News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Four U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq: U.S. military
Iraqi militants set new deadline on German hostages
Stretched army sends troops back to Iraq
Officials Announce Major Unit Rotations for Iraq
Iraqi, U.S. Soldiers Bring Smiles to Schools -
Soldiers Focus Inward at Freedom Rest Retreat

Operation Enduring Freedom
U.S. transfers prisoners to Afghan custody

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
U.S. Electronics Supplier Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Missile Technology to India
Report: British Fighter Pilots Asked to Consider Suicide Mission Against Terrorists
U.S. aid shift brings Palestinians grief and relief
Top court won't decide Guantanamo prisoner appeal
Somali battles killed nearly 400 civilians

Supporting Our Heroes
Dolls, posters keep U.S. soldiers close

Other Military News
Army Fields New Body Armor Design
Bush Salutes Navy With Football Trophy
Extra Funds Vital for Reserves, Deployed Troops
Soldiers Keep Promise, Check on Injured Girl

Worldwide Wackos
Blair: Next 2 Days 'Fairly Critical'
Report: Iran Grabbed Brits in Response to Botched U.S. Raid in Iraq
State Department Seeking Info From Iran About Missing American
U.S. could strike Iran but not win: Russian general
News conference with Iran's president postponed
Report: Overseas North Korea Diplomats Defy Orders to Send Children Back Home
Cuban Americans moderate views on Cuba: poll

Politics / Government
War Funding Showdown
Iraqis: McCain Market Visit Was Simply 'Propaganda
China's inevitable rise risks conflict: Kissinger
Sculpture of Obama as Jesus causes stir
Analysis: Money separates contenders
Romney says: Watch my campaign grow

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Woman Arrested After 3-Year-Old Found Buried Next to Daycare Center
DNA Evidence Exonerates Mentally Ill Inmate of Rape Conviction After 22 Years in Prison
University of Idaho Student's Death Ruled a Homicide
New Mexico Man Held on $100M Bond in Burning Death of Wrestler
Teacher Guilty of Bomb Threats on Pupils
DNA Exonerates Inmate After 22 Years in Jail
Cops Nab 28 Potential Pedophiles in Florida
Two Shot Dead at University of Washington
No arson proof at N.Y. synagogue blaze
Police: Escaped Ohio prisoner arrested
Slain woman was trying to avoid ex
High court rebukes Bush on car pollution

Science / Medicine / Technology
Mammograms under 50 optional for many women: group
Overweight people more likely to get asthma
Bird flu may spread from Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria: FAO
Microsoft issuing animated cursor security patch
Tropical losers, northern winners from warming?
Sinai pumice linked to ancient eruption
Researchers try to predict epilepsy
EU launches antitrust probe into iTunes
Mexico City explores wireless Internet
Doctor contrasts his care with patient's

Mother Nature
6.2-Magnitude Quake Shakes Afghanistan
Tsunami Death Toll Rises to 28 in Solomons
Humanitarian crisis threatens tsunami-hit Solomons - Video
Survivors seek food after tsunami
California Condor lays egg in Mexico

Oddities
Jailed for Germs
Indian Couple Commits Suicide Over the Death of Their Dog
'Knight Rider' Car KITT Goes on Sale
Don't make me axe you again
Anything to declare? Tell Norway's customs machine
Humane Society holds dog yoga class

Other News of Note
Florida Beats Ohio State 84-75 in NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
Wheat Gluten Used in Pet Food Banned - LIST
Congolese couple cheer asylum win

Fox News
Stern Drops Challenge to DNA Testing - VIDEO
Subprime Lender Files for Chapter 11
Pop Tarts: Avril Lavigne Forced to Go to Britney Spears Concert

