News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Study: False statements preceded war (A study by no-doubt "impartial" journalists)
New armored truck sees first Iraq death
Northern Iraq Surge Has Terrorists on the Run - Video
Crews Brave Enemy Fire to Save Soldiers
MND-North Soldiers Liberate 2 from al Qaeda Prison During Operation


Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Convicted Terror Supporter Jose Padilla Gets 17 Years
Israeli forces kill Hamas militant in Gaza: Hamas - Video
Hamas says won't abandon rockets under Israel attack
U.S. criticizes Sudan over Darfur militia chief
Musharraf: Pakistan isn't hunting Osama

Troops on Trial
Marine Slaying Crime Scene Photos - VIDEO - PHOTOS
Missing U.S. Marine spotted in Mexico

Other Military News
Manifesto: NATO Must Strike to Stop Spread of Nukes
Pentagon tries to cool talk on Petraeus

Religion of Peace??
Malaysia State to Enforce Separate Lines for Women, Men
Afghan Student Sentenced to Death for Anti-Islam Paper
Supreme Court: Inmate Can't Sue Over Missing Koran

Worldwide Wackos
Ahmadinejad Embarrassed by Ayatollah on Gas Legislation
Powers agree modest new Iran sanctions draft
N.Korea seems to meet U.S. criteria on terror listing

Politics / Government
Bush Lauds Anti-Abortion Activists as RU-486 Use Rises
Thompson Drops Presidential Bid (Damn)
Bush Shows Confidence in Economic Stimulus Package
Bush's legacy hit by economic woes
Kansas City official resigns over immigration flap
Presidential rivals tout economic credentials - Video
Bush, lawmakers vow quick action on economy plan - Video
Clinton, Obama shake up politics of identity
Candidate: Elect me and I won't serve

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Pamela Smart Teen Gunman, Now 33, Seeks Sentence Reduction
Family of Missing Nevada Woman, 19, Pleads for Her Return
Family Posts Reward for Missing Reno Coed - VIDEO
Elderly Man Beaten to Death, Dismembered; Three Arrested
Want Fries With That Arrest? Granny Nabbed at McDonald's Drive-Thru After Confrontation
Search on for Woman Who Disappeared From Nevada Home
Man Arrested for Holding Woman, Kids at Knifepoint After She Slips Note to Store Clerk
Mother Charged With Drowning Newborn Boy, Attempting to Kill His Twin
Lord of the Ladies: Drew Peterson Brags, 'I Turn Heads' (Stomachs, maybe)
Police Chief's Wife Accused of Sex, Drugs With Boys
Police to Public: Bug Us Too Often, Expect a Bill
Man convicted by drawings is cleared by DNA

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
WEBCAMS AROUND THE WORLD: Old Faithful

Science / Medicine and Health / Watching the Web
Four Brothers Stricken With Rare, Often Fatal Disease
Report: Man Found in Nursing Home With Maggots in Eye, Bed Sores Dies
Work-related stress can kill, study finds
Exercise sharply cuts older men's death rate: study
Ancient Maya scarified boys not virgin girls: study
Dangerous staph bacteria all from one group: study
Microsoft expected to post sharp profit rise
Auction of key airwaves begins Thursday
Folk medicines contain lead
Study: Obesity surgery can cure diabetes

News from My Neck of the Woods
Tom Brady Photographed in Walking Cast (Uh oh...)
New York chain eateries must post calorie counts
Retrial in RI Statehouse corruption case

Oddities
Couple to sue subway over leaked kiss video
Haggis ban an offal burden?
Bus Driver to Goth Who Walks Fiancee on Leash: No Dogs Allowed
Missing cat found in owner's suitcase

Other News of Note
Heath Ledger Found Dead at Manhattan Residence; Sleeping Pills Found in Apartment - PHOTOS
VIDEO: Oscar Nominee's Diverse Career
Heath's Haunting Words - FILMOGRAPHY
FOX 411: Friends Say it Wasn't Suicide
Shock, Grief as Friends Mourn Heath Ledger
New Yorkers 'Anguished' Over Ledger's Death

Fox News
FOXBusiness: Stocks Claw Back After Fed Move
Report: Amy Winehouse Heads to Rehab - PHOTOS (Guess she didn't say "no,no,no" this time...)
Striking Writers Say They Won't Picket Grammy Awards
Michigan Teen Couple Who Ran Away in Family's Van Found Safe in Louisiana

