News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
W.House defends Bush use of Iraqi body counts
U.S. must reform Iraqi forces before leaving: Hashemi
McCain asks Iraq PM to break with cleric

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
'Blind Sheik' Gravely Ill; FBI Issues Terror Alert
U.S. says al Qaeda behind Somali Islamists (Well, duh...)
Palestinian PM Returns to Gaza Without Funds
Hamas in control of Gaza border crossing

Other Military News
Army moves to reduce strain on troops

Worldwide Wackos
North Korea may mar nuclear talks with test: minister

Homegrown Moonbats
Group not satisfied with Rosie's apology

Politics / Government
Sen. Johnson Recuperating After Brain Surgery
New Jersey Legislature Passes Civil Unions Bill
Does Katie Couric's Stumble Signal Hillary Clinton's Fall?
New Jersey approves gay civil unions
U.S. lawmakers press China to boost yuan's value
Investors sanguine about Dem Congress
Democrats to raise wages for poor workers
House leader proposes ethics task force
Lawmaker visits to Syria unhelpful: White House

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment
Execution of Florida Man for Topless Bar Murder That Took 34 Minutes Sparks Criticism
Children lured into Thai sex industry in Pattaya
Wis. nurse suspended in patient death

Immigration / Border Control
Body found in Mexico with agents' cards

U.N. News
Ban sworn in as U.N. secretary-general
U.N. secretary-general flunks first test
New U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon vows to restore trust

Science / Nature
New Hope for Mount Hood Rescuers
VIDEO: Weather Hinders Search for Missing Climbers
Severe Geomagnetic Storm Expected From Tuesday's Solar Flare
World's Tallest Man Uses Long Arms to Save 2 Dolphins in China
Spacewalking astronauts rewire space station - Video
Scientists surprised about comet's ingredients
Fierce storm cuts power in Northwest
World's first cloned cat has kittens

Oddities
Dad Accused of Running Dryer With Kids Inside
It's US vs UK in online geography battle
Press eats words for immigrant murder story

Other News of Note
Hundreds of British police join serial killer hunt

Fox News
Beth Twitty: 'All We Want Is Justice for Our Daughter'
Lawsuit Claims Natalee's Death Was Intentional
Duke Defense Blasts Photo Line-Up
VIDEO: Defense Asks Judge to Ban Courtroom Identifications
Polygamist Jeffs to Stand Trial on Rape Charges
Stocks to Watch: Global Communications and Ford
Breast Cancer Drop Linked to Hormone Therapy

Reuters: Top News
Video gamers share their pain as they get active
"Gears of War" wins No. 1 spot in U.S. video game sales
E. coli outbreak may be over: CDC
Fresh faces brighten Hollywood's Golden Globes
Rebel tenor holds own show outside La Scala
Dow sets record close - Video
Three IPOs surge in HK debuts on strong demand
Lee reports newspaper ad revenue gains
Home Depot buys back $3 billion in stock
Worthington stock up on takeover rumors
Reuters Summit: Investment Outlook
Bomb chase the biggest worry for 2007
Audio: Thumbs up for Fed chief
Japan Tobacco confirms talks to buy Gallaher
Australia regulator says examining Qantas takeover
Ford shakes up top team, names product chief
NY pension funds press big Web companies on rights
Dell delays 10-Q, citing accounting probes
Adobe profit up, product upgrades on track

AP World News
Report finds Diana's death wasn't murder
Miss USA's 'personal issues' scrutinized
Investment banks post record 2006 profit
Smith, Gore lead Niners over Seahawks
Matsuzaka's the toast of Beantown
Music pioneer Ahmet Ertegun dies at 83
CNN's Dr. Gupta also making calls at CBS
Cyclist indicted in steroids probe
Pro football visionary Lamar Hunt dies
24 pct. growth in Web holiday sales seen
'Babel' leads Golden Globes with 7 nods
OPEC set to lower oil production in Feb.

Military.com
Air Force Mulls 'Global Strike' Options
Op-ed: Rumsfeld's Farewell
Blog: Unfiltered From Fallujah
Time to "Reconnect America"
Advisors: Are You a Re-Beginner?
These Celebs Are Vets?
The Perfect Kind of Holiday Shopping
Gear in the News: LSD Landing Ship

CENTCOM: News Releases
IP DISCOVER ROCKETS AIMED AT CF BASE

COALITION FORCES USE A PRECISION GUIDED MUNITION TO DESTROY INSURGENT POSITION

RED BULLS VALIDATE VEHICLES AT BOARDER CROSSING

SIX SUSPECTED TERRORISTS DETAINED; WEAPONS CACHE FOUND

RUSAFA SQUARE TARGETED BY CAR BOMB

U.S. SPECIAL FORCES, ANA PROVIDE HUMANITARIAN RELIEF

MULTIPLE VEHICLE BOMBS DETONATE NEAR THE AL-SAMOURI MOSQUE

FIRST STEP TO PEACE - JISR DIYALA COUNCIL BROKERING PEACE IN EASTERN BAGHDAD

IRAQI ARMY ARRESTS FIVE SUSPECTS IN RUSAFA

CAR BOMB DETONATES NEAR KAMALIA MOSQUE

RAMADI POLICE BATTLE INSURGENT AMBUSH

ISF CAPTURES ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP CELL LEADER - UPDATE

