U.S. and Polish army soldiers from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, gave donated toys and clothing to children of Iraqi army soldiers assigned to the 8th Iraqi Army Division. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

Children of Iraqi army soldiers assigned to the 8th Iraqi Army Division wave Iraqi flags during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. During family day, U.S. and Polish army soldiers from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, gave the children donated toys and clothing. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

An Iraqi girl gives a peace sign as she holds the gifts she received during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Pricelothing. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

Polish army Maj. Piotr Lewandowski, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, hands out candy during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

An Iraqi child shows his father his new soccer ball during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. U.S. and Polish army soldiers from Multi-National Division - Central South planned the day to donate clothes, shoes and toys to the children of Iraqi army soldiers assigned to the 8th Iraqi Army Division. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

Polish army Warrant Officer Dariusz Drobka shakes hands with an Iraqi child after giving her a stuffed animal during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

Iraqi army Gen. Farhod, the commander of the 8th Iraqi Army Division, kisses a child after giving him clothes and toys during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price

Polish army Maj. Piotr Lewandowski, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, hands an Iraqi child a soccer ball during family day at the 8th Iraqi Army Division headquarters in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2006. During family day, U.S. and Polish army soldiers from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, gave the children donated toys and clothing. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



More photo essays at DefendAmerica

THUMBS-UP — U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Lauren Sinclair gives the thumbs-up sign along with a group of Afghan refugees who are showing their appreciation for the humanitarian aid given to them by the Air Force Provincial Reconstruction Team. Sinclair is with the 859th Medical Operations Squadron. U.S. Air Force photo Tech. Sgt. McGowen Anderson

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
W.House won't accept all Baker group proposals
Iraqis, U.S. dispute deadly raid in new friction - Video
Bush quickens search for new war plan
Al-Zarqawi said Shiites most dangerous
Military.com Blog: On Patrol in Fallujah

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Feds Crack 'Jihad' Plot to Bomb Christmas Shoppers - VIDEO
Click Here for the Criminal Complaint (FindLaw.com)
Malls Beef Up Security for the Holidays

Other Military News
Rumsfeld Bids Farewell

Mid-East Ceasefire / Hamas Rising / Israel at War
Lebanese PM accuses Hezbollah of plotting coup - Video

Religion of Peace??
Saudi warns of Mideast arms race
Bus officials apologize to Muslim woman

Worldwide Wackos
West circulates revised UN sanctions draft on Iran

Politics / Government
Panel: No Rules Broken in Foley Scandal
Rep. McKinney Introduces Bush Impeachment Bill
Jimmy Carter Fires Back at Ex-Aide Over Book
IRS Stops Charity From Giving Firefighters' Families More Than $1 Million in Donations
House passes stopgap funds until February 15
House sends tax, trade bills to Senate
McKinney introduces bill to impeach Bush

Immigration / Border Control
Illness delays smuggling deaths case

U.N. News
Bush says Darfur situation dire
Sudan dismisses Annan criticism

Science / Nature
4-Year-Old Girl Mauled by Cougar at Birthday Party
California wildfires may be making children sick: study
U.S. tweaks pollution rule review
Endangered turtle found in Vietnam

News from My Neck of the Woods
High-rise office blast in Mass. kills 1

Oddities
4-Year-Old Accused of Improper Touching
'Truthiness' Pronounced 2006 Word of the Year
Three Fetuses Found in Dead Woman's Freezer
Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Mother Accused of Killing Her Baby in a Microwave
Cop pledged love to polygamist leader
Study says bees can find explosives

Other News of Note
Four Dead in Chicago Office Shooting

Fox News
Kim Dad Took Wrong Turn Due to Vandals
Moscow Drug Hospital Fire Kills 42
Wesley Snipes Surrenders to Face Federal Tax Fraud Charges

Reuters: Top News
Gunfire heard from inside Fiji's main army barracks
Patience no problem for Sweden's first astronaut
"World's Best Casual Gamer" wants to be a lawyer
Nintendo Wii U.S. sales top Sony's PS3: NPD
Panel says wide use of drug-coated stents risky
Hollywood bets on Mel's future as "Apocalypto" opens
Critics writing their lists, checking them twice
Stocks on short leash with Fed, CPI
Stocks gain on robust job growth
Yum shares battered by more E. coli cases
Allegiant Travel shares climb in debut
Heelys shares jump 85 pct in market debut
Jobs growth quieting "R-word" fears - Listen to Audio
Full Story: Nov. hiring surprisingly strong
Reaction: Analysts comment
Calculated earnings
Paulson says economy on solid footing
FCC OKs commissioner to vote on AT&T-BellSouth
IPG troubles persist as Wal-Mart drops ad account
Dollar may gain even with U.S. hard landing: Lombard

