, comedian/actor (Lady Sings the Blues, Stir Crazy)
1942 - Peter Kalikow Queens NY, real estate developer/publisher (New York Post)
1945 - Bette Midler, singer (Wind Beneath My Wings) / actress (Beaches, First Wives Club)
1951 - Alexander Panayotov Aleksandrov, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-5)

Passings
0660 - Eligius/Eloy, French bishop of Tournay-Noyon/saint
1135 - King Henry I of England (first king that could read)
1374 - Magnus Eriksson, kKing of Norway/Sweden
1417 - Walraven I. van Brederode, viceroy of Holland
1515 - Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (el Gran Capitán), Spanish general
1521 - Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici), Pope (1513-21)
1530 - Margaretha of Austria, governess of the Netherlands
1633 - Isabella of Austria, infante of Spain/governess in Holland
1797 - Oliver Wolcott, U.S. judge / signer of the Declaration of Independence
1825 - Aleksandr I. P. Romanov, czar of Russia (1801-25)
1842 - Philip Spencer, first U.S. naval officer condemned for mutiny, hanged
1887 - Albertus J. Duymaer van Twist, Governor-General of the Dutch-Indies
1934 - Sergei M. Kirov, Josef Stalin's collaborator, assassinated in Leningrad
1939 - Max Fiedler, composer
1947 - Aleister Edward S. Crowley, British occultist
1971 - Arthur B. Springarn, NAACP chairman (1940-65)
1972 - Antonio Segni, Italian PM/President (1955-57, 59-60, 62-64)
1973 - David Ben-Gurion, founding father of Israel
1974 - Stephen Gill Spottswood, U.S. bishop / NAACP chairman
1987 - Donn Fulton Eisele, Colonel USAF/astronaut
1991 - George Joseph Stigler, U.S. economist (Nobel 1982)
1996 - Barbak Karmal, politician

Reported Missing in Action
1965
McCormick, John V., USN (MI); A4C shot down, remains returned April, 1988

Reitman, Thomas Edward, USAF (MN); F105D crashed

1966
Nicotera, Carl, US Army ; PRG says DIC December, 1966 (discrepancies in record)

1969
Rogers, Billie Lee, USN (IN); CVA-61, drowned