USJFCOM
USJFCOM’s new super computer to enhance joint experimentation, training - podcast
Command surgeon hosts joint task force medical seminar - podcast

Department of Defense
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Baghdad Counts on Local Improvements - Story
Iraqi Police Return Home From Training - Story
Ceremony Focuses on Stryker Brigade Journey - Story
Field Activities Create Cohesion, Raise Morale - Story

IN IRAQ
Avionics Marines Give Harriers 'Pulse' at Al Asad
Soldier's Ultimate Sacrifice Earns Silver Star
Joint Operations Combat Insurgency in Diyala
Marine Engineers Focus on Repairing Vital Runway
U.S. Army, Iraqi Engineers Attend Training
Rumsfeld Thanks Troops for Service, Patriotism

IN AFGHANISTAN
Patrol Trucks to Increase Security in Afghanistan
Flight Surgeons Certify Afghan Army Aviators
Military Policemen Prepare for Return to States
Afghan Farming Communities to Receive Tractors
Reconstruction Team Hosts First Vendor Fair

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

Today in History
0687 - St Sergius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Conon
1124 - Chancellor Haimeric selects pope (Lamberto becomes Honorius II)
1488 - Bartholomeus Diaz returns to Portugal after sailing round Cape of Good Hope
1569 - Westmoreland flees to Scotland
1593 - State of Holland grants patent on windmill with crankshaft
1612 - Simon Marius, is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1640 - Duke of Bragança crowned King Johan IV of Portugal
1660 - Philippines: Andres Malongs rebels plunders Bagnotan
1664 - English colonizing Connecticut
1667 - Brandenburg declares himself neutral in Devolutie War
1680 - Tax revolt on Terschelling due to tax on cereal
1688 - Lord Delamere sides with King James II
1745 - Battle at Kesseldorf: Prussia beats Saksen & Austria
1791 - Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gave its approval
1791 - 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1792 - 1st life insurance policy issued in US (Philadelphia)
1794 - Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
1820 - 1st general pharmacopoeia in US published, Boston
1836 - Patent Office burns in Washingto,n DC
1854 - 1st street-cleaning machine in US 1st used in Philadelphia
1859 - GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
1863 - Skirmish at Bean's Station, TN (Knoxville Campaign)
1864 - Battle of Nashville, TN; Raid on Stoneman: Abingdon & Glade Springs VA
1874 - 1st reigning king to visit US (of Hawaii) received by President Grant
1877 - Thomas Edison patents phonograph
1891 - James Naismith invents basketball (Canada)
1914 - American Radio Relay League (organization for hams) founded by Hiram Percy Maxim; Battle of Lódz ends, Russians retreat toward Moscow; British fleet forfeits chance to destroy German fleet in North Sea; Swedish troops overrun Belgrade in Austria-Hungary
1916 - French defeat Germans in WWI Battle of Verdun
1917 - Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia
1918 - American Jewish Congress holds its 1st meeting
1919 - Fiume (Rijeka) declares it's Independence
1922 - IVVV (association) peace congress on war forms in Hague
1926 - Facist national symbol elevated in Italy
1934 - Fokker F18 Snip flies to Netherlands West Indies
1938 - Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC
1939 - 1st commercial manufacture of nylon yarn, Seaford DE
1941 - USS Swordfish becomes 1st US sub to sink a Japanese ship; Gas/electrical use restricted in Holland; German submarine U-127 sinks; Nazis transfer 100 Czechoslovakian citizens/Heinrich Himmler falls faint; North Africa: allied assault up Italians Gazala-posing
1942 - Massachusetts issues 1st US vehicular license plate tabs
1944 - Bandleader, Major Glenn Miller, lost over English Channel; Hizbu'allah (Arm forces for Allah) forms; US Congress gives General Eisenhower his 5th star; US troops lands on Mindoro
1948 - Former state department official Alger Hiss indicted in NYC for perjury
1950 - NYC's Port Authority opens
1952 - Christine Jorgenson is 1st person to undergo a sex-change operation
1954 - Fordham University scraps football team for financial reasons; Netherlands Antilles becomes co-equal part of Kingdom of Netherlands
1961 - Adolf Eichmann convicted of crimes against humanity in Israel; Equal access rule, political parties get TV broadcasting time; JFK visits Puerto Rico
1964 - Canada adopts maple leaf flag; 1st time 4 people in space
1965 - 3rd cyclone of year kills another 10,000 at mouth of Ganges River, Bangladesh; Gemini 6 launched; makes 1st rendezvous in space (with Gemini 7)
1966 - Audouin Dollfus discovers 10th satellite of Saturn, Janus
1967 - Silver Bay bridge (Ohio-West Virginia) collapses during afternoon rush hour, 34 die
1970 - Soviet Venera 7 is 1st spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus); South Korean ferry Namyong-Ho sinks in Strait of Korea, 308 killed
1971 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1973 - American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not mental illness
1976 - Argo Merchant tanker off Massachusetts' SE coast, spills 7.6 million gallons of crude when the ship runs aground; Jamaica premier Manley wins elections
1979 - Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panamá; World Court in Hague rules Iran should release all US hostages
1980 - Premier Queddei troops conquers Chad capital N'djamena; ZBZ Sangha (now ZBZ Bodhidharma) officially registered after 5 years of administrative hassles in Warsaw
1981 - NASA launches Intelsat V
1982 - Roy Williams, Teamsters president, & 4 others convicted of bribery; Spain reopens border with Gibraltar; Sao Tome & Principe constitution approved
1983 - Columbia flies to Kennedy Space Center via El Paso, Kelly AFB; Last 80 US combat soldiers in Grenada withdrew
1984 - USSR launches Vega 1 for rendezvous with Halley's Comet
1986 - CIA director William Casey suffers a cerebral seizure; 150 killed during race riot in Karachi, Pakistan
1993 - British premier major/Irish premier Reynolds signs Downing Street Declaration concerning Northern Ireland self determination; C-130 flies into a Philippines hill & explodes, 16 killed; Haitian premier Robert Malval resigns; Lee Aspen resigns as Secretary of Defense; Y-12 crashes at Phonesavanh, Laos: 18 killed
1994 - John Bruton becomes Ireland's premier; Liberia militia kills 48 inhabitants of Monrovia
1995 - Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland
1997 - San Francisco 49ers retire Joe Montana's #16

