LUNCH IN ISTAQLAL
Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division soldiers and local leaders share an al fresco lunch in the front yard of Sheik Mohan Sager Al-Fayadh’s home in Istaqlal, a district north of Baghdad, Jan. 14, 2008. The soldiers met with Sheik Mohan, the district council chairman, to discuss area needs. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. April Campbell

Labels: 4ID, Iraq, Istaqlal, photos, US Army

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Violence Mars Iraq Holy Processions - PHOTOS
Iraqi Shiite festival escapes bloodshed
Iraqi Detainees Offered Educational, Vocational and Religious Programs
Gen. Petraeus Visit Focuses on Security, Border Checkpoints
Partnership Brings Hope for the New Year: Volunteers Team Up With National Police

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
2 arrested in Bhutto assassination plot
Pakistani forces say capture dozens of militants
14 Arrested in Alleged Spain Terror Plot
Tom Ridge: Waterboarding Is Torture
Arab League chief in Syria over Lebanon crisis
SEC urged not to revive "terrorist" watch list

Troops on Trial
Surveillance Videos Show Suspected Marine Murderer Using Victim's ATM, Buying Paint and Shovels

Fallen Heroes
New Group Gives Brothers, Sisters Help With Loss

Other Military News
Russia Could Use Nuclear Weapons as Preventive Measure to Thwart Major Threat, Official Says
Posthumous honors for black WWII vet
Polish town leery of US missile defense
Why does Johnny come marching homeless?

Homegrown Moonbats
Nigerian militants invite Clooney

Politics / Government
Sword-toting gunman nabbed close to Capitol
Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney Win Nevada Caucuses
PHOTOS: South Carolina Voters Head to the Polls
FOX News Poll: McCain Ahead in S.C. - RESULTS (pdf)
POLITICAL WIRE: Romney Pitches Economic Stimulus Plan
Huckabee, McCain in dead heat: poll
Clinton slams pro-Obama ad in Nevada
Casinos may ring up prize in Nevada vote
Candidate profiles: Read the latest news, compare the issues, and view factboxes
Poll: Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby results
Reuters Blogs - Tales from the Trail
Analysis: New tone in Democratic race
Analysis: McCain, Huckabee seek momentum
White House missing CIA, Iraq e-mails
Bush wants $150 billion plan to lift economy - Video
Diplomat's exodus muddles nuclear deal
MySpace Lingerie Mayor Refuses to Step Down
Congressional Candidate Appears Magically Skinnier in Doctored Campaign Photo

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Mother of 2 Abducted From Home - PHOTOS
Transgender Woman Sues Catholic Hospital for Refusing Breast Augmentation Surgery
Jury Convicts 911 Operator of Willful Neglect After Taking Boy's Call About Mom as Joke
Estranged Husband Is Freed, Kills Wife
15-Year-Old Fatally Stabbed in Schoolyard
Witnesses back 'Diddy' assault assertion
Cops target Super Bowl call girls

U.N. News
U.N.-AU envoys challenge Sudan parties to Darfur talks

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Baby for Sale: Toys Included
Some See Jesus on the Cross in Granite Slab to Be Sold on eBay
WEBCAMS AROUND THE WORLD: Positano, Italy
Guests for the Sunday TV news shows

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
NASA: New Moon Rocket Could be Dangerously Shaky
Detroit auto show draws excited fans
Study explains how protein keeps hunger at bay
iPhone spurs Web traffic, if not music sales
Canned beans recalled on botulism risk: FDA
FDA clears new Johnson & Johnson HIV drug

Mother Nature
Mix of snow, sleet blows across South
Germany names new polar bear cub Snowflake - Video

Oddities
Teen Charged With Raping Dog in 'Unspeakable Ways'
Mystery man's annual visit to Poe grave
More snakes on a plane
Woman filmed killing of lover

