The good news is - we're up and running after the recent SNAFU.

The bad news is, a lot of images have disappeared - I'll be reconstructing some over the next few days.

TROOP TIME — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace meets with troops while in Iraq, Dec. 31, 2005. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq Violence
Iraq Oil Minister Resigns
Doc: Baby May Need Wheelchair
U.S. says end near for cash for Iraq's rebuilding
Major oil refinery reopens in northern Iraq
Commander expects progress in Iraq
Florida teenager back home after Mideast odyssey

Operation Enduring Freedom
Afghan Bomber Explodes Near Foreign Troops

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Al Qaeda Aide Faked Death

Welcome Home!!
Photos: 11th Armored Cavalry Returns to Fort Irwin
Photos: Texas Army Guard 56th Brigade Returns
Photos: Coast Guard Unit Returns From Guantanamo

Supreme Court
Experts: Roberts, Alito side with business

Politics
Sen. John Kerry keeps 2008 options open
Santorum-Casey race headlines 2006, so far

Mother Nature
California Floods
Rain for Rose Parade?
No End to Fires

Oddities
"Hey! How'd you find me?"
Pricey coffee good to the last dropping

Other News of Note
Family's 'year of sadness'

Fox News
Fatah Seeks Election Delay
NSA Leak Questions Swirl
Russia, Ukraine Trade Accusations Over Gas
Israel Continues Gaza Strikes
Md. Congregants Robbed During Service
Floods Kill 34 in Indonesia
U.N. Commission Seeks Interview with Syrian VP
Iran: Europe Sought to Finish Holocaust by Creating Israel
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Bush defends eavesdropping amid calls for testimony
Suicide bomber strikes in Baquba Play Video
Rates seen rising twice this year
Generic-drug bonanza in 2006 may not lift stocks
Chemical firm Rhodia eyes pollution-cutting rebound
Web services thrive, but outages outrage users
Patent firm sues Google for voice services
Midway shares fall after Redstone transaction
Learning Tree shares drop on Inet
GM shares sink to 20-year low, then rebound
Yield curve to cool housing market
Airlines escape 'another horrible year'
Israeli air strikes, unrest pummel Gaza Strip Video
Germany warns Russia over Ukraine gas blockade
Misery in Pakistan quake zone as snow grounds relief Video
Bird flu tests in eastern Turkey negative-agency
U.N. asks to meet Syria's Assad in Hariri case
Suicide car bomber kills five policemen in Iraq
US says Russia creates energy sector insecurity
Top judge worried about court violence, pay gap
Scientists grow stem-cell lines in new medium
Mexico peasants take up machetes against Acapulco dam
An Aussie summer: fierce creatures, scorching sun
US studies find antidepressants work for some
Nicotine substitutes may harm the fetus: study

AP World News
Russia Accuses Ukraine of Diverting Gas
Iraq's Kurdish President, Shiite PM Meet
Ugandan Opposition Leader Leaves Jail
Report: China Court Sides With Starbucks
Zapatistas Aim to Reshape Mexican Politics
Female Hostages in Yemen Refuse to Leave
Suicide Car Bomber Wounds 3 in Kandahar
Inmates Skip Lunch to Feed Fellow Kenyans
Strong Quake Registered in South Atlantic
Rain, Snow Cut Off Pakistan Quake Zone
Communist Rebels End Cease-Fire in Nepal
Kidnapped U.S. Journalists Freed in Haiti
5 Police Recruits Killed by Suicide Bomber
Bolivia's President-Elect to Visit Chavez
Commander: al-Qaida Stymied in Iraq's West

The Seattle Times
Year in review: 2005
Police: Man kills children, then himself
Inmates skip lunch to feed fellow Kenyans
U.S. says it's making progress on bird flu
U.S. research budget worries scientists
More heavy rain threatens Northern California
U.S. not ready for bird flu, officials say
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Bird flu
Death penalty on court docket even as cases on wane in U.S.
New Orleans aquarium restocking after huge hurricane losses
Around the world, quests for peace and prosperity
"What's next to Normal, abnormal?" In Normal, Ill., they've heard them all
"Hunker down" all you "persons of interest," its 2006's list of banned words
British tolerated U.S. Army segregation
Life in Zimbabwe deteriorating fast
Wildfires destroy 2 towns in Texas

Chicago Sun-Times
Feds turn up heat on Chicago
First baby of year beats due date by a week
Organ donation wishes now legally binding
Wis. college editor publishes rape fantasy
Twin Mars rovers just keep on ticking
Plumbers flush with tales from the deep
Protester sour over milk fight with Waffle House
Colombia tries to halt manhole cover thefts after boy dies
'Delegate Zero' leads Mexican rebels on tour
Malaysian officials look for 'Bigfoot' after claim of sightings

