May God continue to bless our troops in harm's way."
-- President George W. Bush

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Violent Anniversary - Third anniversary of "Shock and Awe" sees more violence
Ex-PM: Iraq in Throes of Civil War
Bush Encouraged by Iraqi Efforts
Continuing Violence in Iraq Kills 35
Iraq Protests Persist, But in Dwindled Numbers
Video: Third Anniversary
Three years on, U.S. troops say steadfast in Iraq
Civil war fears grip Iraq on 3rd anniversary
Rumsfeld: Leaving Iraq like giving Nazis Germany
Iraqis May Protect Volatile Areas by 2007
Iraq War Enters 4th Year With More Deaths

Operation Enduring Freedom
Bomber Botches Suicide Attack in Afghanistan
Man Faces Death for Alleged Conversion to Christianity

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Video: Moussaoui Lawyers Seek Violation Explanation
Palestinian Gunmen Take Over Power Plant
Palestinian Gunmen Clash With Police
Testimony in Moussaoui's Trial to Resume

Troops on Trial
Manila may drop rape charges against US marines

Worldwide Wackos
Thousands Around Globe Call for End of War

Politics
Cheney Rejects Suggestions For White House Shuffle

Oddities
Naked Venezuelans surround Bolivar's statue

Fox News
Floods in Texas Kill One
Second Human Case of Bird Flu Reported in Egypt
Pirate Broadcasts Interfere With Airplane Transmissions
Killer Nurse May Give Kidney
Larry Rocks Australia
Stocks to Watch: Oracle
Calif. City Bans Smoking
FULL SPORTS COVERAGE

Reuters: Top News
Gun battles break out in Gaza
Lukashenko rivals urge protests after Belarus poll
Grim find shows normalcy still eludes New Orleans
Security talks put China-US tension back in focus
Space station crew free up orbiting parking lot
Thirsty Africa struggles to meet water access goals
Williams-Sonoma fourth-quarter profit rises
Ford's Volvo Car to begin making cars in China
Fed sees soft economic landing, end to rate increases
Pru shuns Aviva offer, says does not reflect growth
Health Management lowers 2006 earnings view
Italy's Seat PG rules out interest for Spain's TPI
Tim Hortons, Clayton Holdings in US IPO spotlight
Progress Rail Services files for $345 mln IPO
Ericsson near 4-year high on upgrade, outlook
US stock futures point higher on rate outlook
Stocks may hit 5-yr highs on mild PPI
Maytag shares slip
Genentech raises EPS forecast, approvals target
State bank watchdogs face federal fight
More from Reuters Banking Summit
Media portfolio updates
On the radar: CRA International

AP World News
Disgraced South Korean Scientist Fired
Dell to Double Its Staff in India by 2009
Japan Vs. Cuba for Baseball Title Tonight
Hibbert, Georgetown Cruise Into Sweet 16 .
Church Fire Suspects Decline to Post Bond
Suit Claims 23 Docs Provided Diluted Drugs
'V for Vendetta' Nets $26.1M at Box Office
Heavy Rain in North Texas Floods Roads

Military.com
War Enters Violent 4th Year
Navy Ships Fire on Suspected Pirates
Iraq Leaves Vet in Fog of War
Ports Debate Spurs Ownership Talks
Report Cites Abuse of Detainees
Bush Urges US to See Iraq Progress

CENTCOM: News Releases
DETAINEES RELEASED FOLLOWING CRRB REVIEW

SOLDIERS DETAIN SUSPECTS; IRAQI ARMY FINDS WEAPONS CACHE

STORAGE TANK PROJECT SUPPORTS FRESH WATER FOR IRAQIS

COMBINED OPERATIONS CONTINUE IN SALAH AD DIN PROVINCE

Department of Defense
Bush Remembers Troops on Anniversary - Story
Bush Hails Iraqi Progress, Talks Strategy for Victory
New Agreements Disprove Civil War Fears - Story
Cheney: Success in Iraq Critical to War - Story
Rumsfeld: Time for Resolve, Not Retreat - Story
Secretary of Defense Message
Top General in Iraq 'Optimistic' About Success - Story
Iraqis Increasingly Take Lead in Operations - Story

ON THE GROUND
Citizen Tip Leads to IED in Afghan Mosque - Story
Aircrews Refuel B-52s in Flight for the Fight - Story

IN IRAQ
Tankers Bridge Troubled Waters
Iraqi Soldiers on Track for Independent Ops

IN AFGHANISTAN
Spartans Take Reins in Eastern Afghanistan
'Muleskinners' Assume Joint Logistics Mission

