News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq Shia leader seeks tougher U.S. action
U.S.-Iraq summit put off until Thursday
Bush says Iraq progress too slow
4 Marines die in Iraq emergency landing

Homeland Security / War on Terror
American Arrested in Egypt on Terror Charges

Other Military News
Boeing, Lockheed in Saudi fighter jet talks, newspaper says
U.S. predicts bumper year in arms sales
No WTO in tanker contest: Air Force
Reuters Aero & Defense Summit

Worldwide Wackos
U.S. praises Venezuela's democracy
Chavez's Venezuela "red, really red" - Video
Russia declines comment on reported N. Korea offer
Powers seek to break Iran impasse
U.S. rejects talking to Cuba's "dictator-in-waiting"

Homegrown Moonbats
Paltrow: I Never Said Anything Anti-American

Politics / Government
Host of Trouble Over Koran - Oath-of-office commentary sparks Islamic backlash
Government issues new privacy guidelines
Brownback moves toward White House bid

Immigration / Border Control
Trucker convicted in immigrants' deaths

U.N. News
Bolton seen as bully and highly skilled diplomat

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News
Yahoo partners with Reuters on eyewitness pictures

Science / Nature
Going to the Moon — And Staying
Philippines fears 1,000 killed in typhoon's wrath - Video
Vietnam braces for powerful typhoon
Deaths mount in Midwest days after snow storm
Chill slows storm recovery in Midwest

Oddities
Stars face court action over kiss
Try wearing white at this wedding..

Other News of Note
Militias clash with ex-rebels in Darfur town

Fox News
Was Actor Drunk During Fatal Crash?
Click to Read Press Release on Accident Police Report
Report: New York Cops Charge Torn 'Ripped' Again
3 of 4 Members of Missing S.F. Family Found
Cops Kill N.C. Student Accused of Stealing PS3s
Woman Suspect in 1-Month-Old's Fla. Abduction
Fiji's PM: Military Lockdown Is 'Virtually a Coup'
Stocks to Watch: Novell, Sirius Satellite Radio
Jessica Simpson Botches Kennedy Center Tribute to Dolly Parton

Reuters: Top News
Taco Bell closes 4 outlets in E.coli scare
Sony said U.S. holiday sales better than expected
Popular baldness drug could mask prostate marker
USDA disputes claim that U.S. chicken unsafe
Britney Spears tops Yahoo's searches
CBS extends "Late Show" contract with Letterman
Asia stocks rebound
Stocks gain on takeovers - Video
Pfizer shares plunge after cholesterol drug fails - Video
Henry Schein stock down on outlook
Baidu shares up on Japan search market news
BAE Systems eyes U.S. buys
On the radar: Synovus
Icahn sold KT&G shares for $460 million, say sources
DoCoMo sees op profit gain in next fiscal year
BP submits revised spill plan for Prudhoe Bay
Bank of New York to buy Mellon for $16.5 billion

AP World News
Blige, Chesney receive Billboard Awards
Poll voters explain why Gators in BCS
Stocks surge, shrug off Pfizer drug halt
Carpenter staying with Cardinals
Diabetes drug's benefits come at a price
Red-letter day: Rutgers' Schiano staying
Blair unveils plan for nuclear missiles
CNBC relaunches own site with more video
Harris fired as Stanford football coach
Mariners sign outfielder Jose Guillen

Military.com
Portable Nuke Power Plant for the Army?
Military.com's Holiday Gift Guide
Sarah Smiley Blasts John Mayer Song
Play Trivia and Win an iPod
Blog: Battlefield Lasers One Step Closer
Access our Benefits Calculator
Gear in the News: CH-46

CENTCOM: News Releases
IRAQI SECURITY FORCES CAPTURES INSURGENT, DETAINS SEVEN SUSPECTS

TWO TERRORISTS KILLED, SIX DETAINED IN N. BAGHDAD RAID

HELICOPTER MAKES EMERGENCY WATER LANDING

JOINT STATEMENT BY AMB. ZALMAY KHALILZAD AND GEN. GEORGE CASEY REGARDING RECENT SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

