News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Bomb Blast in Iraq Kills 10 on Shiite Holiday
Phantom Phoenix Denies Sanctuary to Al Qaeda

Operation Enduring Freedom
Afghans Lead Anti-insurgent Fight

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Teenage bomber kills 9 Pakistani Shi'ites
Five Palestinians die in Gaza as Olmert vows "war"
Gaza violence threatens peace talks
Ex-lawmaker charged in terror conspiracy (Gee, the U.N. and an ex-Congressman involved in aiding and abetting terrorism...who'd-a-thunk?)
Bin Laden's son wants to be peace envoy (Talk about irony!)
Tapes destroyed over CIA's objections

Troops on Trial
Report: Marine Suspect Told Wife He Buried the Body

Wounded Warriors
Task force wants brain injury studies
Mirror Therapy Shows Promise in Amputee Treatment

Supporting Our Heroes
Partnership Remembers Troops at Valentine's Day

Other Military News
Navy Chopper Crashes in Texas With 4 People Aboard; 1 Rescued
Israel tests missile
Gates denies NATO discontent

Worldwide Wackos
Iran defiant after Israeli missile test

Politics / Government
Canada puts U.S., Israel on torture watchlist
Judge OKs Nevada At-Large Caucus Sites
POLITICAL WIRE: Nevada Paper Endorses Romney
GOP Candidates Swap Accusations of Dirty Tricks
CAMPAIGN CARL
Major Garrett's BOURBON ROOM
Race heats up
McCain holds lead in South Carolina
Video: Clinton plays flight attendant
Full Coverage: Polls, graphs and profiles
White House race looks past February 5
Giuliani tries for Hail Mary in Florida
Republicans ponder deadlocked convention

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Arizona Teen Uses Baseball Bat to Fight Off Burglar (Well done!)
Drew Peterson's Attorney Claims Missing Wife Received Racy Text Message
Woman Sues County for Distributing Nude Photos She Sent to Husband in Jail
Cops: High School Students Traded Nude Pics of Themselves Over Cell Phones
Cops: Dad Arrested for Taping Packers Jersey to Son, 7
Texas Teen in 911 Call: 'I'm Dying' - PHOTOS - VIDEO
Police Arrest Second Man in Georgia Cop Killings
Austrian Court: Chimp Not Legally a Person
Car, Cell Phones of Tiger Attack Victims Searched
FBI looks into Tejada testimony
O.J. returns home after Vegas hearing

Adventures in Political Correcteness
D.C. High School Track Star Disqualified Over Muslim Uniform (Of all issues, THIS is where we decide NOT to accommodate religious views??)

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
WEBCAMS AROUND THE WORLD: Mt. McKinley
YouTube Video: Playing Around With Stolen Taser
Mom Finds Sexy Pics of Local Schoolkids on MySpace

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
Two Dudes Make Cloning History
'Please Don't Do That': Man Says Hospital Forced Rectal Exam (Yikes!)
Doctors Refuse Mom's Request to Remove Disabled Daughter's Womb
FDA: Cold Medicines Too Risky for Young Kids - VIDEO
Bird flu may be spread indirectly: WHO
Bisexuality in women is not a stage: study
Bull's eye target for child leukemia found: study
Scientists find 2,000 pound rodent - luckily it's a fossil
German unions urge Nokia boycott over plant closure
Dell seen back to strong growth
U.S. abortion rate falls, study finds

Oddities
Man Comes Back to Life After Being 'Dead' for an Hour
Army offers to pay as stray rocket hits house (Oops)
Burglar finds corpse and calls police

Other News of Note
Cop: Diana's Refusal of Security May Have Led to Death
Kenyan opposition says police kill seven

Fox News
FOXBusiness: Bernanke Backs Stimulus Plan
Plane Lands Short of Runway at Heathrow - PHOTOS
Britney Spears: Pregnancy Test 'for My Friend'
Katie Holmes Marathon Mystery Solved
British Airways Jet Crash Lands at Heathrow Airport, Injuring 8
Eddie Murphy, Galpal to Stay 'Friends' After 'Symbolic' Wedding

