News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Three U.S. Airmen Among 17 Dead in Iraq
Bush Wraps Up Planning for Iraq Strategy
Report: Bush's Iraq Plan to Set Political Benchmarks
President's speech coming as early as Wednesday
Democrats vow intense scrutiny of Bush Iraq plan
U.S. general urges balance in Baghdad crackdown - Video
Britain's Brown suggests policy shift
Pelosi hints at denying Bush Iraq funds
Saddam's co-defendants still await death

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Three Detained at Port of Miami - VIDEO
Palestinians free AFP photographer: officials
Fatah holds Gaza rally amid Hamas tensions - Video
Fatah and Hamas continue bloody struggle
Ex-terror suspect can sue, judge rules
No charges expected in Miami port alert

Troops on Trial
Details Emerge in Iraq Slayings Case

Religion of Peace??
Gunmen attack Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu

Worldwide Wackos
Israel Denies Plan to Attack Iran - VIDEO

Immigration / Border Control
Congressional leaders predict immigration law

U.N. News
Richardson gets bleak Darfur assessment

Science / Nature
Scientists Find New Stem-Cell Source in Amniotic Fluid Donated by Pregnant Women
Avalanche Survivors Talk - PHOTOS - VIDEO
Colo. crews clear potential avalanches
Neb. disaster declared after storms
The nation's weather
Stephen Hawking Planning Trip to Space

Oddities
Teacher Returns Library Book From 1960
Man Sets Fire to Church Nativity Scene

Other News of the Note
The Priest Was a Spy
Polish archbishop quits after Cold War revelation
One Boy, a Father and Two Mothers
College Grid Star's Mysterious Death
Video: Danelo Was a 'Wonderful Young Man'
Two Arrested in Tennessee Trooper's Death

Fox News
Wal-Mart Goes on Defensive in TV Ads
NFL Playoffs: Patriots, Eagles Advance
Saturn Aura, Chevy Silverado Win Detroit Auto Show Honors - VIDEO

Reuters: Top News
Rebels kill 10 in India's Assam in wave of violence
Fifty injured as Bangladesh blockade takes hold - Video
Japan scientists link strokes to gene variant
Bill Gates says connected tech hype now reality
Sony to enable TVs to play Internet video
Drugs nearing approval for mysterious pain condition
Heart of new EU is sleepy German commuter village
Alzheimer gene kicks in only in old age - study
Japan scientists link strokes to gene variant
Bindi Irwin to make showbiz debut
"Museum" still top attraction at box office
Wall Street gains hinge on deals, pre-announcements - Video
Oil extends rebound toward $57
Bed Bath & Beyond shares a bargain: report
Shares off on rate worry
Jobs data help extend dollar rally to third day
Playing catch-up
On the radar: Honda
Detroit gets a buzz from electric cars
Chairman outlines "double act" plan to run HSBC
General Electric poised to acquire Vetco Gray
Chrysler sees sales growth
Ford CEO Mulally says Jaguar not for sale
Honda mulling plug-in vehicles

AP World News
20 hurt after D.C. subway train derails
NFL divisional playoff matchups set
Gates touts vision of wired lifestyle
Winslet, Pitt films win in Palm Springs
Singh opens season with Mercedes victory
NASCAR's Bobby Hamilton dies of cancer
Akers lifts Eagles over Giants 23-20
9th Ward can be rebuilt, planners say
Colombian nurses animals back to health
Sony ships 1 million PS3s in N. America
Survey illuminates teen social networks
'Museum' sees more nights as No. 1 movie
Pats too much for Jets in 37-16 victory
Off-duty officer killed in N.J. robbery
'Plutoed' chosen as '06 Word of the Year

Military.com
One in Four Knows Gay Servicemember
The State of the Jihad
Podcast: Saddam's Death and the Surge
COLA Rates Updated
Advisors: SEAL Secrets to Breathing
DT: Our New Man in Iraq
Op-ed: Another Flight From Reality
Iwo Jima - slide show

CENTCOM: News Releases
IRAQI POLICE RAID CAPTURES 4 INSURGENTS MULTI-NATIONAL CORPS - IRAQ PAO

COALITION FORCES CAPTURE AQI CELL LEADER MULTI-NATIONAL CORPS - IRAQ PAO

COALITION FORCES ATTACKED IN FALLUJAH

USJFCOM
U.S. Joint Forces Command bringing together military, interagency for Multinational Experiment 5 - podcast
2006 -- The Year in Review
USJFCOM gets approval to connect U.S., Australian networks - podcast

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
Forces Capture al Qaeda Cell Leader - Story
Stability & Security in Iraq Report (pdf)
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Maliki Joins Troops in Celebrating Army Day - Story
277th Named Army’s ‘Top Aviation Battalion’ - Story
Iraqi Army, Police Team Up for Baghdad Ops - Story
Soldiers Celebrate Three Kings Day in Iraq - Story
Panjshir Team Helps to Repair Mosque - Story

