News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Bush to discuss PKK with Turkey's Gul
Car bomb in Baghdad kills 14
National Police Deliver Weapons Cache to U.S. Soldiers

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Officials say Al Qaeda killed Bhutto
Transcript: Alleged Al Qaeda Conversation About Bhutto
Convicted Guantanamo detainee walks free from jail
Lebanon president vote postponed to January 12
Two Israelis and two Palestinians killed in West Bank

Wounded Warriors
Mothers sacrifice to help wounded GIs

Fallen Heroes
DoD Identifies Army Casualties (Mosul)
DoD Identifies Army Casualty (Balad)

Other Military News
Bush Announces Pocket Veto of Defense Bill

Religion of Peace??
Pakistan On the Brink
Officials: Bhutto Died of Fractured Skull, Not Bullet Wounds
Bhutto's Last Words

Worldwide Wackos
Castro's influence intact despite empty assembly seat
Chavez begins Colombia hostage rescue bid - Video

Politics / Government
Time Running Out in Iowa - VIDEO
Thompson Fighting ‘Slacker’ Image in Iowa
YOU DECIDE 2008 Campaign Coverage
U.S. Scrambles to Deal With Bhutto's Death, Repercussions on Efforts in Pakistan
Clinton calls for new Pakistan approach
Romney-McCain battle heats up in New Hampshire
Pocketbook issues push past Iraq in poll
Ex-govs face foreign policy questions
Messy Kosovo breakaway stokes fear of partition
Fukuda brings new warmth to China-Japan ties
Nepal parliament votes to end monarchy
Opposition leads in slow Kenya vote count - Video
Egyptian Pols Blast Sarkozy, Girlfriend on Morals
South Africa's Zuma to be tried for corruption: lawyer

Illegal Immigration / Border Control
Huckabee Stumbles on Pakistan Illegal Immigrants

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Cops: Missing Woman May Be Alive
Rebecca De Mornay Charged With Driving Under the Influence
Off-Duty Detroit Cop Walks Out of Pharmacy, Finds Wife Shot Dead in Parking Lot
Ex-Yankee Leyritz Arrested on DUI, Manslaughter Charges
Judge Nixes Oregon Domestic Partnership Law
Ohio Man Bites Himself, Tasered During 13th DUI Arrest
Big Cities See Number of Murders Plummet
Daughter and boyfriend charged in grisly murders

Adventures in Political Correctness
Smoking ban hits French cafe culture

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Netscape Navigator to Be Pulled Off Life Support
Letterman, Writers Reach Deal; Show Returns Jan. 2
Striking writers union reaches deal with Letterman
Studios: Writers' losses mount in strike
Online dating brings hope and frustration
Obama Girl, Britney boy top YouTube videos

Science / Medicine and Health / Watching the Web
High-fat, high-carb meals more harmful to obese
Studies show yoga has multiple benefits
Ancient pyramid found in central Mexico City - Video
Shuttle repair to delay European space lab launch
Mylan gets OK for generic of Pfizer allergy drug

Mother Nature
San Francisco Zoo to Reopen Jan. 3 - PHOTOS
Storms in Midwest, Southeast Threaten Holiday Travel
Tiger may have scaled wall in zoo attack: expert

News from My Neck of the Woods
2 die in Mass. from tainted milk

Oddities
Girl Wants iPod, Gets Anti-Capitalist Rant Instead
Dad Says MP3 Player Came Preloaded With Porn
'Very Religious Community' Gets Rid of 666 Phone Prefix
Miss France keeps crown after photo controversy
Man leaves $50,000, car to waitress

Fox News
FOXBusiness: Home Sales Dip 9 Percent in Nov.
Parents Told to Abort Baby Call Disabled Son Gift
Anna Nicole Wrecked Everything
Report: Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn Divorcing
Miss France Keeps Crown After Racy Crucifixion Photo

Reuters
Six convicted French aid workers fly home from Chad
Rejuvenated Celtics expect happy new year
Young female singers hope for '08 breakthrough
Ex-First Republic investors sue Merrill Lynch
New home sales slump; business activity up Video
Equity volatility here to stay in 2008
Buffett starts up bond insurer to rival MBIA, Ambac
Macy's to close nine stores, affects 899 jobs
Dogs of Dow strategy lags in 2007, hurt by Citi
Shares of EchoStar's spin-off effective January 1
American Tower sues rival, alleged CEO imposter
Market finishes flat as housing concerns weigh
Oil falls as profit-taking clips rally
Midwest business robust in December, jobs weak
Dollar drops on housing data; worst week in year
Gold extends run-up on dollar and Pakistan tension
Court orders Finish Line to complete Genesco deal
Geopolitics, U.S. economy fuel risk aversion - Video
Nikkei ends 2007 down 11 percent, first loss in 5 years - Video
Pakistan investment risks