BUILDING DESTROYED AFTER GUNFIRE ATTACKS

IRAQI, COALITION FORCES PROVIDE SECURITY FOR SINIYAH

CARING FOR TROOPS: $2.4M LIVING SUPPORT AREA COMPLETED

SEARCH FOR MISSING SERVICEMEMBERS COMPLETE

IRAQI POLICE, ARMY TEAM UP WITH PARATROOPERS, DISCOVER THREE WEAPON CACHES SUNDAY

SALAH AD DIN SHEIKS MEET TO DISCUSS PEACE, STABILITY IN PROVINCE

MND-B SOLDIERS RESPOND TO MOSQUE EXPLOSION

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

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
Bush Meets With Iraqi Shiite Leader - Story
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Record Fuel Delivery Keeps Gas Flowing - Story
Reconstruction Team Brings Supplies to Orphans - Story
Water Treatment Plant Brings Fresh Water, Jobs - Story

IN IRAQ
Marines, Sailors Transport Personnel, Cargo
Army Engineers Aid Iraq Reconstruction Efforts
'Port Dawgs' Limit Ground Convoys, Save Lives
U.S., Coalition Forces Train, Support Iraqi Airmen

IN AFGHANISTAN
Infantry Soldiers Help to Rebuild Afghanistan
Operation Season's Greetings Stops at Bagram
Florida Guard Delivers Donations to Orphanage
U.S. Units Steadily Secure, Rebuild Afghanistan
Military Missions Change as Afghan Army Evolves

IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
Sibling Tanker Pilots Connect Miles from Home

IN BAHRAIN
U.S. Navy Assumes Maritime Security Operations

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 Air Force 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
1349 - 500 Jews are massacred at Nüremberg in the Black Death riots.
1456 - An earthquake strikes Naples, killing approximately 35,000.

1492 - Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti).
1496 - Jews are expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati is chosen as Pope (Gregory XIV).
1757 - The Prussian army beats the Austrians at the Battle of Leuthen.
1766 - London auctioneers at Christie's hold their first sale.
1792 - George Washington is re-elected as U.S. President.
1798 - Government troops occupy Hasselt.
1804 - Thomas Jefferson is re-elected as U.S. President.
1813 - Lübeck surrenders to allied armies.
1831 - Former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat as a member of the House of Representatives.
1832 - Andrew Jackson is re-elected as U.S. President.
1837 - Canada faces an uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie.
1846 - C.F. Schoenbein obtains a patent for the cellulose nitrate explosive.
1848 - President Polk triggers the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the discovery of gold in California.
1854 - Aaron Allen of Boston patents the folding theater chair.
1861 - The Gatling gun is patented.
1862 - Battle of Coffeeville, MS.
1876 - Daniel Stillson of Massachusetts patents the first practical pipe wrench; a fire at the Brooklyn Theater kills 295, either trampled or burned to death.
1879 - The first automatic telephone switching system is patented.
1881 - The 47th U.S. Congress (1881-83) convenes.
1892 - Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt is elected to Germany's Reichstag.
1893 - The first electric car, built in Toronto, debuts - it can go 15 miles between charges.
1905 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman becomes PM of England.
1908 - For the first time, numerals appear on football uniforms (University of Pittsburgh).
1918 - An oil refinery on Curaçao opens.
1925 - The German government of Luther falls.
1933 - At 5:32 p.m. EST, the 21st Amendment is ratified; it is the only amendment adopted to repeal an earlier amendment (18th Amendment - Prohibition).
1935 - The first commercial hydroponics operation is established in Montebello, CA.
1936 - The Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kirghiz become constituent republics of the Soviet Union.
1941 - Sister Elizabeth Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis is approved; a Russian counter-offensive in Moscow drives out the Nazi army; the U.S. aircraft carrier Lexington and five heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor.
1942 - Seyss-Inquart orders students in Nazi-Germany to go work; the West Indies chocolate/coffee drop occurs above the Netherlands.
1944 - German troops rob all the silver coin in Utrecht.
1945 - The "Lost Squadron" crashes east of Florida, in the Bermuda Triangle.
1946 - President Truman creates the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
1950 - Sikkim becomes a protectorate of India.
1952 - The worst smog ever in London kills more than 4,000.
1955 - The AFL and CIO merge, with George Meany as president; a historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery, AL.
1957 - NYC becomes the first city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in housing market (Fair Housing Practices Law).
1960 - Ghana cuts diplomatic relations with Belgium.
1967 - Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg are arrested protesting the Vietnam War.
1972 - The Australia Labour party wins the parliamentary election/
1974 - In Tehran, Iran, an airport terminal roof collapses, killing 17; the final episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" airs on the BBC.
1975 - NASA launches the space vehicle S-196; it fails.
1977 - Egypt breaks off diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen.
1978 - Pioneer Venus-1 begins orbiting Venus; the European Union establishes the EMS (European Monetary System).
1979 - Irish premier Jack Lynch resigns.
1982 - Seattle University Baptist Church declares sanctuary for Central American refugees
1983 - A car bomb shatters a nine-story building in Beirut, killing 12.
1984 - French colonists kill 10 Kanaken in New Caledonia.
1988 - The Shuttle Atlantis launches the world's first nuclear-war-fighting satellite; A North Carolina federal grand jury indicts PTL founder Jim Bakker on fraud and conspiracy charges.
1989 - The French TGV train reaches a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
1990 - Former Noriega aide Luis del Cid pleads guilty; Salman Rushdie, author ("The Satanic Verses" - he was ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy), appears in public for the first time in two years.
1991 - Charles Keating, Jr. (Lincoln Savings and Loan fraud), is found guilty; the "New York Daily News" files for protection under Chapter 11.
1993 - Astronauts begin the repair of the Hubble telescope in space; Rafael Caldera is elected President of Venezuela.
1997 - STS-87 (Columbia 24) lands.