Other News of Note
Mother Backing Out of Driveway Runs Over, Kills Daughter 2
Woman Killed Self, 2 Children When She Walked Into Traffic on Interstate

Fox News
Iceland Donates $75,000 to Small North Dakota Town
Police Find Five Dead in Submerged Car in Kentucky
2 Crew Members Found Dead on Container Ship
College Wrestler Killed in Crash on Way to Meet
5 Bodies Found in Car Pulled From Kentucky Creek
Dr. Phil Reportedly Under Investigation in Britney Drama
Pop Tarts: Sarah Michelle Gellar Knows Loneliness, Calls America 'Gluttonous'

Reuters
Kenya's opposition says to resume protests
Test your nose for news - Quiz
Ten die in Angolan plane crash
Angry Egypt cancels talks with EU officials
Turks protest editor's murder on anniversary
Sarkozy popularity below 50 pct: poll
St Louis Rams owner Georgia Frontiere dies at 80
Italy hails return of ancient vase from New York
Media frenzy sparks fears for Britney Spears
Lohan to take morgue class for drunken drivers
In an Argentine prison - Audio Slideshow
Shopping pain
Spa days
Stimulus may help retailers, but buyers beware
Delphi's Miller didn't expect $8.3 million bonus
Sprint shares tumble
Britain backs bond plan to aid N.Rock rescue: source
Sands' Adelson still bullish on Las Vegas
SABIC misses forecasts as U.S. chemical demand falters
Recession fears to weigh on earnings reports
Wall St. drops as Bush rescue plan disappoints - Video
Citigroup shares fall to 1998 levels
Oil rises after plan fails to ease economic worries
Gold bounces off one-week low
AIG shares tumble on worry over Greenberg plans
WaMu stock up on JPMorgan merger speculation
World stocks slip again despite stimulus plan - Video
Yen, Swiss franc edge higher as risk aversion rises
Morphing shopper ways
Worried about inflation? Just wait

AP World News
Save your history, museum urges blacks
Terps send No. 1 Tar Heels to first loss
Writers' strike threatens Grammys show
Nuclear revival rekindles waste concerns
Federer, Hewitt survive 5-set marathons
Report: Fischer eyed final big match
Minn. health system purges drug trinkets
Fisher's 1972 match was Cold War battle

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
Meeting Expectations: Silver Lions Learn Needs through Communication
Coalition disrupts al-Qaeda networks across Iraq, 16 suspects detained
MND-B Forces seize enemy rockets
Iraqi Army Soldiers find cache in Saydiyah
MND-B Soldiers find cache, arrest suspected extremist
MND-B Soldiers find two caches in Doura
MND-B Soldiers discover EFP, arrest 3

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Gates Observes MRAP Progress, Praises Builders - Photos 1 - Photos 2
Dedication Runs High at MRAP Equipping Facility- Photos
Charleston Operations Speed MRAPs to Troops in Theater - Photos
Gates Predicts 5 Brigades Should be Home by July

MILITARY NEWS
Soldiers Re-enlist to Commemorate 100th Army Reserve Anniversary
Program Promotes Military Absentee Voting for November Election
Troops, Civilian Employees Must Follow Rules for Political Activities
Army Aims to Better Identify Soldiers with Brain Injuries

IRAQ NEWS
Aviation Support Soldiers Keep Helicopters Flying
Coalition Kills 13 Insurgents, Detains 3 Suspects
Program Builds on Concerned Citizens’ Success
Iraqi Unit Sheds Old Taboos Through Civic Action

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Afghan Army Corps Holds Commando Contest