Reuters
Asian stocks rally after Fed cut - Video
Investors exiting funds are urged to wait
Firms seen poised to weather downturn
New stock issues face frosty reception
Did the Fed panic?
Blog: Did the Fed get it right?
Video: Meltdown overshadows Davos
Interactive Timeline: Key comments
Full Coverage: Recession Watch
Full Coverage: Crisis in Credit
Weak medicine
Video: Jim Saft - More pain ahead
No quick cure for what ails economies
Dollar is down but not out
Move doesn't herald co-ordinated cuts
Annan faces tough challenge reconciling Kenya foes - Video
Bruni says not married to France's Sarkozy ...yet
More children drinking alcohol, fuelling violence
Gay couples as committed as straight couples: study
Entertainment
Hollywood writers strike clouds Oscars
Britney Spears begins to show for custody hearings
Panel subpoenas Knoblauch in baseball probe
Apple shares drop after missed forecast
Texas Instruments posts higher quarterly profit
Investors exiting stock funds are urged to wait
Chrysler CEO says Fed rate cut to boost auto sales
Bank of America, Wachovia profits nearly wiped out
Big oil's rally run threatened by recession
IPOs face frosty reception after market tumble
Poor still suffering from last recession
S&P futures slip as tech hit by Apple forecast
Oil hovers around $89 after Fed cut halts slide
Global stocks salute steep Fed cut with rally - Video
Gold jumps 3 percent on inflation fears
Yen stumbles after Fed cut boosts Asian stocks
IMF sees significant slowdown in world growth
Recession fears hit Wall Street but Fed cut helps - Video
Financials lift European shares after Fed rate cut - Video
Sears shares soar on company shuffle

AP World News
`No Country,' `Blood' tie for Oscar lead
Penguins star Crosby to miss 6-8 weeks
Sharapova knocks Henin out in Melbourne
LA archdiocese offices sold for $31M
Obituaries in the news

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
Iraqi National Police Graduate More Than 1,800 Recruits
Substation Boasts New Technology, Smaller Footprint
RCT-5 takes the reins in western Anbar
Iraqi Emergency Response Unit reinforces Iraqi Security Forces in An Nasiriyah
Operation Phantom Phoenix success allows Iraqi media visit to former al-Qaeda stronghold (Himbus)
MND-North Soldier dies in accident (Kirkuk)
Roadside bomb kills 2, injures 4 (Samarra)
MND-C Soldiers find 2 caches in 2 days

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Pentagon Officials Remain Confident in MRAPs - Video
MRAP Facility Demonstrates Industry’s Commitment

MILITARY NEWS
Defense Department Works to Eliminate Gaps in Medical Care

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Marines Mentor Afghan Officers
Coalition Troops Capture 7 Insurgents

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Group Helps Veterans Buy Homes

IRAQ NEWS
Farm Business Revival Holds Key to Economic Hope
Coalition Forces Capture 18 Suspected Terrorists
Coalition Drops Bombs on Al Qaeda Sanctuary
Engineers Overcome Challenges to Bring Electricity

