News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq Study Group chairs defend report
Leaders defend call for new Iraq plan
Talks under way to replace Iraq PM

Operation Enduring Freedom
Karzai: NATO bombs, terrorists kill kids

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Read FBI's Case Against Would-Be Mall Terrorist
Algeria bombing kills one, wounds American

Other Military News
Ambassadors to honor female WWII spy
Code Clash May Kill $256B Fighter Plane Deal

Hamas / Hezbollah
Deadly Gaza Drive-By
Three children of Palestinian officer killed
Hamas Pledges to Spruce Up Jesus' Birthplace for Christmas

'Tis the Season
Rockin' Around the... Oh, Wait
EXCLUSIVE-Retailers miss holiday gravy train: consultant
Stores plying shoppers with discounts

Worldwide Wackos
Ex-Dictator Pinochet Dies - PHOTOS
White House remembers "difficult" Pinochet era
Pinochet's death sparks clashes in Chile
China: North Korean Nuke Talks to Resume Dec. 18
Iran Opens Holocaust Conference

Politics / Government
'08 Hopeful Sen. Brownback Spends Night in Jail
In New Hampshire, Obama stirs up hope

Immigration / Border Control
Parents: Smugglers Did Not Take Our Baby

U.N. News
Children suffer when mother lacks input, UNICEF says

Science / Nature
Typhoon roars out of Philippines - Video
Shuttle heads for space station after scan
Discovery doing well so far, NASA says
Scientists marvel at sea life miles deep

Oddities
Penis of Indian Mutilated by Mob Reattached

Other News of Note
Protests Spread Over Victoria's Secret G-Strings
California Dad Walked 16 Miles to Save Family
Beirut rally piles pressure on U.S.-backed govt - Video
Litvinenko contacts may agree to speak to Russians - Video

Fox News
Renegade Cleric Defies Pope - Installs married priests in spite of warnings
Hold the Onions, Please - Taco Bell: scallions to blame for E. Coli outbreak

Reuters: Top News
Indonesia's Aceh votes to decide life after war
"Inkjet" printer helps organize stem cells
Dial a "Model" for $5.99
S.Korea says third bird flu case confirmed
War, child labor, Gore in documentary spotlight
Funk veteran Prince to play at Super Bowl show
Stocks to heed Fed and CPI
Markets firmer, Nikkei up 0.5 pct
Stocks gain on robust job growth
Yum shares battered by more E. coli cases
Allegiant Travel shares climb in debut
Think tax-backward to avoid the AMT
How to keep more of what you make
Home Depot set to announce China deal
Tata Steel raises Corus bid
Another E.coli outbreak rattles California farmers

AP World News
Next for NYC trans fat ban: enforcement
Gibson delivers another box office win
Cowboys outsmarted by Parcells protege
Police question Doherty on party death
Experts puzzle over halt of bird flu
Chargers' L.T. grabs TD record, AFC West
12-year-old Fanning: I want to direct
Nearly 50 years old, Barbie bounces back
Tomlinson breaks Alexander's TD record
Drew comes up big as Jags trounce Colts
Leader to leave Haiti for cancer tests
Miami blanks Pats; Brady sacked 4 times

Military.com
Judge Weighs Torture Claim Vs. Rumsfeld
Hero Hugs Delivering Holiday Cheer
Learn to Use Your GI Bill
Blog: On Patrol in Fallujah
How Does Santa Find Military Kids?
Oliver North Back in Iraq
Ten Steps to Joining the Military
Gear in the News: AS Submarine Tender

CENTCOM: News Releases
COALITION FORCES ENGAGE INSURGENTS WITH PRECISION-GUIDED MUNITIONS

IRAQI NATIONAL POLICE AND COALTION FORCES CONDUCT JOINT OPERATIONS SEIZE WEAPONS IN AL DOURA

OPERATION NETS 10 SUSPECTS, WEAPONS

THREE INSURGENTS KILLED WHILE EMPLACING AN IED

ISF DETAINS 4 DURING RAID TO CAPTURE ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP LEADER

OPERATION NETS FIVE AL-QAEDA SUSPECTS

OPERATION NETS 11 SUSPECTS, CACHE OF WEAPONS

SHIEKS CONTINUE DISCUSSIONS OF SECURITY, STABILITY FOR DIYALA

LOCAL LEADERS MEET TO RESOLVE ISSUES IN SINIYAH

COALITION FORCES DETAIN 8 IN SEARCH FOR MURDER KIDNAPPING CELL LEADER

CCCI CONVICTS FOUR INSURGENTS

COALITION FORCES DISCOVER IED, IRAQI SOLDIERS ENTER MOSQUE

IA CAPTURES INSURGENT CELL LEADERS DURING RAID

ISF CAPTURES ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP LEADERS DURING RAID