AP World News
Struthers 'crazy' over role in TV movie
FCC: McDowell can vote on AT&T-Bellsouth
Pettitte returns to Yankees in $16M deal
Pilots in Brazil crash leave for U.S.
Older girl to testify in Wis. rape case
S.C. hunter pinned under ATV for 2 days
Troopers find weapons in traffic stop
2 dead in large SoCal apartment fire
Trump condo sales open on Baja coast
Report: No full probe of LAFD hazing
2nd teen convicted in party beating

Military.com
Shuttle Launch Delayed
Learn to Use Your GI Bill
How Does Santa Find Military Kids?
Play Military Trivia and Win an iPod
Oliver North Back in Iraq
Ten Steps to Joining the Military
Gear in the News: AS Submarine Tender

CENTCOM: News Releases
SEVEN SUSPECTED TERRORISTS DETAINED; WEAPONS CACHE DESTROYED

THREE SUSPECTED TERRORISTS CAPTURED BY AFGHAN, COALITION FORCES

BAGHDAD ‘EAGLE BRIGADE’ DETAINS SEVEN SUSPECTED TERRORISTS

IRAQI ARMY, PARATROOPERS WORK TOGETHER, DESTROY CACHES

IRAQI, COALITION FORCE LEADERS DISCUSS SECURITY, FUTURE OPERATIONS

MARINES ENTER HOSPITAL AFTER TWO MARINES WOUNDED

IRAQI ARMY, COALITION FORCES DETAIN THREE SUSPECTED ANTI-IRAQI FORCES

FIELD ARTILLERY TROOPS DISCOVER CAR BOMB

MND-B PATROL FINDS IED, SUSPECTED BOMB-MAKER

ISF CAPTURES AQI LEADER DURING RAID

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

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
Transition Teams Vital to Success - Story
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

Iwo Jima Returns from Six-Month Deployment - Story
Marine Tankers Search Desert for Weapons - Story
Hundreds Graduate from Iraqi Basic Training - Story

IN IRAQ
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
Newly Arrived Troops Make Safety Priority
Army Engineers Aid Iraq Reconstruction Efforts

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

National Hurricane Center

Today in History
0536 - Byzantines Libya occupies Rome on Ostrogoten
0656 - Battle of Kameel: Kalief Al ibn Abu Talib beats rebellion
1212 - Frederik II crowns himself Roman Catholic king
1625 - Netherlands & England sign military treaty
1640 - Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Massachusetts colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
1658 - Dutch troops occupy harbor city Quilon (Coilan) India
1688 - King James II's wife & son flee England for France
1738 - Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia
1747 - England & Netherlands sign military treaty
1762 - British parliament accept Treaty of Paris
1783 - 1st execution at English Newgate-jail
1793 - Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva
1805 - Comet 3D/1805 V1 (Biela) approaches within 0.0366 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1824 - Battle of Ayacucho (Candorcangui), Peru defeats Spain
1854 - Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade" published
1861 - Battle of Bird Creek, Indian Terr (High Shoal, Chusto-Talasah)
1868 - 1st British government of Gladstone forms
1878 - Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500
1883 - New Brunswick adopts Eastern Standard Time (until 1902)
1884 - Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate
1900 - Dutch President Paul Kruger & Queen Wilhelmina have a triumphant procession
1903 - Norwegian parliament vote unanimiously for female suffrage
1905 - French Assembly National votes for separation of church & state
1906 - New York American reports Belgian King Leopold II bribed US Senate commission on the Congo
1907 - 1st Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington DE post office)
1909 - 1st US monoplane flown (Henry W Walden, Long Island NY)
1910 - French troops occupy Morrocan harbor city Agadir
1917 - British forces under General Allenby capture Jerusalem
1918 - French troops occupies Mainz
1922 - Gabriel Narutowicz elected Polish President
1924 - Dutch & Hungary trade treaty signed; Michael Hainisch re-elected Austrian President
1931 - Spain becomes a republic; Japanese army attacks Chinese province of Jehol
1933 - Romania disallows fascist Iron Guard
1939 - Russian air raid on Helsinki
1940 - Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius; British assault on Banghazi, Libya - first major British WWII offensive in North Africa
1941 - 1st US WWII bombing mission in the Far East, Luzon, Philippines; China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy; Citizen Register reports "Hostile planes reported nearing Westchester"; Hitler orders US ships torpedoed
1948 - UN General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide
1949 - Dutch 2nd Chamber accept Indonesian sovereignty
1951 - Voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
1953 - General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
1957 - 1st Japanese ambassador to Israel
1958 - Robert H.W. Welch, Jr., & 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society
1961 - SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel; Tanganyika gains independence from Britain takes name Tanzania
1962 - Tanganyika becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth
1963 - Frank Sinatra, Jr., is kidnapped; Zanzibar gains independence from Britain
1965 - Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as President of Presidium; "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premieres
1967 - Nicolae Ceausescu becomes President (dictator) of Romania
1968 - Doug Engelbart demonstrates first computer mouse at Stanford
1970 - Dutch Antilles: Government of Petronia falls
1971 - Lewis F. Powell, Jr., appointed to the Supreme Court
1973 - Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland
1978 - Pioneer Venus 2 drops 5 probes into atmosphere of Venus
1983 - Attorney General Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens "...because the food is free and that's easier than paying for it"
1984 - Iranian commandos end capture of Kuwaiti plane
1987 - Palestine uprising begin in Israeli-occupied West Bank
1990 - Lech Walesa wins presidential election in Poland
1992 - Prince Charles & Princess Diana's separation announced by British PM, John Major; Operation Restore Hope - US Marines land in Somalia
1993 - Ivory Coast Premier Ouattara resigns
1994 - 5 meter meteor 1994 XM1 passes within 100,000 km of Earth; Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after masturbation comments