Reuters: Top News
EU charges record companies, Apple on record sales
Ukraine decree on parliament dissolution in force - Video
Nigerian court backs electoral body on candidates
Mbeki says election key to Zimbabwe crisis
"Glory" be to skating kings of comedy
3-D "Robinsons" pulls in $7.1 mln in first weekend
Oil eases on hope for diplomacy in Iran stand-off
Shares set to rise, M&A activity supports
NEC says Nasdaq to put off delisting decision
Dollar steady, edges up from 10-year low vs Aussie
E.ON soars as compromise ends struggle for Endesa
Big oil looks to invest in riskier regions
Spread could limit U.S. oil imports
Pressure to act on trade imbalances
Wesfarmers says controls 11.3 percent of Coles
Marshall & Ilsley to spin off Metavante -WSJ
Google enters TV ad sales market with EchoStar
Ex-Black manager tells trial fees were legal
S.Korean auto makers seen big winners in U.S. deal
Wall St dollars help NY buck U.S. housing decline

AP World News
Timberlake fed up with gossip magazines
EMI, Apple to sell DRM-free songs online
Tribune OKs $8.2 billion offer from Zell
Jitters, tributes mark opening day
Yankees beat D'Rays in emotional opener

Military.com
Poll: Is the Army Going to Break?
Spy Corner: The Cold War Mole
Op-ed: Assault of the "Transies"
Def Tech: ACS is Back
Podcast: Reconstructing Iraq
Advisors: Stronger Than Separation
To Be an Army Green Beret

CENTCOM: News Releases
MARINE UNIT ATTACKED
PHONE TIP LEADS COALITION FORCES TO RESCUE KIDNAPPED VICTIMS
GENERAL PETRAEUS GOES TO MARKET
IRAQI POLICE GRADUATES KEY TO THE FUTURE
IRAQI SECURITY FORCES, CAVALRY DISCOVER EXTREMIST TRAINING CAMP
IRAQI FORCES CONDUCT RAID IN BAGHDAD
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE CITIZENS OF TAL'AFAR CONTINUES
IMPROMPTU CLINIC HELPS SICK IRAQIS

USJFCOM
USJFCOM gears up for Noble Resolve - podcast
Personnel recovery capability continues process of fielding to the warfighter - podcast

DefenseLink
Walter Reed's Top NCO Gets Back to Basics - Story
Admiral Outlines Progress of Baghdad Operation - Story
VA Secretary Opens Disabled Winter Sports Clinic - Story
Disabled Vets Expect Miracles at Sports Clinic
Troops Embark on ‘Why We Serve’ Mission - Story

More Headline News
Iraqis, Coalition Work Together to Secure Tal Afar
Hicks Case Good Start for Military Commissions

Military News
Bush Honors Navy Midshipmen for Gridiron Glory
Last Surviving Female World War I Veteran Dies
U.S. Marines Thank Lebanese Military for Efforts

War on Terror
CENTCOM Chief Visits Leaders - Story
Nine Soldiers, Marine Die in Iraq
Forces Kill Six Terrorists
Soldier Dies of Noncombat Cause

America Supports You
Accident Claims Volunteer - Story
Tour Entertains the Troops
Group Exhibits Dedication
Warriors’ Wives Get Help

Transformation
Soldiers Test New Vehicles - Story
TV Show Features "FutureWeapons"
Air Force to Develop New Engine
Army Tests Parachute System

Face of Defense
Wounded Soldier Re-enlists - Story
Female Soldiers Make History
Marine Strives to Excel
Soldier Follows Family Tradition

DefendAmerica
NEWS UPDATES
Defense Officials Announce Major Unit Rotations for Duty in Iraq - Story
Fallon Explores Afghanistan Operation

ON THE GROUND
Officials Sign Agreement to Build New Hospital - Story

IN IRAQ
Black Jack Performs Medical Mission in Baghdad
Students Graduate from NATO Staff Course
Joint Police Force Works Toward Secure Iraq

IN AFGHANISTAN
Female Aviators Pilot into Strong Career
Team Rebuilds Afghanistan One School at a Time
Combat Engineers Turn Dwellings into Homes

IN DJIBOUTI
Postal Specialists Deal With Limited Space
Security Company Stands Watch in Djibouti
Forecasts, Updates Assist in Naval Planning

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
'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: 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