FACE OF DEFENSE
Mom Tends to Injured in Iraq - Story

AMERICA SUPPPORTS YOU
Company Feeds Wounded Vets - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Ops Net Weapons, Terror Suspects
Sectarian Violence Diminishing
Former Chairman Cites Successes
Progress Continues at 3-Year Mark
Attack Kills Two, Wounds One
Investigation Directed for Abuse
Forces Launch Swarmer Ops
Abizaid Stresses Security
Forces Do Well After Mosque Blast
Iraq Not on Verge of Civil War
Insurgents Detained
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
General Notes Progress
Troops Detain Suspects
Violence Ebbs Over Time
Bird Flu Poses No Danger Video
Accident Claims Troop's Life
IED Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Cheney Thanks Troops for Service
Abizaid: Coalition Fights Terrorism
IED Parts Move Across Border
Fallen Troops' Belongings Handled
Arabs Note Iraq's March
Special Ops Transforms
War Requires More Than Might
Funding, Public: Challenges to War
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

MILITARY NEWS
Navy Ships Return Fire on Pirates
QDR Influenced by 9/11 Attacks
Military Intelligence Changes
National Guard, Reserve Update

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah
Al Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
0141 - 6th predicted perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1345 - Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction; thought "cause of plague epidemic"
1525 - Paris' parliament begins pursuit of Protestants
1598 - French king Henri IV & duke van Mercour sign treaty
1602 - United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms
1616 - Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana
1627 - France & Spain signs accord for fighting protestantism
1697 - Willem de Vlamingh returns to Batavia after exploring "South Land"
1760 - Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings
1800 - French army defeats Turks at Helipolis Turkey, & advance to Cairo
1814 - Prince Willem Frederik becomes monarch of Netherlands
1815 - Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule
1816 - US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions
1833 - US & Siam conclude commercial treaty
1848 - King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez
1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published (Boston)
1863 - Battle of Pensacola FL: evacuated by Federals
1865 - 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville NC
1868 - Jesse James Gang robs bank in Russelville KY of $14,000
1883 - Unity treaty of Paris signed; protects industrial property
1885 - John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine
1886 - 1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation, Massachusetts
1890 - German emperor Wilhelm II fires republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck
1896 - Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens; Uprising in Matabeleland
1897 - France signs treaty with emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia
1916 - Allies attack Zeebrugge Belgium
1920 - 1st flight from London to South Africa lands (1½ months)
1922 - USS Langley is commissioned, Navy's 1st aircraft Carrier
1923 - Bavarian minister of Interior refuses to forbid Nazi SA
1931 - Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin
1932 - Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kara-Kalpak ASSR
1933 - Dachau, 1st concentration camp, completed
1934 - Test of practical radar apparatus made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Kiel Germany
1937 - Franco-offensive at Guadalajara Spain
1939 - 7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel, Lithuania
1940 - Paul Reynoud becomes French premier
1941 - Nazi-German/Yugoslav pact drawn
1942 - Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia; General MacArthur vows, "I shall return"; Major German assault on Malta
1943 - British offensive against Mareth-line; German U-384 bombed & sinks
1944 - Bus falls off bridge into Passaic River NJ, killing 16; Mount Vesuvius, Italy, explodes
1945 - US 70th Infantry division / 7th Armour division attack Saar
1946 - Belgian government of Spaak resigns
1951 - Indonesian army offensive against Darul Islam on Java
1952 - US Senate's final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan
1953 - Senator Edwin C Johnson offers a bill to give clubs the sole right to ban radio-TV broadcasts of major league games in their own territory
1954 - 1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania)
1956 - E. Ochab succeeds Beirut as 1st Secretary of Polish CP; Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) explodes; Tunisia gains independence from France
1957 - Britain accepts NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejects it
1964 - ESRO established, European Space Research Organization
1968 - Military intervene in South-Yemen (leftist ministers resign); President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money
1969 - US President Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970
1976 - Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery
1977 - Parisians elect former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac as 1st mayor in a century; Premier Indira Gandhi loses election in India
1980 - US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran
1981 - Argentine ex-President Isabel Perón sentenced to 8 years; Jean Harris sentenced 15-to-life for slaying of Scarsdale Diet Doctor
1982 - Reverend A. Treurnicht forms Conservative Party of South Africa
1984 - Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools
1985 - Libby Riddles is 1st woman to win Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race
1986 - Jacques Chirac become Prime Minister of French government
1987 - FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)
1989 - Richard J. Kerr replaces Robert M. Gates as deputy director of CIA
1991 - Supreme Court rules unanimously employers can't exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage fetus; US forgives $2 billion in loans to Poland
1992 - Noriega's wife Felicidad arrested for stealing buttons from dresses
1993 - IRA-bomb kills child in Warrington, England
1994 - El Salvador's 1st Presidential election following 12-year-old civil war
1994 - Zulu-king Goodwill Zwelithini founds realm in South Africa
1996 - Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents; UK admits humans can catch CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease aka Mad Cow Disease)
1997 - Liggett admits cigarettes are addictive