FACE OF DEFENSE
Paratrooper Learns Ropes in Baghdad

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
0871 - Battle at Basing - Danish invasion army beats Ethelred of Wessex
1371 - King Robert II Stuart of Scotland crowned
1510 - Jews are expelled from Colmar, Germany
1517 - Turks conquer Cairo
1528 - England & France declare war on Emperor Charles V
1575 - English queen Elizabeth I grants Thomas Tallis & William Byrd music press monopoly
1584 - Parts of Switzerland adopt Gregorian calendar (& parts in 1812)
1588 - Pope Sixtus V decrees "Immense aeterni" (Reformed curia)
1673 - Postal service between New York & Boston inaugurated
1689 - Lord Halifax becomes Speaker of English House of Lords
1689 - Prince Willem III calls English parliament together
1690 - Iroquois tribes renew allegiance to British against French
1758 - Russian troops occupy Königsberg, East Prussia
1760 - Battle at Wandewash, India - British troops beat French
1771 - Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to Britain
1775 - Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski expels Jews from Warsaw, Poland
1798 - Coup of Midderigh
1813 - Americans capture Frenchtown, Canada
1814 - 1st Knights Templar grand encampment in US held (NYC)
1817 - English freighter Diana sinks off Malaysia
1831 - Charles Darwin takes his Bachelor of Arts exam
1837 - Earthquake in southern Syria kills thousands
1862 - Confederate government raises premium for volunteers from $10 to $20 (approximately $400 today)
1863 - Union General Burnside's "Mud March"
1873 - Britain's SS Northfleet sinks at Dungeness, England - 300 die
1879 - James Shields (D) elected US senator from Missouri after previously serving as US senator from Illinois & Minnesota; Zulus attack a British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa
1881 - Ancient Egyptian obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle" erected in Central Park (NYC)
1890 - José Marti forms La Liga (Union of Cuban exiles) in New York City, NY
1901 - After 63 years, England stops sale of Queen Victoria postage stamps series & begins King Edward VII series
1905 - "Bloody Sunday" - Russian demonstrators fired on by tsarist troops
1918 - Ukraine proclaimed a free republic (German puppet)
1924 - Baldwin government resigns in England
1925 - Albania Republic proclaimed under President Achmed Zogu
1926 - Belgian chief of staff General Maglinse quits
1931 - French government of Steeg falls
1932 - British Anglicans & Old-Catholic church merge
1936 - French Laval government falls
1939 - Uranium atom 1st split, Columbia University
1941 - 1st mass killing of Jews in Romania; British/Australian troops capture Tobruk from Italians
1942 - Japanese air raid on Rabaul, New Britain
1943 - Joint Chiefs of Staff determine invasion in Sicily for July 10th; Temperature rises 49ºF (9ºC) in 2 minutes in Spearfish SD
1944 - Battle of Anzio (Italy); Allies stopped on the beach
1945 - Burma highway reopens; Heavy US air raid on Okinawa
1946 - US President sets up the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)
1947 - KTLA TV channel 5 in Los Angeles CA (IND) begins broadcasting (1st commercial TV station west of Mississippi)
1949 - Chinatown telephone exchange closed
1951 - Fidel Castro ejected from a Winter League game after beaning batter
1955 - Norwegian government of Einar Gerhardsen forms
1956 - 30 die in a train crash in Los Angeles
1957 - Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai Penisula; Mad Bomber (George P. Metesky), accused of 30 explosions, is arrested
1959 - USAF concludes less than 1% of UFO's are unknown objects
1960 - Coal mine of Johnburg caves in - 417 die; French President De Gaulle escapes assassination attempt by General Massu
1964 - World's largest cheese (15,723 kg) manufactured, Wisconsin; Kenneth Kaunda becomes premier of North-Rhodesia (Zambia)
1965 - US launches TIROS 9 weather satellite
1968 - Apollo 5 launched to Moon; unmanned lunar module tests made
1969 - Orbiting Solar Observatory 5 launched into earth orbit
1970 - 1st commercial Boeing 747 flight (Pan Am), New York to London in 6½ hours
1973 - Roe vs Wade US Supreme Court legalizes some abortions; US, North & South Vietnam & Vietcong sign boundary accord
1975 - Landsat 2, an Earth Resources Technology Satellite, launched
1976 - Bank robbery in Beirut nets $20-50 million (record)
1980 - Dissidents Andrei Sacharov & Jelena Bonner banished to Gorki
1982 - 75% of North America is covered by snow
1983 - 2nd flight readiness firing of Challenger's main engines; 22 seconds
1985 -30ºF (-34ºC), Mountain Lake Bio Station, Virginia (state record)
1985 - Cold wave damages 90% of Florida's citrus crop
1986 - Ghorbanifar 1st suggests diversion of cash to contras, says North
1989 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakstan/Semipalatinsk USSR
1992 - Space Shuttle STS-42 (Discovery 15) launches into space; Princess Sarah Ferguson wears paper bag over her head on airline ride
1994 - 5.5 earthquake strikes Sumatra
1995 - A Palestinian bomb attack in Beit Lid, Israel, kills more than 20
1997 - Space Shuttle Atlantis Returns to Earth
1998 - STS 89 (Endeavour 12) launches into orbit; World League of American Football becomes NFL East