IA, CF DISCOVER, DESTROY IED FACTORY

USJFCOM
C4 program to deliver joint training set to begin - podcast

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
President: Iraq Study Group Endorses Key U.S. Strategic Goal - Story
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Rumsfeld Thanks Troops for Service, Patriotism - Story
Secretary Receives Warm Welcome from Troops - Story
Marine Commander: U.S. Troop Morale in Iraq High - Story
'American Heroes’ Help Iraqis Every Day - Story

IN IRAQ
Marine Tankers Search Desert for Weapons
Hundreds Graduate from Iraqi Basic Training
Learning, Teaching and Growing in Iraq
Baghdad Counts on Local Improvements
Coalition Works to Help Iraqis Move Forward
Bulgarian Minister of Defense Visits Troops
Doctors, Corpsmen Practice Hand-to-Hand Combat

IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghan Farming Communities to Receive Tractors
Reconstruction Team Hosts First Vendor Fair
Reconstruction Team Brings Supplies to Orphans
Infantry Soldiers Help to Rebuild Afghanistan
Operation Season's Greetings Stops at Bagram

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 Casualties - 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
0384 - St. Damasus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1572 - Spanish troops begin siege of Haarlem
1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1688 - King James II arrested
1710 - Battle of Villa Viciosa (France beat Habsburgers)
1718 - Battle at Frederikshall Norway
1719 - 1st recorded display of Aurora Borealis in US (New England)
1792 - France's King Louis XVI went on trial, accused of treason
1816 - Citizens of Geneva thwart Savoyard invaders; Indiana becomes the 19th US state
1844 - 1st dental use of nitrous oxide, Hartford, CT
1872 - 1st Black US Governor took office, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (Louisiana)
1882 - Boston's Bijou Theatre, 1st American playhouse lit exclusively by electricity, gives its 1st performance, Gilbert & Sullivan's "Iolanthe"
1893 - 11 fishing ships wash up at Wadden Sea, 22 killed
1899 - 2nd defeat of "Black Week" - Battle of Magersfontein - Boer leader Cronjé vs General Methuen
1901 - Marconi sends 1st transatlantic radio signal, Cornwall to Newfoundland
1903 - British forces under MacDonald & Young march into Tibet
1906 - US President Roosevelt attacks abuses in the Congo
1909 - Colored moving pictures demonstrated at Madison Square Garden, New York NY
1916 - David Lloyd George forms British war government
1917 - 13 black soldiers hanged for alleged participation in Houston riot; German-occupied Lithuania proclaims independence from Russia
1919 - Boll weevil monument dedicated in Enterprise AL
1928 - Buenos Aires police thwart an attempt on President-elect Herbert Hoover
1930 - Bank of the United States opens in New York NY
1931 - British Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Newfoundland; Japan leaves the Golden Standard
1937 - Italy withdraws from League of Nations
1939 - New anti Jewish measurements in Poland, proclaimed
1940 - Russian General Zhukov warns of German assault
1941 - Germany & Italy declare war on US; Japanese occupy Guam; Dutch government in London declares war on Italy; Japanese attack Wake Island (only failed WWII-landing)
1942 - Australian/Dutch guerrilla troops evacuated to Timor near Australia
1944 - Surprise attack on House of Keeping Axe, 29 prisoners freed
1945 - Het Parool publishes 1st Captain Rob-strip
1946 - UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) established (Nobel 1965); Spain suspended from UN
1951 - Joe Dimaggio announces his baseball retirement
1953 - KTVA TV channel 11 in Anchorage (CBS) becomes Alaska's 1st TV station
1954 - USS Forrestal christened in Newport News VA
1956 - Anti-Russian demonstrates in Stettin & Wroclaw Poland
1958 - Upper Volta (now Bourkina Fasso) gains autonomy from France; 4th (last) Dutch government of Drees falls
1960 - Black Sunday - Riot in Algiers, 114 die
1961 - Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes, in Israel; JFK provides US military helicopters & crews to South Vietnam; SST prototype "Concorde" 1st shown (France)
1967 - 6.5 earthquake in West India, 170 killed; People's front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) established
1969 - Libya adopts constitution
1972 - Astronauts Cernan & Harrison become 11th & 12th on the Moon
1973 - West German chancellor Willy Brandt normalizes trade with Czechoslovakia
1978 - 6 masked men bound 10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at New York Kennedy Airport & made off with $5.8 million in cash & jewelry
1979 - Great Britain grants independence to Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)
1981 - Spacelab I arrives at Kennedy Space Center; UN Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru as 5th Secretary-General; Argentine President/General Roberto Viola flees
1983 - 1st visit to Lutheran church by a pope (John Paul II in Rome)
1984 - Mauretania military coup under Colonel Maawiya Ould Sid'ahmed Taya
1985 - Computer store owner in Sacramento CA killed by package bomb
1986 - South Africa censors press
1990 - 13 die in 83 vehicle accident in Chattanooga TN (I-75), due to fog; US 69th manned space mission STS 35 (Columbia 11) returns from space
1991 - William Kennedy Smith found not guilty of rape
1992 - Nor'easter storm hits New York, doing $650 million+ worth of damage
1993 - Eduardo Frei elected President of Chile
1994 - Russian troops pull inside Tsjetsjenië
1997 - Federal judge orders Microsoft not to bundle IE4 in Windows