Today in History
0419 - [Etalius] ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1043 - Edward the Confessor crowned king of England
1376 - Battle of Navarrete (Najera), English beat France
1559 - Spain & France sign 2nd Treaty of Le Cateau-Cambrésis
1582 - French van Valois honored as duke of Gelre/earl of Zutphen
1645 - English parliaments accept Self-Denying Ordinance
1657 - English Lord Protector Cromwell refuses crown
1764 - Austrian arch duke Jozef crowns himself Roman Catholic king
1776 - Washington receives honorary degree from Harvard College
1783 - Sweden & US sign a treaty of Amity & Commerce
1790 - Revenue Marine Service (US Coast Guard), created
1848 - Thomas Douglas becomes 1st San Francisco public teacher
1856 - Gunpowder in church explodes, killing 4,000 in Rhodos
1860 - Pony Express begins between St Joseph, MO & Sacramento, CA
1864 - Skirmish at Okolona, AR
1865 - Union forces occupy Confederate capital of Richmond, VA & Petersburg, VA; Battle at Namozine Church, VA (Appomattox Campaign)
1882 - Wood block alarm invented, when alarm rang, it dropped 20 wood blocks
1910 - Highest mountain in North America, Alaska's Mount McKinley, climbed
1918 - House of Representatives accepts "American Creed" written by William Tyler
1919 - Austria expels all Habsburgers
1922 - Stalin appointed General Secretary of Communist Party
1925 - Great Britain goes back to gold standard; Netherlands & Belgium sign accord of Westerschelde
1926 - 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket by Robert Goddard; Italy establishes corp of force in order to break powerful unions
1927 - Interstate Commerce Commission transfers Ohio to Eastern time zone
1929 - Persia agrees to Litvinov Pact
1930 - Ras Tafari becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1933 - 1st airplane flight over Mount Everest
1941 - Churchill warns Stalin of German invasion; Rasjid al-Gailani forms pro-German regime in Iraq
1944 - Supreme Court (Smith vs. Allwright) rules "white primaries" unconstitutional; British dive bombers attack battle cruiser Tirpitz
1945 - Hengelo freed from nazi control by Canadian army; Nazis begin evacuation of camp Buchenwald; US 1st army conquers Hofgeismar
1946 - Netherlands-German postal relations resume
1948 - Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan ($5B aid to 16 European countries)
1949 - North Atlantic Treaty, pact signed by US, Britain, France & Canada
1952 - Dutch Queen Juliana speaks to US Congress
1955 - Fire in cinema to Sclessin Belgium, kills 39; Night express train in Guadalajara derails, killing 300
1956 - Bulgarian vice premier Traitsjo Kostov rehabilitated; German war criminals Hinrichsen/Rühl/Siebens/Viebahn are freed
1958 - Fidel Castro's rebels attack Havana
1960 - Earthquake at Havré, Belgium
1962 - Lieutenant General Marshall S. Carter, USA, becomes deputy director of CIA
1964 - US & Panamá agree to resume diplomatic relations
1965 - 1st atomic powered spacecraft (SNAP) launched
1966 - Luna 10 orbits Moon
1968 - North Vietnam agrees to meet US representatives to set up preliminary peace talks
1974 - 148 tornadoes are reported over an area covering a dozen states in the east, south & midwest killed approximately 315
1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's 1st meeting with President Jimmy Carter; Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg adopt summer time
1978 - European market & China signs trade agreement
1979 - Belgium's Martens government forms; Jane M. Byrne (D) elected 1st woman mayor of Chicago, IL
1981 - Race riots in London's Brixton area
1982 - UN Security Council demands Argentina's withdrawal from Falkland Islands
1984 - Soyuz T-11 carries 3 cosmonauts (1 Indian-Rakesh Sharma) to Salyut 7; Guinea suspends constitution after coup
1985 - French government adopts equal electoral system
1986 - US national debt hits $2,000,000,000,000
1988 - Somalia & Ethiopia sign accord about Ogaden desert
1991 - UN Security Council adopts Gulf War truce resolution