IN IRAQ
Building Becomes ‘Shining Light’ for Tal Afar
Iraqi Trainers Graduate 120 From Police Academy
Paratroopers Seek to Build Trust in Samarra
Servicemembers Unite to Save Iraqi Girl's Life
Team Assists Iraqis With Reconstruction Projects

IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghan Officials, U.S. Troops Open Runway
Chief of Chaplains Brings Support to Region
Buccaneers Return from Afghanistan Tour

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

Weather
Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Germany
Ansbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld Bremerhaven
Darmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau Garmisch
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen Kitzingen
Hanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart Trier
Wiesbaden Wurzburg

Gitmo

Guam
Agana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan Barrigada

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

Japan
Kadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo Yokohama

Philippines
Baler Radar Site Catanduanes Radar Site Manila

South Korea
Cheju Upper/Radar Chonju Chunchon Inch'on Kunsan Masan Mokp'o
Osan Pusan Seoul Suwon Taegu Taejon Tonghae Radar Site Ulsan Yosu

* If you're deployed, and want to see your location's weather listed here, please email me! *

Today in History
0624 - Muslim army occupies Kurashitische Caravan
0794 - Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings
0871 - Battle at Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1198 - Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
1214 - Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France
1499 - Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown
1558 - French troops under Duke de Guise occupy Calais
1598 - Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy
1716 - Dutch gang leader "Sjako" arrested
1745 - England, Austria, Netherlands & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling
1760 - Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1790 - George Washington delivers 1st "State of the Union" address
1798 - 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1800 - Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi; Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France
1806 - Cape colony becomes English colony; Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
1811 - Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast
1815 - Battle of New Orleans-War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew
1830 - Dutch King Willem I fires displeasing parliament members
1833 - Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
1838 - 1st telegraph message sent using dots & dashes, New Jersey; Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
1853 - 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
1856 - Dr. John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs CA
1867 - Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite President Johnson's veto
1870 - US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins
1878 - Secret meeting of King Leopold II's agent & Henry Morton Stanley
1884 - Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
1889 - Dr. Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a tabulating machine (1st Computer)
1894 - Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1904 - Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1917 - Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani, Italy
1918 - Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition); President Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after WWI
1925 - 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas
1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia
1932 - Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter
1935 - Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
1940 - Britain's 1st WWII rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
1947 - General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State
1948 - Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1951 - Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
1952 - Jordan adopts constitution
1953 - René Mayer forms French government
1958 - Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
1959 - Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France's 5th Republic
1963 - "Mona Lisa", on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art
1964 - President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"; European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan
1965 - Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
1966 - Georges Pompidou appointed French premier
1968 - Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
1971 - Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota established; 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island CA
1973 - Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resume near Paris; USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing
1974 - Loch Ness Monster photographed
1975 - Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W. Dean III, Herbert W. Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1978 - Israel's Cabinet votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
1979 - 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up
1979 - Vietnamese troops overtake Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
1982 - Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969
1985 - Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet
1986 - President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US
1987 - Dow Jones closes above 2,000 for 1st time (2,002.25)
1988 - Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
1989 - Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons; Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die
1992 - US President George Bush gets ill; vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap during Japanese tour
1994 - Russian manned space craft TM-18, launches into orbit
1996 - Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths; For 1st time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1998 - Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer; World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life

Birthdays
1081 - Henry V. Roman, German king/emperor (1098/1111-25)
1767 - Abraham de Veer, Dutch Governor-General of Suriname (1822-28)
1791 - Jacob Collamer (Senator-VT)
1814 - Thomas Green, Confederate Brigadier General
1815 - George Webb Morell, Union Major General; Lawrence Pike Graham, Union Brigadier General
1817 - John Selden Roane, Confederate Brigadier General
1821 - James Longstreet, Confederate General (1st Corps, ANV)
1823 - Alfred Russel Wallace, British zoologist/co-discoverer (evolution)
1830 - Governer Kemble Warren, Union Major General
1836 - Fannie M. Jackson pioneer & educator, 1st US Black woman college grad
1851 - Gérard Leman, Belgian count/General
1862 - Frank Nelson, Doubleday publisher/founder (Doubleday & Co.)
1867 - Emily Green Balch, US sociologist/feminist/pacifist (Nobel 1946)
1868 - Sir Frank Dyson, proved Einstein right about light bent by gravity
1870 - Miguel Primo de Rivera Orbaneja, dictator of Spain (1923-30)
1885 - John Curtin Victoria, Australian PM (Labor, 1941-45)
1891 - Walther Bothe Germany, subatomic particle physicist (Nobel 1954)
1899 - Solomon WRD Bandaranaike premier of Ceylon (1956-59)
1900 - Queen Marie of Yugoslavia
1902 - Georgy M. Malenkov, Stalin's successor as head of CPSU, PM (1953-55)
1920 - Hendrikus J. Wittebold, civil servant/resistance fighter
1923 - Joseph Wiezenbaum, artificial intelligence pioneer; Larry Storch, comedian (F Troop, Larry Storch Show)
1926 - Soupy Sales [Milton Hines], North Carolina, comedian (Soupy Sales Show)
1928 - Sander Vanocur Cleveland OH, news anchor (NBC Weekend News)
1933 - Charles Osgood New York City NY, news anchor (CBS Weekend News)
1935 - Elvis Aaron Presley, rocker (Blue Suede Shoes, Hounddog); Jesse Garon Presley, stillborn twin brother of Elvis
1936 - Ferdinand Hartzenberg, South African minister of Education (1979-82)
1941 - Graham Chapman England, comedian (Monty Python's Flying Circus)
1942 - Stephen Hawking, English physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes)
1942 - Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich Zudov, cosmonaut (Soyuz 23)
1944 - Terry Brooks, sci-fi author (Sword of Shannara)
1946 - Tod Brannan, corporate Vice President (Logos Network Corp)
1947 - David Bowie (Jones), singer/actor (Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust)
1951 - Gérard Leman Belgian General

