News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
New Bootleg Saddam Hanging Video
Saddam Tape Reveals Plan to Exterminate Kurds
VIDEOS: Saddam the Martyr? - Saddam's Brutal Regime - Translation of New Saddam Execution Video
Pols: Bush Will Call of Troop 'Surge' in Iraq
Dems Seek to Wield Budget Hammer on Iraq
Iraq backs Bush troop plan, clashes in Baghdad - Video
50 militants said killed in Iraq battle

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
U.S. Stages Payback Attack
Gunship strikes Al Qaeda hideout in Somalia - VIDEO
U.S. Jets From Redeployed Carrier Begin Surveillance Flights
Chronology: U.S. involvement in Somalia
Authorities: Miami package was harmless
Italian, U.S. agents urge govts to stop CIA trial
German Court Gives Moroccan Max for 9/11
Hamas and Fatah gunmen clash in Gaza - Video

Other Military News
U.S. Submarine and Japanese Ship Collide in Arabian Sea

Worldwide Wackos
Chavez Announces Plans to Move Toward 'Socialist Republic of Venezuela'
N. Korea nuclear test likely: general
Olmert seeks tougher stand on Iran from China
Military.com Blog: Israel to Employ Tactical Nukes?

Politics / Government
Delay of Congress Called for BCS Game
Democrats ready to kick off "100-hour" agenda
Schwarzenegger wants health care for all in Calif
Sharpton considers running for president
House resumes stem cell research debate
Britain's Blair faces trial by theater and TV

Immigration / Border Control
Texas jury set to weigh smuggling deaths

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment
Man Accused of Killing Clemson Student With Bikini Top Appears in Court
Drugs, Alcohol Found in Prostitutes Discovered Dead Near Atlantic City
Ivy League Professor Charged in Wife's Beating Death
Katrina insurance trial to begin

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Brazilian Phone Company Blocks YouTube Over Model Sex Video
Yahoo redesigns Web search to run on mobile phones
Motorola sees media, Internet as '07 priorities

Science / Nature
Wife Rescues Husband from Jaws of a Giant Crocodile
Montserrat Volcano Shoots 5-Mile-High Ash Cloud - PHOTOS
Wildfire destroys 4 homes in Malibu
Wild game herds of Serengeti: wonder or worry?
Australia zoo puts humans on display
Fish follow their noses back to tropical reefs
Bird deaths shut down downtown Austin

News from My Neck of the Woods
NY gas smell sends 19 to hospital - Video
N.J. eyed as source of stench over NYC (You know...naaaah, too easy)

Oddities
Girls Gone Wild: Texas Cheerleaders Terrorize Town
World's Smallest 'Country' for Sale
Texas-based pizza chain accepts Mexican pesos

Other News of Note
Indonesia plane search focuses on undersea object

Fox News
Ivy League Students Go Wild for Naked Parties (Mom and Dad must be so proud...)
Report: Apple Cell Phone to Use Cingular
Sharp Unveils 108-Inch Flat-Panel TV
No. 2 Florida Upsets No. 1 Ohio State 41-14 to Win College Football National Championship - PHOTOS
Sharp Unveils 108-Inch Flat-Panel TV
Report: Cingular to Provide Service for New Apple Cell Phone

Reuters: Top News
Sweden's Sami struggle over land rights
U.S. health-care spending hits nearly $2 trillion
Van Halen, R.E.M. among Rock hall of fame entrants
L.A. move does little to boost Trump's TV audience
Apple shares up before product show
Energy ETF drops as crude price tumble
Futures rise on tech optimism; oil drops
Mentor Graphics rises as outlook raised
Oil plunges $2, crashes through key $55 level - Video
The CEO pay debate
Just enough to eat at McDonald's
LSE steps up fight against Nasdaq
GE seeks bids for plastics unit: reports
Small business optimism slips in Dec: survey
Supervalu posts higher profit
Citigroup sees $370 mln loss in Japan finance unit

AP World News
Dow, Nasdaq poised to extend gains
Angelina Jolie: Madonna's adoption risky
Gwynn, Ripken likely for Hall of Fame
Cartoonist who created Scooby-Doo dies
Man waives Oprah extortion case hearing
Sprint to cut 5,000 jobs; Stock plunges
Obituaries in the news
Mother wanted in child killings arrested
Subway cars scrutinized after derailment

Military.com
Play Trivia and Win an iPod
World's Largest Veteran's Job Board
Got Money Questions? Ask June!
TRICARE Can Cut Costs
Find Your Old Military Buddies

CENTCOM: News Releases
U.S. NAVY SUBMARINE AND MERCHANT VESSEL COLLIDE IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ

MND-B ENGAGES IN ANTI-INSURGENT OPERATION MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION - BAGHDAD PAO

IRAQI ARMY CELEBRATES 86TH BIRTHDAY

IRAQI POLICE TAKE SUPPLIES TO SCHOOL IN RAMADI

A DAY OF CARING FOR OTHERS

IRAQI ARMY TROOPS FIND WEAPONS CACHE

REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM 5 WELCOMES ARMY BATTALION