Birthdays
1475 - Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici), Pope (1513-21)
1781 - Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist/inventor (kaleidoscope)
1797 - Hiram Paulding. Union Rear-Admiral
1835 - Adolf Stoecker, German anti semite/PM
1836 - Jan Boissevain, Dutch politician/ship owner
1863 - Annie Jump Cannon, US stellar spectroscopist (Harvard-classification)
1882 - Fiorello La Guardia (Mayor-NY, 1933-45)
1911 - Nagib Machfus, Egyptian writer (Nobel 1988)
1936 - Hans van den Broek, Dutch foreign minister (-1992)
1937 - Adrian J. Vlok, South African NP-minister of Law & Order (1986- )
1939 - Tom Hayden, 60's activist/Mr Jane Fonda/(Representative-CA)
1941 - Max Baucus (Senator-MT)

Passings
0711 - Justitianus II, emperor of Byzantium, dies at about 42
1282 - Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, monarch of North Wales (1246-77); Michael VIII Paleologus, Byzantine emperor (1259-82)
1573 - Alardus/Eilard de Waterlant. duke of Alva, hanged
1582 - Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, marquis of Soria, dies at about 75
1595 - Philip III van Croij, prince of Chimay/general, dies at 69
1610 - Forges Dimitri, czar of Russia, murdered
1686 - Louis II Condé, duke of Bourbon, dies at 65
1718 - Charles XII, King of Sweden (1697-1718), shot dead
1756 - Theodor A. Freiherr von Neuhoff, German adventurer/king
1899 - Andrew "Andy" Wauchope, British general-major, dies in battle; Lord Winchester British marquis/major, dies in battle
1994 - Stanislaw Maczek Polish/British general-major (WWII), dies at 102; Yao Yilin, Vice PM of China (1979)
1996 - Robert Bromston Thesiger Daniell, soldier, dies at 95; W.G.G. Duncan-Smith, fighter pilot, dies at 82

Reported Missing in Action
1964
Tadios, Leonard M., US Army (HI); DIC March, 1966

1965
Horsky, Robert Milvoy, USAF (IA); C123K shot down, remains recovered June, 1974

McKnight, George Parker, USAF (LA); C123K shot down, remains recovered June, 1974

Salinas, Mercedes Perez, USAF (TX); C123K shot down, remains recovered June, 1974

Stewart, Donald David, USAF (NC); C123K shot down, remains returned June, 1974

1966
Alfred, Gerald O., Jr., USAF (WA); F4C shot down, possibly ejected at sea

1968
Galbraith, Russell D., USAF (OH); RF4C shot down