Reuters
Merrill takes $16 billion in writedowns
Stocks sink on factory activity, Merrill
Paparazzi arrested after chasing Spears
Directors' deal could split striking writers
Wealthy may be next in line in home crisis
Turkey Armenians wary one year after editor's death
Four paparazzi arrested after chasing Britney Spears
Rolling Stones sign Universal album deal
Merrill posts worst quarter in its history
GM eyes labor cost cuts, increased revenue
Housing, factory data stir recession fears
Bernanke backs fiscal stimulus if quick Video
Lehman to cut 1,300 mortgage jobs
Banks buy crumbling CDOs to stem losses
Commodity currencies at risk as slowdown looms
Shipwreck, treasure, insider trading -- an SEC tale
Wall Street extends slide - Video
Dollar dips on Bernanke testimony
AIG shares slide 6 percent
Oil falls below $90 on recession fears
Ambac shares plummet on potential Moody's cut
Gold recoils from record highs
American Eagle to launch children's brand
TD Ameritrade raises profit forecast
BlackRock's Q4 net beats forecast
Retailers go green to cut costs
Deals: M&A news, analysis and blogs

AP World News
William flies solo for the first time
Selig given 3-year extension
Merrill Lynch posts steep 4Q loss
Nicholson says he's looking for love
Time Warner links web prices with usage
Baghdatis ends Safin threat in Australia
Selig hopes to decide discipline soon
Teacher absences are hurting learning

CENTCOM: News Releases

USJFCOM
USJFCOM readies for Noble Resolve 08 - podcast
More about Noble Resolve
Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa Mission Rehearsal Exercise prepares forces to help “Africans solve African problems” -podcast
Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa Mission Rehearsal Exercise commences - podcast
2007 -- The Year in Review - photos

Multi-National Force-Iraq
A New MRAP is Born: Armored Ambulance Newest Addition to Family
UPDATE: Young Iraqi Girl Continues Recovery One Step at a Time
Task Force Marne Leaders’ Course Welcomes First Class of Iraqi Soldiers
Coalition forces target al-Qaeda near Hamrin Lake, three terrorists killed
Coalition forces capture criminal element network facilitator (Baghdad)
Al-Qaeda operations in northern Iraq disrupted; two killed, 17 detained
U.S. Special Operations Forces train Iraqi Security Forces (Baghdad)
Three IEDS found, destroyed in Adwaniyah
Soldiers capture HVT south of Baghdad

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Future Marine Deployment To Support NATO Allies
Defense Officials Mull U.S. Military Aid to Pakistan

MILITARY NEWS
Troops, Civilian Employees Must Follow Rules for Political Activities

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Aid Station Makes a Difference
Engineers Teach Afghans To Build

IRAQ NEWS
Leaders’ Course Welcomes First Class of Iraqis

FACE OF DEFENSE
Guard Medic Competes For Miss America Title
Airmen Keep Hospital Equipment Running