Boston Globe: World
A vestige of communism stirs passions in Germany
13 car bombings add to Iraq bloodshed
Ukraine energy cutoff could be misstep by Putin
Ruling party joins calls for trial of ex-official
Palestinian forces free Italian hostage in shoot-out
Pope calls for courage in fighting oppression
N. Korea says US aims to start war
Austria vows new direction for the EU

Military.com
Troops Say They're Still Needed
Barrage of Car Bombings Wounds 20
Bush Awards Purple Hearts to U.S. Troops
Some Soldiers Trying to Get Out of Army
Government Prepares for Next Big Disaster

CENTCOM: News Releases
OPERATION GREEN TRIDENT TURNS UP 72 CACHES
FOUR U.S. CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS KILLED IN ACCIDENT
COMBINED RAIDS RESULT IN 23 CAPTURES
WEAPONS SEIZED, TWO SUSPECTS DETAINED
AIR FORCE EVACUATES BABY NOOR FROM IRAQ
ISF RESCUES KIDNAPPING VICTIM, ARRESTS THREE
US CENTAF PROVIDES PAKISTAN AID
COALITION FORCES TRANSFER OF AUTHORITY
IRAQI SECURITY FORCES TAKE CHARGE AGAINST TERRORISM
AFGHAN INTERIOR MINISTRY SELECTING GENERAL OFFICERS
TEAMWORK CLEARING RAMADI STREETS
FIRST BATTLE SPACE TRANSITION IN NINEVEH PROVINCE
CITIZENS OF PAKTIKA PROVINCE WELCOME NEW ROAD

Department of Defense
Bush Visits Wounded Troops in Texas - Story Remarks
Pace: U.S. Military Ready for Challenges - Story
Securing Gains, Training Police Priorities - Story
2005: Laying the Foundation of Peace - Story Remarks
Pace Says 2005 Successful Year for Iraq

ON THE GROUND
Air Force Evacuates Sick Baby from Iraq - Story
Rebuilding Includes Environmental Cleanup - Story
Program Teaches Job Skills to Young Iraqis - Story

IN IRAQ
'Army Water' Makes Debut in Balad, Baghdad
Tal Afar Sees Progress With Water Network
82nd Airborne Unit Wraps Up Deployment
U.S. Army Doctor Delivers Election-Day Baby

IN AFGHANISTAN
Soldier in Kabul Re-enlists Brother in New York
Operation Sleigh Ride Brightens Troops’ Day
Rumsfeld Honors Task Force Bayonet Troops

IN QATAR
Chairman Visits Qatar to Thank Troops

FACE OF DEFENSE
Air Force Engineer Helps Iraqis Rebuild - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Pace, USO Performers Visit Troops - Story
Financial Group Backs Troops
Web Special: Holidays at the Frontlines

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Soldier Dies in Iraq
Iraqi, U.S. Troops Capture 23
Baghdad Thrives with New Projects
Iraqi Forces Continue to Improve
Casey: Coalition Role Changes
Command Changes in Northwest
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
Eye on Iraq Update (pdf)
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Paktika Citizens Welcome New Road
Ceremony Marks Bank Renovation
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Aircrews Fly 54 Missions
Aircrews Fly Missions Dec. 29
Elections Signal Progress
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
Cycles Enhance Reserve Readiness
Pace Explains High Re-up Rate
National Guard, Reserve Update