Birthdays
1367 - Henry IV Bolingbroke Lincolnshire, King of England (1399-1413)
1438 - John III van Egmont [Manke John], viceroy of Holland
1715 - John Hanson, 1st US President under Articles of Confederation
1783 - Washington Irving, American writer (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle)
1798 - Charles D. Wilkes, Commander (Union Navy)
1812 - Louisa Maria, Queen of the Belgians (1832-50/wife of Leopold I)
1842 - Ulric Dahlgren, Union Colonel
1858 - Matthew Ricketts, 1st Black man elected to Nebraska State Legislature
1866 - James B. Hertzog, South African General/premier (1914-39)
1881 - Alcide de Gasperi Italian premier (1945..53)
1885 - Harry St. John Philby [sheik Abdullah], British explorer
1900 - Camille Chamoun, President of Lebanon
1924 - Marlon Brando, actor (Superman, Godfather)
1926 - Virgil Grissom, Lieutenant Colonel USAF/astronaut (Merc 4, Gemini 3)
1930 - Lawton Chiles (Senator/Governor-FL)
1932 - Nourse, British lord justice
1933 - Robert K. Dornan (Representative-CA,)
1939 - Malcolm Thornton, MP
1945 - Wim J. Deetman, Dutch minister of education/MP (CDA)
1946 - Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President (México, 1988-94)
1948 - Jaap G. de Hoop Scheffer, Dutch MP (CDA)
1955 - Aleksandr Nikolayevich Yablontsev, Russian Lieutenant-Colonel/cosmonaut

Passings
0033 - Christ crucified (according to astronomer Humphreys & Waddington)
0628 - Chosroes II, emperor of Persia (579..628), murdered by his son
1287 - Honorius IV [Giacomo Savelli], Italian Pope (1285-87)
1862 - James Clark Ross, Arctic explorer
1882 - Jesse James, outlaw, shot dead at 34 in St. Joseph, MO by Robert Ford
1936 - Bruno Hauptmann, convicted Lindbergh baby killer, executed
1941 - André Michelin, French tire manufacturer, dies at 88; Pal Teleki-von Szek PM Hungary (1920-21, 39-41), suicide at 61
1946 - Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma (responsible for Bataan Death March), executed
1950 - Carter G. Woodson, "father of black history", dies in Washington DC at 74
1951 - Johannes C. Kielstra, Dutch economist/Governor (Suriname 1933-44), dies at 72
1956 - T. Kostov, Bulgarian vice-premier, executed
1960 - Anton Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer/marxist theorist, dies at 87
1993 - Eduardo Cabellero Calderon, Colombian writer/diplomat, dies at 83
1994 - Jerome Lejeune, French geneticist (Syndrome of Down), dies at 67
1996 - Carl Stokes, 1st Black mayor of a major US city (Cleveland OH); Christopher John Seward, aid worker, dies at 45; Ronald Harmon Brown, US Secretary of Commerce, dies in an accident at 54

Reported Missing in Action
1965
The following USAF personnel reported MIA in a single incident:
Morgan, Herschel S., (NC); RF101 shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 (injured) - retired as a Colonel - alive as of 1998

Smith, George C., (MO); F100D shot down

Vohden, Raymond A. (NJ); F4C shot down released by DRV February, 1973 (injured) - alive as of 1998

1966
Laws, Richard Lee, USN (CA); F8E shot down, KIA/BNR

1968
Hardy, John Charles, USAF (MO); remains recovered April, 1968

Rexroad, Ronald Reuel, USAF (IL); RF4C shot down

Thomas, James C., USMC (AZ); disappeared while on patrol

1969
Ecklund, Arthur G., US Army (AZ); O1G disappeared while on mission (pilot, w/Jefferson)

Jefferson, Perry H., US Army (CO); O1G disappeared while on mission (observer, w/Ecklund)

1972
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their UH1H was shot down:
Christensen, Allen D. (SD); crew chief

O'Neil, Douglas L. (NJ); pilot (some records show O'Neill)

Williams, Edward W. (FL); gunner

Zich, Larry A. (NE); co-pilot

Also reported MIA this day in 1972:
Henderson, William Joseph, USAF (TX); OV10A shot down while searching for crash survivors (see post from yesterday)

Muren, Thomas Richard, USN (CA); drowned

Labels: Headlines, History