Birthdays
1661 - Robert Haley, earl of Oxford / English premier (1710-14)
1782 - Martin Van Buren, 8th U.S. President (1837-41)
1824 - Titian James Coffey, Attorney General
1826 - John Benjamin Sanborn, Union Brevet Major General
1839 - George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Major General (of Little Big Horn fame)
1861 - Armando V. Diaz, Italian marshal/minister of War (1922-24)
1863 - Paul P. Painlevé, French PM (1917, 1925) / mathematician
1896 - Willem F.M. Lampe, Dutch ambassador of the Dutch Antilles
1901 - Walter Elias Disney, animator (Mickey Mouse); Werner Heisenberg, German physicist (Nobel 1932)
1902 - (Steve James) Strom Thurmond (Senator-SC)
1903 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, discovered pion (Nobel 1950)
1925 - Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua (1967-79)
1927 - Rama IX (Bhumibol Adulyadej), King of Thailand (1946- )
1932 - Little Richard (Wayne Penniman), rocker (Tutti Frutti, Lucille)
1947 - Jugderdemidiin Gurragcha, first Mongolian space traveler (Soyuz-39)
1949 - Bruce E. Melnick, Commander USCG / astronaut (STS 41, STS 49)

Passings
1212 - Derek II of Are, Bishop of Utrecht (1197-1212)
1244 - Johanna of Constantinople, countess of Flanders (1205-44)
1355 - Jan III, duke of Brabant/Limburg
1560 - King François II of France (1559-60), at age 16
1594 - Gerardus Mercator, Flemish philosopher/cartographer
1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer
1870 - Alexandre Dumas writer (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo)
1891 - Pedro II of Alcantara, Emperor of Brazil (1831-89)
1951 - "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, of baseball's black sox scandal
1963 - Herbert H. Lehman (Governor-NY)
1992 - Sergei Aleksandrovich Yemelyanov, Russian cosmonaut
1994 - Ronald Ridout, school textbook author

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Dibble, Morris F., US Army (NY); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Eisenberger and Upner), body not recovered

Eisenberger, George J., US Army (OK); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Dibble and Upner), body not recovered

Hyde, Jimmy Don, USN (OK); KIA, body not recovered

Upner, Edward C., US Army (AL); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Dibble and Eisenberger), body not recovered

1966
Begley, Burris Nelson, USAF (KY); F105D shot down, remains ID'd December, 1993 (disputed)

Warren, Arthur Leonard, USAF (OH); RF101 shot down, remains returned September, 1986

1967
Russell, Donald Myrick, USAF (ME); F105D shot down, remains returned 1994 - ID'd June, 1996

1968
Berry, John A., US Army (CO); OH6A shot down (w/Evans), KIA, body not recovered

Evans, Billy K., Jr., US Army (VA); OH6A shot down (w/Berry), KIA, body not recovered

1969
Clark, John C. II, USAF (TX); F4E shot down (w/Harrold), remains returned November, 1997

Danielson, Benjamin F., USAF (MN); F4C shot down

Harrold, Patrick K., USAF (KS); F4E shot down (w/Clark), remains returned 1997