Birthdays
1725 - Abdül-Hamid I 27th sultan of Turkey (1774-89)
1804 - Neal Dow, Union Brigadier General
1811 - Napoleon Bonaparte II, Napoleon's son/King of Rome
1812 - George Bibb Crittenden, Confederate Major General
1820 - Alexander J. Cuza, monarch of Moldavia/Wallachia/Romania
1823 - John Echols, Confederate Brigadier General
1825 - William Nelson Rector Beall, Confederate Brigadier General
1830 - Eugene Asa Carr, Union Brevet Major General
1834 - Charles William Elliot, President of Harvard (1869-1909)
1856 - Frederick Winslow Taylor father of scientific management
1870 - Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Prussian General/politician (East Africa)
1882 - René Coty Le Havre France, President of France (1953-58)
1885 - Eugen Herrigel Germany, philosopher/early pioneer of Zen in Europe
19?? - Big Bird, muppet (Sesame Street)
1904 - B(urrhus) F(rederic) Skinner, Behaviorism pioneer (Skinner box)
1906 - Abraham Beame (Mayor-NYC), NYC's 1st Jewish mayor
1906 - Pavel P. Parenago, Russian astronomer
1908 - Frank Stanton, broadcasting executive (CBS)
1915 - Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger, President of Austria (1974-86)
1916 - Pierre Messmer, Prime Minister (France)
1921 - Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, director general of UNESCO
1922 - Doug Barnard. Jr. (Representative-GA)
1925 - James Pickles, judge; John D. Erlichman, Politician (Nixon aide, Watergate conspirator)
1928 - Mr. [Fred McFeely] Rogers, children's television host (Mr Roger's Neighborhood)
1936 - Lord Mark Saville of Newdigate, British high court judge
1937 - Mark Saville QC, British high court judge
1938 - Frans J. van der Heijden, Dutch journal/Dutch MP (CDA)
1939 - Brian Mulroney, 18th Prime Minister of Canada (1984-93)
1945 - Larry Combest (Representative-TX)
1945 - Tim Yeo, British MP/Under-Secretary (State of Environment)
1956 - Phillip Oppenhein, British MP
1969 - Thang Thanh Nguyen, murderer (FBI Most Wanted)

Passings
0842 - Alfonso II the Chaste king of Asturia (791-842)
1191 - Clement III [Paolo Scolari], Pope (1187-91, 3rd crusades)
1351 - Mohammed ibn-Tughluq, sultan of Delhi. India
1393 - Johannes Nepomucenus [Jan Nepomucky], Czechoslovakian saint, killed
1415 - Henry IV Bolingbroke, King of England (1399-1413), dies at 45
1549 = Thomas Seymour of Sudely, English Lord Admiral, beheaded
1568 - Albrecht von Hohenzollern, 1st duke of Prussia, dies at 77
1619 - Matthias II, Holy Roman Catholic emperor (1611-19), dies
1703 - Johann Kunckel/Kunkel, German alchemist/ambassador to Sweden
1727 - Sir Issac Newton, English physicist/astronomer, dies in London at 84
1751 - Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales/son of George I
1894 - Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian freedom fighter/president (1849), dies at 91
1899 - Martha M. Place of Brooklyn NY, becomes 1st woman to die by electrocution
1913 - Song Jiao-ren, leader Chinese Guomindang-Party
1920 - Venustiano Carranza, President of Mexico (1915-20), murdered at 60
1925 - George N. Curzon, British Foreign minister (1919-22), dies at 66
1929 - Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France (WWI), dies at 77
1933 - Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara, electrocuted for assassination attempt on FDR
1934 - A. Emma W. T. von Waldeck-Pyrmont Dutch queen (& regent), dies at 76
1941 - D. A. van den Bosch, anti-Nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp)
1967 - A. J. F. Moody, 1st US Army General to die in Vietnam
1974 - Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), dies at 62
1982 - Hendrik L. van Beek, Dutch Vice-Admiral, dies at 52
1991 - Conor Clapton, Eric Clapton's son, falls out of 53rd floor window at 4
1993 - Jonathan Ball English youngster, killed by IRA at 3
1995 - Rachida Hammadi, Algerian TV journalist, murdered at 32
1996 - Claude Bourdet, human rights activist/journalist, dies at 86; Victor Zorza, journalist/Russian specialist, dies at 71

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Beach, Arthur J., USMC (CA); UH34D crashed at sea

Mulligan, James A., Jr., USN (MA); A4C shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

Ratzlaff, Richard R., USN (SD); F4B shot down, released by DRV - deceased as of 1981

1968
Fellows, Allen E., USAF (MN); O2A disappeared while on reconnaissance mission

Sayre, Leslie B., US Army (OH); O1D shot down (w/Taylor), believed KIA

Taylor, William B., US Army (NC); O1D shot down (w/Sayre), escaped May, 1968 - alive as of 1996

Thompson, Fred, USAF (NC); F100 shot down - released in Hanoi, August, 1968

1969
Davis, Ricardo G., US Army SF (NM); wounded and believed KIA

1970
Butler, James E., US Army (NC); O1G shot down (w/Cozart), KIA - reamins ID'd September, 1970

Cozart, Robert G., Jr., US Army (LA); O1G shot down (w/Butler), KIA - remains returned July, 1989

1971
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their UH1H was shot down:
Barker, Jack L. (GA)

Chubb, John J. (CA)

Dillender, William E. (FL)

Dugan, John F. (NJ)