Birthdays
1561 - Edwin Sandys, a founder of Virginia colony
1569 - Martinus de Porres Peru, saint (patron of social justice)
1594 - Gustavus II Adolphus, king who made Swedenden a major power (1611-32)
1842 - Pjotr A. Kopotkin, Russian ruler/anarchist (how can you be a ruler AND an anarchist??)
1848 - Joel Chandler Harris, US journalist (created Uncle Remus stories)
1868 - Fritz Haber German, phycist-chemist (Nobel 1918)
1883 - Alexander Papagos, Greek fieldmarshal/supreme commander
1884 - Antonin Zapotocky, Czechoslovakian President (Ceskoslovensky Spisouatel)
1886 - Clarence Birdseye, frozen vegatable king (Birdseye)
1902 - Margaret Hamilton Cleveland OH, actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard of Oz); Richard A. Butler, Dutch Minister of Finance/Foreign affairs
1910 - Stephen Jurika, Jr., US pilot/captain (WWII, Santa Cruz, Navy Cross)
1912 - Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (Representative-MA 1977-86)/Speaker of the House
1918 - Kirk Douglas, (Issur Demsky), actor (Gunfight at the OK Corral, 7 Days in May)
1922 - Redd Foxx, comedian (Sanford & Son, Redd Foxx Show)
1925 - Dina Merrill, actress (Operation Petticoat, Butterfield 8)
1928 - Dick Van Patten, actor (Tom Bradford-8 is Enough)
1929 - John Cassavetes, actor (Dirty Dozen, Rosemary's Baby); Robert J.L. Hawke (Lab), PM Australia (1983-91)
1934 - Dame Judi Dench, British stage & film actress (Goldeneye-"M", Her Majesty Mrs Brown-Queen Victoria)
1938 - Elizabeth H. "Rina" Venter, South African minister of Health care
1952 - Michael Dorn, actor (Worf-Star Trek Next Generation)
1957 - Donny Osmond, singer (Osmond Brothers, Donny & Marie)
1958 - Nancy J. Currie, Major, US Army/astronaut (STS 57, 70, sk: 88)
2340 - Worf Klingon character on Star Trek Next Generation (oddly enough)

Passings
1165 - Malcom IV, king of Scotland (1153-65), dies at 24
1437 - Sigismund, German Emperor/king of Hungary/Bohemia, dies at 70
1565 - Pius IV (Gianangelo de' Medici), Italian Pope (1559-65), dies at 66
1669 - Clement IX (Giulio Rospigliosi), Italian Pope (1667-69)
1674 - Edward Hyde, 1st earl of Clarendon English PM (1660-67), dies at 65
1706 - Pedro II, King of Portugal (1683-1706), dies at 58
1940 - Maletti, Italian general, dies in battle
1970 - Artem Mikoyan, Russian aircraft designer (MIG), dies at 65
1971 - Ralph J. Bunche, UN delegate/Nobel Prize winner, dies at 67
1982 - Leon Jaworski, Watergate special prosecutor, dies in Texas at 77
1993 - Muhammad Reza Golpayegani, Ayatollah of Iran
1994 - Kim II Sung, President of North Korea (1945-94), dies at 82
1995 - Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, aviator
1996 - Alain Emile Louis Marie Poher, French President of European Parliament (1966-69), dies at 87; Mary Douglas Nichol Leakey archaeologist/anthropologist, dies at 83

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Lira, Jose T., US Army; AWOL

1968
Ford, Edward, US Army (AL);Killed by mine, body not recovered

Minor, Carroll, USN (SC); KIA in rocket attack on LCM-873

Shimek, Samuel D., US Army (PA); KIA by RPG or rocket fire, body not recovered

1972
Acosta, Hector M., USAF (TX); RF4C shot down (navigator, w/Williams), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive as of 1998

Williams, Billie J., USAF (MO); RF4C shot down (pilot, w/Acosta), remains returned, ID'd December, 1990