AP World News
Colts sign Bob Sanders to $37.5M deal
Karbon wins giant slalom
Pierce leads Boston to 104-96 win

CENTCOM: News Releases
COALITION FORCES DISRUPT AL KUT CRIMINAL ELEMENT NETWORKS, 11 TERRORISTS KILLED

USJFCOM
2007 -- The Year in Review
See the year in photos
U.S. Joint Forces Command, IBM sign new cooperative research and development agreement
More about CRADAs
Ribbon cut for new SOCJFCOM headquarters - podcast

Multi-National Force-Iraq
Rockets Pound Building Storing Explosives, Weapons
National Police Deliver Weapons Cache to U.S. Soldiers
Petraeus: Violence Down in Iraq; al-Qaida Still a Threat
Iraqi National Police Graduate Public Affairs Officers (Baghdad)
Iraqi Air Force Receives New Aircraft (Baghdad)
Joint Iraqi and U.S. patrols find 3 IEDs, cache during Saydiyah operations
Coalition forces disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq operations; five killed, 14 detained

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Bush Thanks Troops, Families for Sacrifices
Petraeus: Violence Down in Iraq; Al Qaeda Still Poses a Threat
No Furloughs for Christmas

IRAQ NEWS
Scrap-Metal Yard Puts Iraqis to Work
'Ironhorse' Soldiers Witness Progress
Troops Detain Two Tied to Abduction
Troops Give Backpacks to Adil Children
Coalition Forces Kill 5 Terrorists, Detain 14

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
General Delivers Gold Star Mother's Message
Coalition Troops Kill Several Militants, Detain 9
Afghan, U.S. Troops Deliver Aid to Nangarhar

MILITARY NEWS
Chairman’s Tour Wraps Up with Laughter, Tears

FACE OF DEFENSE
Marine Connects Cultures

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Help for Wounded Techs
Scholarships for Spouses

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
0418 - St Boniface I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0801 - Louis the Vrome occupies Barcelona
1065 - Westminister Abbey opens in London
1732 - 1st known ad for "Poor Richard's Almanack" (Pennsylvania Gazette)
1816 - American Colonization Society organizes
1828 - 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo Japan, 30,000 killed
1832 - John Calhoun becomes 1st Vice-President to resign (differences w/ President Jackson)
1836 - Spain recognizes independence of México
1846 - Iowa becomes the 29th US state
1849 - M. Jolly-Bellin discovers dry-cleaning; he accidentally upsets lamp containing turpentine & oil on his clothing, & sees cleaning effect
1850 - Rangoon, Burma destroyed by fire
1864 - Battle of Egypt Station, MS
1869 - William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon, OH, patents chewing gum
1877 - John Stevens of Wisconsin applies for a patent on his flour rolling mill
1879 - North British Railway's train falls as Firth bridge collapses (Scotland)
1893 - French lieutenant Boiteux annexes Tumbuktu
1895 - World's 1st movie theater opens in Paris
1902 - 1st indoor pro football game, Syracuse beats Philadelphia 6-0 (Madison Square Garden, NYC); Trans-Pacific cable links Hawaii to US
1903 - Electric lamp sets fire to Iroquois theater in Chicago; 602 die
1904 - 1st daily wireless weather forecasts published (London)
1906 - Ecuador adopts its constitution
1908 - Messina, Italy struck by an earthquake (nearly 80,000 died)
1915 - San Francisco City Hall dedicated by Mayor James Rolph
1926 - Imperial Airways begins England-India mail & passenger service
1931 - Lin-Sen succeeds Chiang Kai-shek as President of Nanjing-China
1937 - Fascist Octavian Goga becomes PM of Romania/begins spread of Judaism
1941 - State of siege goes into effect in Bohemia/Moravia
1942 - Robert Sullivan becomes 1st pilot to fly the Atlantic 100 times; Oberkommando Wehrmacht orders strategist flight out of Kaukasus
1943 - All inhabitants of Kalmukkie deported, about 70,000 killed
1944 - Eisenhower & Montgomery meet in Hasselt Belgium
1948 - The IDF crosses the Egyptian border
1950 - Chinese troops cross 38th Parallel, into South Korea
1958 - What might be called greatest NFL game, Colts beat Giants 23-17
1962 - UN troops occupy Elizabethstad Katanga
1966 - 13 die in a train crash in Everett MA
1968 - Israeli assault on Beirut Airport
1970 - Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) adopts constitution
1972 - Kim Il-song, becomes President of North Korea; Martin Bormann's skeleton found in Berlin (Hitlers deputy)
1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelag"
1974 - 6.3 earthquake strikes Pakistan: 5200 killed
1976 - Winnie Mandela banished in South Africa
1980 - México terminated fishing agreements with US
1983 - US says they will leave UNESCO on Dec 31, 1984
1984 - Rajiv Gandhi's Congress party wins election in India
1985 - Warring Lebanese Muslim & Christian leaders sign peace agreement
1989 - Alexander Dubcek elected parliament chairman of Czechoslovakia; Earthquake at Newcastle Australia, 11 die
1991 - Ted Turner is named Time Magazine Man of the Year
1993 - Dutch Antilles government of Yandi Paula forms