WHY WE SERVE
Afghan Deployment Inspires Sailor to Share

FACE OF DEFENSE
Sailor Uses Experience To Improve Afghan Team

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
0379 - Theodosius installed as co-emperor of East Roman Empire
0973 - Pope Benedictus VI elected
1419 - French city of Rouen surrenders to Henry V in Hundred Years War
1493 - France cedes Roussillon & Cerdágne to Spain by treaty of Barcelona
1668 - King Louis XIV & Emperor Leopold I sign treaty dividing Spain
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling
1770 - Battle of Golden Hill (Lower Manhattan)
1793 - French King Louis XVI sentenced to death
1795 - Democratic revolution in Amsterdam ends oligarchy
1806 - Britain occupies the Cape of Good Hope
1808 - Louis Napoleon signs 1st Dutch aviation law
1825 - Ezra Daggett & nephew Thomas Kensett patent food storage in tin cans
1833 - Charles Darwin reaches Straits Ponsonby, Fireland
1839 - Aden conquered by British East India Company
1840 - Antarctica discovered, Charles Wilkes expedition (US claim)
1853 - Napoleon III marries Eugénie de Montijo
1861 - Georgia becomes 5th state to secede; MS troops take Fort Massachusetts an Ship Island
1862 - Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (Fishing Creek, Logan's Crossroads)
1863 - General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland
1865 - Union occupies Fort Anderson NC
1885 - Battle at Abu Klea Sudan 800-1000 killed
1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan forms
1903 - 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England
1910 - Germany & Bolivia ends commerce/friendship treaty; National Institute of Arts & Letters incorporated by Congress
1913 - Raymond Poincaré installed as President of France
1915 - 1st German Zeppelin attack over Great Britain, 4 die; Neon Tube sign patented by George Claude
1917 - Silvertown Essex's ammunition factory explodes; 300 die
1918 - Soviets disallows a Constitution Assembly
1920 - Alexandre Millerand forms French government; US Senate votes against membership in League of Nations
1921 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador sign Pact of Union
1922 - Geological survey says US oil supply would be depleted in 20 years
1927 - British government decides to send troops to China
1929 - Acadia National Park, Maine established
1937 - Millionaire Howard Hughes sets transcontinental air record (7h28m25s)
1938 - GM began mass production of diesel engines
1939 - Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking record-4.4 seconds
1941 - British offensive in Eritrea; British troops occupy Kassalaf Sudan
1942 - Japanese forces invade Burma; Titus Brandsma (Carmelite priest) arrested by German occupiers for speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan"
1943 - Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily
1947 - SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392
1950 - Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Canada CF-100 military plane
1952 - PGA approves allowing black participants
1955 - 1st Presidential news conference filmed for TV (Eisenhower); "Scrabble" debuts on board game market
1960 - Eisenhower & Premier Kishi sign US-Japanese Security pact
1966 - Indira Gandhi elected India's 3rd prime minister
1970 - Nixon nominates G Harrold Carswell to Supreme Court (fails)
1972 - Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, & Early Wynn elected to Hall of Fame
1974 - Belgium government of Leburton falls
1975 - 4 mail truck assault on El Al B-747 in Paris, escape to Iraq
1977 - President Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose); World's largest crowd-12.7 million-for Indian religious festival
1978 - Judge William H. Webster appointed head of FBI
1979 - John N. Mitchell (former AG) released on parole from federal prison
1981 - Muhammad Ali talks a despondent 21 year old out of committing suicide; US & Iran sign agreement to release 52 American hostages
1982 - Heater explodes at Star Elementary School-Oklahoma, kills 6 kids & teacher
1983 - Klaus Barbie, SS chief of Lyon in Nazi-France, arrested in Bolivia
1984 - California Supreme Court refuses to allow quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia to starve herself to death in a public hospital, she appeals and is later granted the right to die
1986 - Israeli premier Simon Peres visits Netherlands; Spain recognizes Israel
1987 - Guy Hunt becomes Alabama's 1st Republican governor since 1874
1988 - "48 Hours" premieres on CBS-TV
1989 - President Reagan pardons George Steinbrenner for illegal funds for Nixon
1993 - Israel recognizes PLO as no longer criminal; Robert M. Gates ends term as 15th director of CIA; STS-54 (Endeavour) lands

