News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
137 killed or found dead across Iraq

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Al Qaeda Getting Bolder
Al-Zawahiri taunts Bush, U.S. in new video;Terror group claims 'Black Hawk Down' in Baghdad
Video mocks Bush: STORY
'We shot down chopper': STORY
GOPers Offer Alternative Ideas on Iraq Policy - VIDEO
Official: Al Qaeda Tried to Hatch Student Terror Plot in U.S
Attacks Leave at Least 137 Dead Across Iraq - PHOTOS
Top Somali Islamist surrenders - Video
Something has to give, Serb election analysts say
Arabiya TV office in Gaza damaged by bomb
Top Somali Islamist surrenders - Video
New passport rules start Tuesday

Supporting Our Heroes (Or Not)
GIs Wanted Mats, Got Insults Instead - VIDEO (this is the story I posted yesterday)
Military.com Advisors: Programs for the Wounded

Other Military News
U.S. plans missile bases in Europe
Desert Search Locates AWOL Ranger

Worldwide Wackos
Iran's Saber-Rattling Escalates
Top Cleric Slams Ahmadinejad's Diplomacy - Iran Conducts Missile Tests
Iran bars 38 IAEA nuclear inspectors

Homegrown Moonbats
TV Forecaster Weathers Storm on Comments

Politics / Government
Australian Kicked Off Flight for Anti-Bush Tee
Bush to Push Energy Fixes, Iraq in Address
U.S. image around world sharply worsens: BBC poll
Clinton campaign shows Web power in White House race - Video
Clinton declines public funds, others may follow

Immigration / Border Control
Feds, Local Law Stop 'Legal' Escape Of Illegal Charged in Sex Attack on Girl - VIDEO

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment
Farmer Ran Human Slaughterhouse
Canadian prosecutors say Pickton wanted to kill 50
Roe v. Wade, 34 Years Later
Paris Hilton Pleads No Contest to DUI Charge
Search for Indiana Mom and 4 Kids Continues
Men sue Mormon Church, Boy Scouts in abuse case
High court rejects Calif. sentencing law

Science / Nature
CEOs plead for mandatory emissions caps
Feds fear a dam break in Ky. and Tenn.
Experts: Alps glaciers will melt by 2050

Oddities
Drought drives snakes to the cities
Phone thief repents after 21 text messages

Fox News
Brits Clamp Down on Grounded Ship - PICS
Dallas Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells Retires
Mike Tyson Pleads Not Guilty to Drug Charges
Gasoline Prices Plummet 14 Cents
Sin City: Vatican Crime at Biblical Proportions
Heather Mills' Lawyers Deny Report That Paul McCartney Has Proposed Divorce Settlement
Sienna Miller: 'It' Girl Makes Good in New Film
'Blue Monday' Means It's All Smooth Sailing for 2007

Reuters: Top News
U.S. doctor group joins call for healthcare overhaul
More than 20 killed in Guinea strike violence
Super Bowl slowdown costs U.S. employers $800 million
Microwave zaps germs on sponges, study finds
Officials say concerned about Chinese space debris
Google to run video ads from BMG, Warner
Music industry divided over digital future
Users fuel news at Germany's Bild
Microwave zaps germs on sponges, study finds
Depression drugs weaken bones in elderly: study
Asian stocks down
Gap rises after CEO steps down
Texas Instruments up on earnings
Indices fall on tech view
Oil resumes slide, cool weather limits losses
Super slowdown
Wanted: CEO
TI profit up on tax credit
Gap CEO steps down
Citigroup CFO Krawcheck returns to old job at bank
S.Korea's SK Corp. profit falls 16 percent
Pfizer cuts 7,800 more jobs
Sun Micro to use Intel server chips as well as AMD

AP World News
'Grey' star meets with gay activists
Gap dumps CEO after poor shopping season
Mandy Moore: I struggled with depression
U.S. docs tough on blood pressure
Pfizer to cut 10,000 jobs, close plants
Dow ends down 88 on tech concerns
Early labor so husband can watch Bears
`Instinct,' `Little Man' lead Razzies
German, French groups want open iTunes
Steelers hire Mike Tomlin as head coach

Military.com
V-22 Testing Turns up Trouble
DT: Left and Right Hand Issues in China
Op-ed: Sputnik'd Again?
Blog: With the Snake Eaters
Military Tax Tips
Wanna Be a Blue Angel?
Gear in the News: UH-60L Blackhawk