Birthdays
1801 - James Barnes, Union Brevet Major General
1822 - William Booth Taliaferro, Confederate Brigadier-General
1823 - Thomas Alexander Scott, Assistant US Secretary of War
1827 - Robert Latimer McCook, Union Brigadier-General
1833 - Charles Miller Shelley, Confederate Brigadier-General
1849 - Herbert von Bismarck, German politician/son of Otto of Bismarck
1856 - [Thomas] Woodrow Wilson, 28th US President (1913-21, Nobel 1919)
1859 - John W. Fortescue, military historian
1884 - Joseph Pholien, Belgian premier (1950-52)/communist hunter
1894 - André de Meulemeester, Belgian WWI pilot (Eagle of Flanders)
1895 - Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere, twin brothers who opened 1st commercial cinema
1902 - Mortimer J. Adler, author (Encyclopedia Brittanica)
1917 - Ellis Clarke, President of Trinidad & Tobago (1976-87)
1922 - Stan Lee, comics artist/creator (Spiderman, Incredible Hulk)
1924 - Rod Serling, writer/host (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery)
1925 - Bill [William] Westwood, British bishop of Peterborough
1927 - Anne Legendre Armstrong, ambassador (to UK)
1929 - Maarten Schmidt, Netherlands/US astronomer (quasars)
1931 - Georg "Org" Marais, South African economist/underminister of Finance
1932 - Roy Hattersley, British journalist/Labour-parliament leader
1933 - Jack Perkins, newscaster (Prime Time Sunday, NBC Magazine)
1942 - Paul Horowitz, physicist, META project (Sloan Award 1971-3)
1943 - David Peterson, premier of Ontario Canada
1943 - Oscar D. Dhlomo, South African Secretary-General of Inkatha (1978-90)
1945 - Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva, King of Nepal
1945 - Max Hastings, British editor-in-chief (Daily Telegraph)
1953 - Robert Pittman, TV executive/developer (MTV)
1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, 1st American test tube baby

Passings
1446 - Clemens VIII [Aegyd Muñoz], Spanish anti-pope (1423-29)
1622 - François de Sales, French bishop of Genèva/writer/saint, dies at 55
1673 - Joan Blaeu, Dutch cartographer/publisher (Atlas Major), dies at 77
1694 - Queen Mary II of England, dies after 5 years of rule at 32
1772 - Ernst J. Earl van/of Biron Russian, duke of Courland, dies at 82
1775 - Peter A. van de Parra, Governor-General of (Netherlands Indies), dies at 61
1793 - Louis Earl of Bylandt Dutch admiral, dies at about 75
1947 - Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy (1900-46)/Ethiopia, dies at 78
1948 - Mahmud Nokrashy Pasha, PM of Egypt, assassinated
1961 - Edith Bolling Galt, Wilson's First Lady (1915-21), dies at 89
1970 - L. Mendel Rivers (Representative-SC), dies at 65
1987 - Charles Malik, Lebanon's 1st delegate to the UN, dies at 81

Reported Missing in Action
1965
The following US Army SF personnel reported missing when their UH1D disappeared on a 10-15 minute flight - all presumed Killed, body not recovered:
Grella, Donald C. (NE); crewchief

Phelps, Jesse D. (ID); pilot

Rice, Thomas, Jr. (SC); door gunner

Stancil, Kenneth, L. (TN); co-pilot

1972
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their B52D was shot down:
Condon, James C. (OH); radar navigator, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Cusimano, Samuel B. (AL); co-pilot, released by DRV March, 1973 - alive and well as of 1998

Fryer, Ben L. (CA); navigator, remains returned by SRV September, 1977

Gough, James W. (CA); gunner, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Chief Master Sergeant - alive and well as of 1998

Johnson, Allen L. (AL); EWO, remains returned December, 1985

Lewis, Frank D. (IN); pilot/aircraft commander, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive as of 1998

Also reported MIA in 1972:
Agnew, Alfred H., USN (SC); RA5C shot down (pilot, w/Haifley), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Commander - alive and well as of 1998

Haifley, Michael Firestone, USN (OH); RA5C shot down (backseater, w/Agnew) - remains returned August, 1985

Labels: Headlines, History