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
0069 - Roman Lower Rhine army proclaims its commander, Vitellius, emperor
0533 - John II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1235 - Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names
1492 - Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day)
1570 - Tsar Ivan the Terrible march to Novgorod begins
1602 - Spanish forces in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale
1757 - British troops occupy Calcutta India
1776 - 1st revolutionary flag displayed; Austria ends interrogation torture
1788 - Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1800 - Free black community of Philadelphia PA petitions Congress to abolish slavery
1811 - US Senator Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential documents communicated by the President of the US)
1831 - Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston
1839 - 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
1842 - 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Pennsylvania
1861 - Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia; SC seizes inactive Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor
1863 - Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
1871 - King Amadeus I of Spain inaugurated at 25
1885 - General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum
1890 - Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer; Record 19'2" alligator shot in Louisiana by E.A. McIlhenny
1893 - 1st US commemoratives & 1st US stamp to picture a woman issued
1896 - Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops)
1903 - President T. Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola MI, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
1905 - Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Perrine; Japanese troops capture Port Arthur
1910 - 1st junior high schools in US open in Berkeley CA
1919 - Anti-British uprising in Ireland; Lithuania gains independence
1920 - 10,000 US union & socialist organizers arrested (Palmer Raids)
1923 - Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood FL, 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)
1925 - Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region established (now in Tadzhik SSR)
1929 - US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
1933 - US troops leave Nicaragua
1934 - 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
1935 - Bruno R. Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby
1936 - 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis MO
1938 - Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
1942 - 28 nations, at war with Axis, pledge no separate peace; German troops in Bardia surrender; Japanese troops occupy Manila, in the Philippines
1944 - 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
1945 - Allied air raid on Neurenberg; Radio Orange ends cooperation at Liese-Aktion
1947 - Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali
1956 - Poujadists/communists win French parliamentary elections
1959 - USSR launches Mechta (Luna 1) for 1st lunar fly-by, 1st solar orbit; Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees
1960 - Senator John F Kennedy, announces his candidacy for President; John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years
1964 - Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan; Failed assassination attempt on President Nkrumah of Ghana
1965 - Martin Luther King, Jr., begins a drive to register black voters; Obverse design of all Canadian coins is changed to depict the Queen with a slightly more mature look
1966 - 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
1968 - Christiaan Barnard performs 2nd heart transplant
1970 - US population is 205,052,174
1971 - A barrier collapses at Ibrox Park football ground at end of a soccer match in Glasgow Scotland, killing 66
1972 - Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars
1974 - 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon; Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
1975 - US Department of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species
1978 - Bülent Ecevit forms government in Turkey
1979 - Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spingen begins
1983 - Garry Trudeau takes a 20-month break from writing "Doonesbury"
1984 - Riot in Tunis kills over 100; Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Philadelphia's 1st black mayor
1987 - Troops of Chad President Habré conquer Fada oasis
1988 - Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Pennsylvania; Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement
1994 - Battles between army & rebellious Indians in South Mexico, kill 57
1995 - Bus crashes in Luzon Philippines, 29 killed; Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (estimated 15 billion light years away)
1998 - Autopsy of Chris Farley shows he overdosed of opiates & cocaine

Birthdays
1642 - Mehmed IV, sultan (Turkey)
1647 - Nathaniel Bacon, leader of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia (1676)
1699 - Osman III, sultan (Turkey)
1727 - James Wolfe, commanded British Army (captured Québec)
1835 - Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1861 - Helen Herron Taft, First Lady (1909-13)
1873 - Anton Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer/marxist theorist (Communist Tactics)
1880 - Louis Breguet, French aviation pioneer
1895 - Count Folke Bernadotte, statesman (Red Cross, UN)
1899 - Paul-Henri Spaak, Premier/Secretary-General of NATO (1957-61)
1913 - Ernest Sidey, British air marshal; Juanita E. Jackson Mitchell, US head (NAACP)
1920 - Penelope Jessel, politcal activist; Peter Harrison Swan, bomber pilot/stockbroker
1927 - Richard Belmont Ray (Representative-GA)
1928 - Dan Rostenkowski (Representative-IL, -94), House Ways & Means Committee chair
1928 - Vaughn Beals, CEO (Harley Davidson motorcycle)
1931 - Toshiki Kaifu, premier of Japan (1989-91)

Passings
1763 - John Casteret Earl Granville, English premier, dies at 72
1861 - Frederik Willem IV King of Prussia (1840-61)/Germany (1849-61), dies at 65
1863 - Roger Weightman Hanson, Confederate Brigadier General, dies in battle at 35
1904 - James Longstreet, Confederate General, dies at 82
1921 - Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, German chancellor/PM (Prussia); referred to the international treaty guaranteeing Belgian neutrality as "a scrap of paper", dies at 64
1923 - Sam Carter, Black resident of Rosewood FL, lynched by KKK
1945 - Betram Home Ramsay, English Admiral/Commander Naval Forces (Normandy), dies at 61
1955 - José Antonio Remon, President of Panamá (1952-55), assassinated
1960 - Friedrich Adler, Austria social-democrat, assasinated PM Stürgkh, dies in Zürich at 80
1990 - Alan Hale, Jr., actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island), dies of cancer at 71
1994 - Caesar Romero actor (Joker-Batman), dies at 86; Dixy Lee Ray, chairwoman (US Atomic Energy Commission), dies at 79
1995 - Mohammed Siyad Barre, President of Somalia (1969-91); Siad Barre, General/President of Somalia (1969-91), dies at 84

Reported Missing in Action
1966
MacLaughlin, Donald C., USN (MD); A4C disappeared while on combat mission

1967
Menges, George Bruce, USAF (OH); O1F shot down - remains returned August, 1980

1970
Brooks, Nicholas G., USN (NY); A6A shot down (w/Fryar); remains returned February, 1982

Fryar, Bruce C., USN (NJ); A6A shot down (w/Brooks)

Lindstrom, Ronnie G., USAF (MN); F4D shot down (w/West)

West, John T., USAF (MD); F4D shot down (w/Lindstrom)