Birthdays
1440 - Ivan III the Great, Russian czar (1462-1505)/conquered Lithuania
1561 - Francis Bacon England, statesman/essayist (Novum Organum)
1571 - Robert Bruce Cotton, English antiquary, politician
1655 - Geleyn Evertsen, Lieutenant-Admiral (Zealand)
1826 - Confederate General M(Merriwether) Jeff Thompson
1858 - Frederick Lugard, British captain/baron (Congo)
1865 - Friedrich Paschen, German physicist
1874 - Wincenty Witoz Galicia, PM of Poland (1920-21, 1923, 1926)
1875 - Bonifacius C. de Jonge, Governor (Dutch East Indies)
1877 - Hjalmar Schacht president of German Reichsbank/minister of Economics
1890 - Fred M. Vinson 13th Chief Justice of US Supreme Court (1946-53)
1892 - Marcel Dassault (Bloch), French airplane builder
1898 - Ross R. Barnett lawyer/(Gov-D-MS, 1960-1964)
1906 - Willa B. Brown (Coffey), first African-American woman to get a commercial pilot's license
1909 - Lev D. Landau, Russian physicist (Nobel 1962); (Sithu) U Thant, 3rd UN Secretary-General (1962-72)
1928 - Birch Bayh (Senator-D-IN, 1963-1981)
1935 - Pierre S. Du Pont IV (Governor-DE, 1977-1985)
1937 - Eden Pastora Gomez, Nicaraguan contra leader
1943 - H. James "Jim" Saxton (Representative-R-NJ, 1984-present)
1949 - Rein P. Hummel, Dutch MP (PvdA)
1955 - Thomas David Jones, PhD/Astronaut (STS 59, 68, 80, sk 98)
2179 - Hikaru Walter Sulu (character on Star Trek)

Passings
1336 - Louis III, last Earl of Loon
1552 - Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, beheaded for treason
1581 - Seerp Galama, Dutch nobleman/military/politician, at 52
1798 - Lewis Morris, US farmer Declaration of Independence signer, at 71
1799 - Horace B. de Saussure, Swiss physicist/geologist/alpinist, at 58
1850 - Vincenzo Pallotti, Italian saint, at 54
1879 - Anthony Durnford British Colonel, in battle; George Shepstone, British political affiliate, in battle
1901 - Victoria (Alexandrine), Britain's Queen (1837-1901), at 81
1909 - Richard A. C. E. Erlenmeyer, German chemist, at 83
1922 - Benedictus XV (Giacomo Markies D. Chiesa), pope (1914-22), at 67
1923 - Max Nordau (Südfeld), German physician/zionist leader, at 73
1942 - Reimond Tollenaere, leader Flemish National Front, at 81
1969 - Judy Garland, singer/actress (Wizard of Oz), of an overdose at 48
1973 - Lyndon B. Johnson, President (1963-69), at his Texas ranch at 64
1979 - Ali Hassan Salameh [Abu Hassan], killed by car bomb; believed to have helped mastermind massacre of 1972 Munich Olympics athletes
1982 - Eduardo Frei Montalva, President of Chile (1964-70), at 71
1987 - R. Budd Dwyer, Pennsylvania State Treasurer, facing prison for conspiracy & perjury, shoots himself to death at a televised news conference
1988 - Georgi M. Malenkov, Russian premier (1953-55), at 86
1992 - Ali Amini, PM of Iran (1961-62)
1994 - Irving B. Kahn, inventor (teleprompter), at 76
1995 - Mahmoud Sayed Selim, Egyptian Muslim leader, shot to death at 29; Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of President John F. Kennedy, at 104
1996 - Edward Thomas, historian/intelligence expert, at 77; Yisrael Eldad, extremist politician, at 85
1997 - Wally Whyton, musician/broadcaster, at 66

Reported Missing in Action
1966
The following USN personnel reported MIA when their S2D was shot down:
Forman, William S. (MN); pilot

Frenyea, Edmund M. (CA); crew

Sennett, Robert R. (CA); crew

Templin, Erwin B. Jr., (TX); crew

Also reported MIA this day in 1966:
Grissett, Edwin R.,Jr., USMC (TX); KIC December, 1969 - remains returned June, 1989

1969
Ross, Douglas A., US Army (CA); KIA - remains returned/ID'd March, 1998

1974
Jones, Diane, Civilian; released from Quang Ngai February, 1974

Markham, James M., Civilian; returned from visit December, 1974

Quinn, Judge Sophie, Civilian; released from Quang Ngai February, 1974 - detained twice (1974 and April, 1975)

Benoit, Charles, Jr., Civilian; returned from visit December, 1974

Labels: Headlines, History