Birthdays
0037 - Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus, 5th emperor of Rome (54-68)
1778 - Godert AGP baron van der Capellen Dutch Governor-General (Dutch-Indies)
1832 - Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, French engineer (Eiffel tower)
1848 - Edwin Howland Blashfield, decorated the dome of Library of Congress
1852 - Antoine Henri Becquerel, discovered radioactivity (Nobel 1903); Tewfik Pasja khedive (viceroy) of Egypt
1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen Denmark, physician/phototherapist (Nobel 1903)
1861 - Charles Edgar Duryea inventor (1st auto built & operated in US)
1863 - Arthur D Little US, chemist (patented rayon); Paul [Prudent] Painlevé French mathematician/minister/premier
1892 - J. Paul Getty, oil magnate (Getty Oil)
1915 - Jose Toribio Merino Castro, admiral
1916 - Maurice Wilkins England, physicist, worked with DNA (Nobel 1962)
1922 - Alan Freed, DJ, accepted payola/introduced term "rock-n-roll"
1950 - Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Dutch minister of Justice (198?-94)

Passings
1025 - Basilius II the Bulgarendoder, Byzantine emperor (976-1025)
1230 - Ottokar I, king of Bohemia (1197-1230)
1515 - Alfonso de Albuquerque, viceroy of Portuguese Indies
1576 - Joachim Hopperus [Hoppers] Frisian lawyer/politician, at 53
1598 - Philip van Marnix Flemish ruler of St Aldegonde/poet, at 58
1621 - Charles d'albert, Duke of Luynes/PM of France, at 43
1699 - Henrik A van Reede tot Drakenstein, Dutch botanist, dies at about 63
1712 - Sidney 1st Earl of Godolphine, English minister of Finance, dies at 67
1817 - Maria Walewska [Leszczinska], lover of emperor Napoleon I
1826 - William Browser rebelling slave, executed in New York, NY
1880 - Carlo Boncompagni di Mombello, Italian minister of Justice, at 76
1889 - Ferdinand II, king of Portugal, at 73
1890 - Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa-Sioux chief (Little Big Horn), killed by US Army
1934 - Maggis Lena Walker 1st US (Black) woman to head a bank, at 69
1944 - Glenn Miller US band leader/jazz composer, at 40
1951 - Eric Drummond 1st Secretary-General, League of Nations (1919-33), at 75
1966 - Walt Disney, animator, dies at 65, put in suspended animation
1992 - Fré [Frederik] Meis, Dutch MP (CPN), at 71
1995 - Manuel Gutierrez Mellado, PM of Defense of Spain (1977-81), at 83
1996 - Laurens jan van der Post, explorer/conservationist, at 90
1997 - Lillian Disney, widow of Walt Disney, 98; Pananayiotis Taki Vatikiotis middle east scholar, at 69

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Clark, Jerry P., US Army (IA); O1D lost after reporting low fuel

1969
Schumacher, James K., US Army; AWOL

1970
The following US Navy personnel lost when their C2A crashed in water; all presumed Killed, / BNR:

Deuso, Carroll J. (VT)

McCoy, Meril O., Jr. (CA)

Owen, Clyde C. (MO)

Piersanti, Anthony J., Jr., (NJ)