Birthdays
0570 - Mohammed Islamic, prophet (Koran)
1200 - Dogen Kigen, Zen teacher, 1st patriarch of the Japanese Soto
1544 - Francis II de Valois-Angoulême, King of France (1559-60)
1736 - James Watt, inventor (steam engine); Laurens P. van de Spiegel, Dutch regent/secretary of State 1787-95
1749 - Isaiah Thomas, US printer/editor/publisher/historian
1802 - (Jean) Silvain van de Weyer, 1st Belgian minister of Foreign affairs (1831)
1807 - Robert Edward Lee Stratford VA, Confederate General-in-Chief
1809 - Edgar Allan Poe, author (Pit & the Pendulum)
1813 - Sir Henry Bessemer, engineer/inventor (Bessemer engine)
1816 - Henry Gray, Confederate Brigadier General
1820 - John Haskell King, Union Brevet Major General
1830 - George Blake Cosby, Confederate Brigadier General
1863 - Werner Sombart German fascist (Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben)
1869 - Alfred R. Zimmerman, mayor (Rotterdam 1906-22)/Director (League of Nations)
1892 - Olafur Thors, Icelandic PM (6 times, 1942-63)
1904 - James Winston Watts developer (Frontal Lobotomy)
1905 - Oveta Culp Hobby, government official/newspaper publisher/CEO (Houston Post)
1912 - Leonid V. Kantorovich, economist (Nobel); Francis David Charteris Earl of Wemyss & March/Scottish landowner; Jean G.H. "Sjeng" Tans, Dutch socialist democratic chairman (1965-69)
1920 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, 5th Secretary-General of UN (1982-91)
1924 - 7th Earl of Carnarvon, English large landowner
1931 - Robert MacNeil, news anchor (NBC Weekend News 1965-67); Ron Packard (Representative-CA)
1938 - Denny Smith (Representative-OR)
1940 - Barend J. du Plessis South African minister of Finance
1944 - Dan Reeves, NFL Coach (New York Giants, Denver Broncos, Atlanta Falcons)
1946 - Alexandr Vladimirovich Shchukin, Russian cosmonaut; Dolly Rebecca Parton, country singer (Dolly, 9 to 5)
1947 - Ann Compton, news reporter (ABC TV)

Passings
0639 - Dagobert I, King of Austrasia/Soissons/Burgundy/Neustrië
1479 - Johan II, King of Aragón/Navarra, dies at 81
1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, army commander/poet, beheaded at 29
1549 - Barthout van Assendelft, 1st land advocate of Holland
1629 - Abbas I, Shah of Persia (1588-1629), dies at 57
1927 - Charlotte, princess of Belgium/Empress of Mexico (1864-67), dies at 86
1980 - William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice (1939-75), dies at 81
1982 - Leopold Trepper Polish/Israeli spy (WWII), dies at 77
1990 - Herbert Wehner German ex-communist/chairman (1958-73), dies at 83
1993 - Reginald Lewis CEO (Beatrice), dies of brain cancer at 50

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Ashby, Donald R., Sr., USN (VA); F4B shot down and crashed in water, KIA, body not recovered

Brady, Allen C., USN (VA); A6A shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

Ehrlch, Dennis Michael, USN (NJ); F4B shot down over water, KIA, body not recovered

Jayroe, Julius S., USAF (SC); F4C shot down (w/Kramer), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Kramer, Galand D., USAF (OK); F4C shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive as of 1998

Yarbrough, William P., Jr., USN (TX); A6A shot down (w/Brady) - remains returned August, 1985

1968
Johnson, William D., US Army (NC); disappeared during ambush

Murray, Patrick Peter, USMC (MN); A6A shot down (w/Wallace), remains returned April, 1986

Wallace, Hobart McKinle, Jr., USMC (WV); A6A shot down (w/Murray)

1974
Kosh, Gerald E.; released January, 1974

Labels: Headlines, History