IRAQI ARMY KILLS THREE INSURGENTS IN RAID TO CAPTURE INSURGENT LEADER NEAR BAQUBAH

TWO CIVILIANS, ONE POLICE WOUNDED AFTER VIOLENT DEMONSTRATION DISPERSED IN SAMARRA

RAMADI POLICE CAPTURE INSURGENTS IN TA'MEEM

FOUR TERRORISTS KILLED; TIED TO IED PRODUCTION

IRAQI HIGHWAY PATROL, PARATROOPERS WORK TOGETHER TO FIND, DESTROY BOMB

JOINT OPERATION FINDS, SECURES IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE SOUTH OF BAGHDAD

PLANT RAIDS NET WEAPONS CACHES, DETAINS 32

SOLDIERS CLEAN UP WITH HELP OF QUARTERMASTER COMPANY

IRAQI ARMY FORCES DETAINS 7 MEMBERS OF IED CELL IN SAMARRA

CANADIAN SOLDIER JOINS U.S. RANKS TO CREATE A BETTER LIFE FOR FAMILY

SUSPECTS DETAINED, WEAPONS TAKEN, LOCALS ASSISTED

IA, CF CONTINUE TO CLEAR SAFE HAVEN

NATIONAL POLICE DETAIN FOUR SUSPECTS, SEIZE WEAPONS CACHE IN SE BAGHDAD

TWO SUSPECTS DETAINED IN JOINT OPERATION

SOLDIERS CELEBRATE 3 KINGS DAY IN IRAQ

COALITION FORCES SEIZE, DESTROY HOMEMADE EXPLOSIVES FACILITY

BOMB-MAKING CELLS TARGETED IN RAIDS SOUTH OF BAGHDAD

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
Coalition Forces Uncover Weapons - Story
Stability & Security in Iraq Report (pdf)
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
New Commander Discusses Challenges in Iraq - Story
Marines Improve Conditions in Iraqi Bunkers - Story
Iraqi Soldiers Pressure Insurgents in Baghdad - Story
Soldiers Spruce up Observation Point - Story
Maliki Joins Troops in Celebrating Army Day - Story

IN IRAQ
Iraqi Army, Police Team Up for Baghdad Ops
Soldiers Celebrate Three Kings Day 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

IN AFGHANISTAN
277th Named Army’s ‘Top Aviation Battalion’
Panjshir Team Helps to Repair Mosque
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
1296 - Earl Floris V signs accord with French king
1317 - Phillips V, the Tall, crowned king of France
1349 - 700 Jews of Basel Switzerland, burned alive in their houses
1464 - 1st meeting of States-General of Netherlands
1493 - 1st sight of manatees (by Christopher Columbus)
1558 - Geneva becomes independent from Berne canton, Switzerland
1570 - Tsar Ivan the terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod
1718 - France declares war on Spain
1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in battle of Barari Ghat
1788 - Connecticut becomes 5th state
1792 - Russia & Turkey sign Peace of Jassy
1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard makes 1st balloon flight in North America (Philadelphia)
1799 - Income Tax introduced in UK
1812 - Swedish Pomerania (Germany) seized by Napoleon
1834 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port San Julian, Patagonia
1839 - Daguerrotype photo process announced at French Academy of Science; Thomas Henderson measures 1st stellar parallax (Alpha Centauri)
1848 - People's uprising in Palermo Sicily
1854 - Astor Library opens in New York City NY
1855 - Clipper Guiding Star disappears in Atlantic, taking 480 with her
1857 - 7.9 earthquake shakes Fort Tejon CA
1861 - 1st hostile act of Civil War; Star of the West fired on, Sumter SC; Mississippi becomes 2nd state to secede
1863 -Jan 11th] Battle of Arkansas Post AR (Fort Hindman)
1879 - Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Fort Robinson; Kirland Warbler discovered on Andros Island in Bahamas
1880 - 6' (1.8 meters) of snow falls in Seattle in 5 days
1894 - "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" released in movie theaters
1905 - Bloody Sunday-demonstrators fired on by tsarist troops
1908 - Frans Schollaert succeeds De Trooz as premier of Belgium
1909 - Ernest Shackleton reaches 88º23' south
1912 - US Marines invade Honduras
1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes 1st autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain
1925 - German Postal Minister A Höfle resigns due to corruption
1936 - Semi-automatic rifles adopted by US army
1937 - Italian regime bans marriages between Italians & Abyssinians
1940 - 2 German officers make emergency landing in Belgium
1941 - Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Lancaster military plane; 6,000 Jews exterminated in pogrom in Bucharest Romania
1942 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
1943 - Japanese government in Java limits sale & use of motorcars
1945 - US soldiers led by General Douglas MacArthur invade Philippines
1952 - Belgian Pholien government resigns; Marines give notice that they will recall Ted Williams to active duty
1953 - Korean ferryboat "Chang Tyong-Ho" sank off Pusan killing 249
1956 - Abigail Van Buren's "Dear Abby" column 1st appears in newspapers; Samir el-Rifai forms government in Jordan
1957 - Checheno-Ingush ASSR reformed in RSFSR; Karachayevo-Cherkess Autonomous Region reestablished in RSFSR; British premier Anthony Eden resigns; Dutch Newspaper Society expels communist daily paper "Truth"
1959 - Dam across Tera River collapses after heavy winter rains, 135 die
1960 - Building of Aswan dam in Egypt, begins
1964 - Anti-US rioting breaks out in the Panamá Canal Zone
1968 - Surveyor 7 space probe soft lands on the Moon
1969 - Concorde jetliner's 1st test flight (Bristol England)
1970 - Constitution of Singapore enacted
1972 - Passenger ship Queen Elizabeth destroyed by fire
1973 - Luna 21 launched, to Moon
1978 - Commonwealth of Northern Marianas established
1979 - High-school player Daryl Moreau makes 126th consecutive free throwsj; Supreme Court strikes down (6-3) PA law requiring doctors performing an abortion to try to preserve lives of potentially viable fetuses
1980 - 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1981 - Francisco Balsamao elected President of Portugal
1982 - 5.9 earthquake in New England & Canada; 1st since 1855
1983 - British PM Margaret Thatcher visits the Falkland Islands
1987 - New Nicaraguan constitution takes effect; Chinese/Vietnamese border fights, 1500 killed
1989 - Johnny Bench & Carl Yastrzemski elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1990 - 64th US manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) launches into orbit; Supreme Court strikes down Dallas' ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses; Jim Palmer & Joe Morgan elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1991 - Baker & Aziz meet in Geneva; talks fail to defuse the Persian Gulf crisis; Baseball officially bans Pete Rose from being elected to Hall of Fame; Dean Smith of North Carolina is 6th to win 700 career coaching basketball games
1995 - Ecuador & Peru involved in boundary fight; Worker accidentally cuts electrical wires at Newark Airport
1998 - Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov spacewalk record 3 hours 8 minutes; Decapitated head of Danish Little Mermaid is returned