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

Today in History
1501 - Cesare Borgia returns in triumph to Rome from Romagna
1562 - Edict of St Germain recognizes the Huguenots in France
1595 - French king Henri IV declares war on Spain
1601 - France gains Bresse, Bugey, Valromey & Gex in treaty with Spain
1656 - Brandenburg & Sweden sign Treaty of Königsberg
1718 - Avalanche destroys every building in Leukerbad, Switzerland; kills 53
1746 - Battle of Falkirk, Scotland-Prince Charles Edward Stuart defeated by Scots
1757 - Germany declares war on Prussia
1773 - Captain James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle (66º 33' S)
1775 - 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Poland
1779 - Captain Cook's last notation in ship's log
1821 - México permits Moses Austin & 300 US families to settle in Texas
1827 - Duke of Wellington appointed British supreme commander
1832 - Johannes van den Bosch appointed Governor-General of Dutch-Indies
1852 - British recognize independence of Transvaal (in South Africa)
1861 - Flush toilet (with separate water tank and a pull chain) patented by Mr. Thomas Crapper
1862 - USS Lexington begins bombardment of Fort Henry, TN (thru Jan 22nd)
1863 - Skirmish near Newtown VA
1864 - General Longstreet's command ends heavy fighting at Dandridge TN
1874 - Armed Democrats seize Texas government, ending Radical Reconstruction
1885 - British beat Mahdists at Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan
1893 - Queen Liliuokalani deposed, Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic
1895 - French President Casimir-Perier resigns; Félix Faure installed as President of France
1899 - US takes possession of Wake Island in Pacific
1911 - Failed assassination attempt on premier Briand in French Assembly
1912 - English explorer Robert Falcon Scott & his expedition reach the South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had gotten there 1 month before
1913 - Raymond Poincaré elected President of France
1915 - Russia occupies Bukovina & Western Ukraine
1917 - US pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands
1920 - Paul Deschanel elected President of France
1928 - 1st fully automatic photographic film developing machine patented
1929 - Popeye makes 1st appearance, in comic strip "Thimble Theatre"
1944 - Corvette Violet sinks U-641 in Atlantic Ocean
1945 - Liberation of Warsaw by Soviet troops (end of Nazi occupation); Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation; Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, arrested by secret police in Hungary
1946 - United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting
1948 - Netherlands & Indonesia agree to a cease fire; Trial of 11 US Communist party members begins in New York City NY
1950 - 11 men rob Brink's office in Boston of $1.2M cash & $1.5M securities
1951 - China refuses cease-fire in Korea
1954 - Jacques Cousteau's 1st network telecast airs on "Omnibus" (CBS)
1955 - Submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st nuclear-powered test voyage
1961 - Eisenhower allegedly orders the assassination of Congo's Lumumba
1962 - NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong takes X-15 to 40,690 m
1963 - Joe Walker takes X-15 to altitude of 82 km
1966 - Martin Luther King, Jr., opens campaign in Chicago; USAF B-52 carrying 4 unarmed hydrogen bombs crashes on Spanish coast at Palomares, killing 7
1968 - Soyuz 4 & 5 completed 1st docking of 2 manned spacecraft
1973 - New Philippine constitution names Marcos president for life; City of Amsterdam decides to support Hanoi
1976 - Hermes rocket launched by European Space Agency
1980 - NASA launches Fltsatcom-3
1981 - Philippino President Marcos ends state of siege
1983 - Nigeria expels 2 million illegal aliens, mostly Ghanaians; Alabama Governor George C Wallace, becomes governor for record 4th time
1984 - Supreme Court rules (5-4) private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws
1987 - President Reagan signs secret order permitting covert sale of arms to Iran
1988 - Leslie Manigay elected President of Haiti
1989 - Gunman opens fire in California schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded; Victoria Murden & Shirley Metz are 1st women to reach South Pole overland (on skis)
1991 - Iraq fires 8 SCUD missiles on Israel - 1st US pilot shot down in Operation Desert Storm (Jeffrey Zahn)
1994 - 6.6 Earthquake hits Los Angeles killing 60, $30B in damage
1995 - 7.2 earthquake destroys Kobe Japan (5,372 die)
1998 - President Clinton faces sexual harassment charges from Paula Jones