CENTCOM: News Releases
AL-TAIR’RAH SQUARE TARGETED BY DOUBLE CAR BOMBS

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
Cutter Shares Law Enforcement Techniques with Djibouti Navy - Story
Stability & Security in Iraq Report (pdf)
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
School Supplies Bring Smiles to Children - Story
82nd Airborne Steps Up Security in Baghdad - Story
Transition Team Braves Attacks to Train Police - Story
Defense Secretary Praises Coalition Partners - Story
'Providers' Give Iraqi Soldiers Tools for Missions - Story

IN IRAQ
Cav Soldiers Help Iraqis Open New Schools
Training Teams Teach Iraqis to Run Operations
Married Couple Dedicated to Serving in Iraq
Flight Surgeon in Iraq Treats Injured Local Child

IN AFGHANISTAN
Volunteers Spark Warmth at Burn Center
U.S. Air Assets Support Strike in Afghanistan
U.S. Air Force Engineer Helps Afghans Rebuild

IN DJIBOUTI
Marine Trains U.S. Embassy Troops in Djibouti

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
0638 - Start of Islamic calendar
1265 - 1st English Parliament formally convened (some authorities)
1490 - 1st printing of Ramban's Sha'ar ha-Gemul
1492 - "Pentateuch" (Jewish holy book) 1st printed
1552 - 2nd version of Book of Common Prayer becomes mandatory in England
1556 - Most deadly earthquake kills 830,000 in Shansi Province, China
1570 - Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland, assassinated; civil war breaks out
1579 - Union of Utrecht signed, forming protestant Dutch Republic
1631 - France & Sweden sign anti-German Treaty of Bärwald
1637 - Dutch Governor Johan Mauritius lands in Pernambuco Brazil
1643 - Sir Thomas Fairfax takes Leeds for the Parliamentarians
1647 - Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English parliament
1663 - King Louis XIV affirms covenant with Rÿnstaten
1668 - England, Netherlands & Sweden signs Triple Alliance against French
1719 - Principality of Liechtenstein created within Holy Roman Empire
1793 - 2nd partition of Poland, between Prussia & Russia; Humane Society of Philadelphia (first aid society) organized
1796 - Armand-Gaston Camus becomes chairman of Council of 500
1812 - 7.8 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri
1845 - Uniform US election day for President & Vice President authorized
1849 - Mrs Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman physician in US; Patent granted for an envelope-making machine
1856 - Steamer Pacific lost
1861 - Agoston Haraszthy, 1st vintner in Sonoma Valley, imports 100,000 cuttings of 350 varieties from Europe
1865 - Battle of City Point, VA (James River, Trent's Reach); General Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies
1870 - 173 Blackfoot Indians (140 women & children) killed in Montana by US Army
1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes 1st Native American US senator
1908 - US & Great-Britain demand end of abuses in Congo
1909 - 1st radio rescue at sea
1920 - Dutch government refuses to turn over ex-Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany to the allies 1930 - George Washington Birthplace National Monument, VA, established; Clyde Tombaugh photographs planet Pluto
1932 - El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers
1933 - 20th amendment changes date of Presidential Inaugurations to 1/20
1936 - Catholic People's Party (KVP) of Curaçao forms
1937 - Karl Radek & 16 others go on trial in Stalin's great purge
1941 - Ground breaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center
1942 - Japanese troops occupy Rabaul, New Britain; Tank battle at Adzjedabia, African corps vs British army
1943 - British 8th army marches into Tripoli; Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured
1945 - Dutch Premier Gerbrandy, exiled in London, offers his resignation
1946 - Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, USNR, becomes 1st director of CIA
1950 - NFL rule changes open way for 2-platoon system (offense & defense); NFL's National & American conferences become Eastern & Western conferences
1954 - Harry van Thorn chosen chairman of Dutch KVP
1958 - Dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazábal takes power
1961 - Court rules cities & states have right to censor films; Venezuela adopts constitution
1962 - Libya, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb; British spy Kim Philby defects to USSR
1964 - 24th Amendment ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections
1968 - Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by N Korea
1970 - Australia's 1st amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (California); US launches 2nd generation weather satellite, ITOS 1
1972 - Entire population of Istanbul under 24 hour house arrest
1973 - Helgafell, island of Heimaey Iceland erupts for 1st time in 7,000 years; Jordan Air crash at Kano, Nigeria kills 176 Moslem pilgrims
1973 - President Nixon announces an accord has been reach to end the Vietnam War
1975 - "Barney Miller" premieres on ABC TV
1977 - Miniseries "Roots" premieres on ABC
1978 - Belgian industrial Haron Empain kidnapped in Paris
1979 - Willie Mays elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1982 - World Airways DC-10 skids at Boston Logan Airport, killing 2
1983 - "A-Team" with Mr T premieres on NBC; Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean
1985 - Britains House of Lords debate 1st televised
1986 - Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB; 1st induction of Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis & Elvis Presley)
1987 - Japan 1st exceeds military spending cap of 1% of GNP ($23 billion)
1988 - Experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan & Jeana Yeager, complete 1st nonstop, round-the-world flight without refueling lands
1989 - Challenge to "who is a Jew" law filed in Israeli Supreme Court
1991 - World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
1993 - New York Newsday reports Oregon's Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed 23 women
1994 - Worldwide Day for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina
1998 - Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba

Birthdays
1730 - Joseph Hewes, US merchant (Declaration of Independence signer)
1828 - Calvin Edward Pratt, Union Brigadier General
1830 - Gaston A.A. Marquis de Gallifet, French General /minister of War (1899-1900)
1832 - Édouard Manet, French Impressionist painter (Déjeuner sur L'Herbe)
1833 - John Randolph Chambliss, Jr., Confederate Brigadier General
1891 - Antonio Gramsci, Italian philosopher/marxist theorist
1893 - Frank Carlson (Governor/Republican/Senator-KS)
1896 - Charlottef, Grand Dutchess of Luxembourg (1919-64)
1897 - Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian politician
1907 - Hediki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949)
1914 - Napoleon L. Bonaparte, French pretender to the throne
1915 - Potter Stewart, 94th Supreme Court justice (1958-81)
1924 - Frank R. Lautenberg (Senator-NJ)
1929 - John Polanyi, Canadian chemist (Nobel 1986)
1930 - William Reid Pogue, Colonel USAF/astronaut (Skylab 4)
1932 - Bud Shuster (Representative-PA)
1938 - Anatoly Marchenko, Soviet dissident
1942 - Willy Bogner, Jr., director (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
1944 - Marty Russo (Representative-IL); Rutger Hauer Dutch actor (Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, Osterman Weekend)
1947 - Thomas R. Carper (Representative-DE)
1949 - Robert D. Cabana, Major USMC/astronaut (STS 41, 53, 68, 88)

Passings
1002 - Otto III, German king/emperor 983/996-1002, dies at 21
1356 - Margaretha of Bavaria, Empress of Germany
1516 - Ferdinand II, King of Aragon/Sicily, dies at 63
1639 - Francisco Maldonado da Silva Solis, Peruvian poet, burned at stake
1800 - Edward Rutledge, US attorney (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 50
1806 - William Pitt the Younger, PM Great Britain (1783-1806), dies at 46
1813 - George Clymer, US merchant (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 73
1838 - Arnold A. Buyskes, Dutch Vice-Admiral/colonial director, dies at 67
1891 - Boudouin, prince of Belgium/count of Flanders, dies at 21
1913 - Nazim Pasha, Turkey's PM, assassinated
1945 - Helmuth J. Moltke, German politician ("July 20th Plot"), executed at 37
1990 - Mariano Rumor, Italy's PM (1968-70, 73-1974)
1992 - Simon Brand, South African banker/adviser to President De Klerk
1997 - Laura "Dinky" Patterson, dies during bungee jump at Super Bowl rehearsal at 43
1997 - Randy Greenawalt, convicted killer, executed by injection at 47; Roger John Tayler, astrophysicist, dies at 67
1998 - Hilla Limann, President of Ghana (1979-81)

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Bridger, Barry B., USAF (NC); F4C shot down (pilot, w/Gray), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive as of 1998

Gray, David F., USAF (FL); F4C shot down (co-pilot/systems operator, w/Bridger), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1968
Ramsden, Gerald Lee, USN (CA); A6A shot down over water - remains recovered January, 1969

1969
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their UH1H was shot down:
Henderson, William R. (OH); remains returned January, 1969 - ID'd February, 1976

Luster, Robert L. (OH); remains recovered January, 1969; ID'd February, 1976 (disputed)

Moorman, Frank D. (NJ); remains recovered January, 1969; ID'd February, 1976

1970
Anzaldua, Jose J., Jr., USMC (TX); released by PRG March, 1973 - retired as a Major