Birthdays
1554 - Gregory XV (Alessandro Ludovisi), Roman Catholic pope (1621-23)
1803 - Christopher Gustavus Memminger, Confederate Secretary Treasurer
1816 - John Palmer Usher, Union Secretary of the Interior
1822 - John Porter Hatch, Union Brevet Major General
1832 - Esquire Maurits A de Savornin Lohman, Dutch Governor of Suriname
1859 - Carrie Lane Chapman, Catt women's rights leader/founder (League of Women Voters)
1913 - Richard Milhouse Nixon Yorba Linda CA, (R) 37th US President (1969-74); Peter John Norton naval diplomat/artist
1922 - Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of Guinea (1957-84); Har G. Khorana India/Canada bio-chemist (Nobel 1968)
1928 - Fernand J. St Germain (Representative-RI)
1933 - Robert Garcia (Representative-NY)
1935 - Dick Enberg, sportscaster
1938 - Aad Kosto, Dutch theologist/actor/assistant Secretary of Justice
1952 - Eveline L. Herfkens Dutch MP

Passings
1324 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer
1499 - Johan Cicero, elector of (Brandenburg, 1486-99), dies at 43
1798 - Pedro Pablo Abarca d Bolea, Earl of Aranda Spanish officer, dies at 79
1843 - Caroline Herschel, "1st lady of astronomy", dies at 98 in Germany
1878 - Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia (1849-61)/Italy (1861-78), dies at 57
1879 - Don Joaquin B.F. Espartero, field marshall/viceroy of Navarra, dies at 86
1941 - Ko Boezeman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
1995 - Souphanouvong (Red Prince), President of Laos (1975-87), dies at 85
1997 - Edward Osobka-Morawski, Prime Minister of Poland (1945-47), dies

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Schimberg, James P., US Army (IA); OV1C shot down (w/Williams), remains returned December, 1998

Williams, Thaddeus E., US Army (AL); OV1C shot down (w/Schimberg), remains returned December, 1998

1968
Daly, James A., Jr., US Army (NY); disappeared during ground action, released by PRG March, 1973 - deceased

Green, Norman M., USAF (DC); F4D shot down (w/Irsch)

Irsch, Wayne C., USAF (OK); F4D shot down (w/Green)

Newton, Warren E., US Army (OR); UH1C shot down

Phipps, James L., US Army (IL); UH1C shot down

Ramos, Rainier S., US Army (WA); UH1C shot down

Rehe, Richard R., US Army (CA); disappeared during ground action - DIC January, 1968 according to Daly

Sykes, Derri, US Army (IL); disappeared during ground action - DIC October, 1968 according to Daly

Watkins, Willie A., US Army (NC); released November, 1969

1969
Byrd, Hugh M., Jr., US Army (KY); O1G shot down (pilot, w/O'Brien)

O'Brien, Kevin, US Army (NY); O1G shot down (observer, w/Byrd)