Birthdays
1342 - Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy
1463 - Frederick III the Wise, elector of Saxony (1486-25), protector Luther
1504 - Pius V (Antonio Ghislieri), saint, pope (1566-72)
1612 - Thomas Fairfax, Lord Fairfax, English Parliamentary General
1706 - Benjamin Franklin, kite flyer/statesman/wit/inventor, Declaration of Independence signer
1732 - Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, last king of Poland (1764-95)
1759 - Paul Cuffe, merchant/shipbuilder/Black nationalist
1806 - James Madison Randolph (Jefferson's grandson), 1st born in White House
1818 - Sir Antoine Dorion, joint premier of Canada (1858, 1863-64)
1828 - Lewis Addison Grant, Union Brevet Major General
1853 - Alva Vanderbilt Beaumont, women's rights advocate & activist
1863 - David Lloyd George, British PM (1916-22)
1880 - Mack Sennett, movie creator (Keystone Kops)
1886 - Glenn Luther Martin, aviator (Collier Trophy-1933)
1891 - Norman "Squab" Read, US aviator who lived to be 101
1899 - Al Capone, gangster (Chicago bootlegging)
1902 - Geoffrey W. Lloyd, British minister of Brandstoffen/Energy (1951-55)
1905 - Franz Schmid, ascended northside of Matterhorn (1931)
1910 - Edith S. Green (Representative-OR)
1911 - Luis W. Alvarez, US physicist (sub atomic, Nobel 1968)
1917 - Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (MGR), Indian film star, politician
1918 - Joseph Walker Barr banker/politician
1922 - Luis Echeverría Alvarez, President of Mexico
1930 - Thomas P. Stafford, astronaut (Gemini 6, Gemini 9, Apollo 10); Bill Benyon, English large landowner/Conservative Lower house leader
1931 - James Earl Jones, actor (Darth Vader - Star Wars); L. Douglas Wilder (Gov-VA)
1933 - Aga Khan, religious leader (Muslim)
1934 - Shari Lewis, ventriloquist/puppeteer (Lamb Chop)
1939 - Maury Povich, TV host (Current Affair, Maury)/Mr Connie Chung
1942 - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), heavyweight champ boxer (1964-7 74-8)
1943 - Daniel Charles Brandenstein, astronaut (STS 8, 51-G, 32, 49)
1949 - Andy Kaufman, comedian/actor (Latka Gravas-Taxi)
1954 - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., attorney (Natural Resources Defense Council)

Passings
0395 - Theodosius I the Great, Spanish emperor of Rome, dies at 49
1119 - Boudouin VII, Hapkin count of Flanders
1661 - Andres Malong, Philippines rebel leader, executed
1874 - Chang & Eng Bunker, Chinese/Thai Siamese twins, die at 62
1893 - Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th US President (1877-81), dies in Fremont OH at 70
1902 - Gideon Scheepers, South African Boer leader, executed
1908 - Ferdinand IV, ruler of Toscane, dies at 72
1910 - Thomas Crapper, inventor (flush toilet)
1938 - William H. Pickering, astronomer (predicted Pluto), dies at 79
1955 - Joannes A. Veraart, Dutch judge/MP, (Jews in Netherlands), dies at 68
1961 - Patrice Lumumba, African revolutionary, murdered at 36
1968 - Julis Deutsch, Austrian politician/General Spanish republican army, dies at 83
1977 - Gary Gilmore executed in Utah, 1st US execution since 1967
1990 - Charles Hernu, French minister of Defense (1981-85)
1991 - Olav AFEC van Sleeswijk-Holstein-S-G V, King of Norway (1957)
1994 - Allan G. Odell, Ad executive (Burma Shave), dies at 90; Chung Il Kwon, PM of South Korea (1964-70)
1997 - Asfa Wossen (Amha Selassie), crown emperor of Ethiopia in exile; Clyde William Tombaugh discoverer (Pluto), dies at 90

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Ramsey, Douglas K., Civilian (NV); released by PRG February, 1973 - alive as of 1998

1967
Cogdell, William K., USAF (IN); T28D shot down - remains ID'd May, 1994

Krogman, Alva R., USAF (WY); O1F shot down, KIA, body not recovered

Wozniak, Frederick J., USAF (MI); RF3C disappeared on reconnaissance mission (backseater, w/Wright)

Wright, Gary G., USAF (CA); RF4C disappeared on reconnaissance mission (pilot, w/Wozniak)

1968
Wilke, Robert F., USAF (WI); A1A crashed on rescue mission

1969
Fickler, Edwin James, USMC (WI); A6A presumed shot down on bombing mission (pilot, w/Kuhlman) - presumed KIA, body not recovered

Kuhlman, Robert John, Jr., USMC (IN); A6A presumed shot down on bombing mission (bombardier / navigator, w/Fickler) - presumed KIA, body not recovered

Smith, Victor A., USAF (MD); F4D shot down (systems operator)

1971
Mirrer, Robert H., USAF (NJ); F4E shot down, believed KIA, body not recovered

Labels: Headlines, History