Passings
0482 - Severinus, German monastery founder/saint
0624 - Abu Sufjan ibn Harb Kurashite, chief, in battle
1198 - Coelestinus III (Giacinto Bobo), pope (1191-98)
1324 - Marco Polo, Venetian explorer/Governor of Nanking
1455 - Laurentius Justitianus (Lorenzo Giustiniani), saint, dies at 73
1598 - Johan Georg, elector of Brandenburg (1571-91), dies at 72
1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist/astronomer, dies at 78
1711 - Philips van Almonde Zealand, Lieutenant-Admiral, dies at 66
1775 - John Baskerville, English printer/type designer
1796 - Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, French National Convention chairman, dies at 46
1808 - Messenger, horse that sired many great trotters
1811 - Samuel Story, Dutch rear admiral (Battle of Kamperduin), dies at 58
1815 - Edward Pakenham, English General (Battle of New Orleans), dies in battle
1842 - Pierre Earl the Cambronne, French General (Waterloo, Elba), dies at 71
1880 - (Joshua A.) Norton I, self-proclaimed "Emperor of the US/Protector of México," dies at 60
1941 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell founder of the Boy Scouts, dies at 83
1950 - Joseph A. Schumpeter, Austrian/US economist/Minister of Finance, dies at 66
1952 - Antonia Maury, discoverer (supergiant, giant & dwarf stars); Joseph Arendt, Belgian worker's union leader, dies at 66
1964 - Julius Raab, Austrian chancellor (1953-61), dies at 72
1976 - Chou En-lai, China's PM (1949-76), dies of cancer in Beijing at 78
1980 - Oscar Ewing, US government official (Everybody's Business), dies at 90
1988 - Frank Pace, Jr., US Secretary of Army (1950-53), dies at 76
1992 - Menachim Begin, Israeli PM, dies at 78 of a heart attack
1993 - Asif Nawaz, Pakistani General; Hakija Turajlic Bosnian vice-premier, murdered
1994 - Lady Caithness, wife of British undersecretary, commits suicide
1996 - Francois Mitterrand, President of France (1981-95), dies of cancer at 79
1998 - Walter Diemer, inventor (bubble gum 1928), dies of heart failure at 93

Reported Missing in Action
1968
Bifolchi, Charles L., USAF (MA); RF4C disappeared on reconnaissance mission (pilot, w/Smith)

Fischer, Richard W., USMC (WI)

Smith, Hallie W., USAF (OR); RF4C disappeared on reconnaissance mission (navigator, w/Bifolchi)

The following US Army personnel reported MIA during heavy ground action:
Cannon, Frances E., US Army (AZ); DIC September, 1968 - remains returned August, 1985

Harker, David N. (VA); released by PRG March, 1973 - alive as of 1998

Strickland, James H. (NC); released November, 1969

Williams, Richard F. "Top" (CA); DIC September, 1968 - remains returned August, 1985

1971
Curry, Keith R., USN (WV); A6C shot down, KIA, body not recovered

1973
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their UH1H disappeared while on mission:
Bush, Elbert W. (MS); passenger, remains returned 1996 - ID'd October, 1999

Deane, William L. (FL); passenger, remains returned 1996 - ID'd October, 1999

Knutson, Richard A. (MN); pilot, remains returned and ID'd November, 1995

Lauterio, Manuel A. (CA); crew chief, remains returned and ID'd November, 1995

Stinson, William S. (AL); gunner, remains ID'd November, 1999

Wilson, Mickey A. (CA); aircraft commander, remains returned in 1996 - ID'd October, 1999