DIRECTING TRAFFIC - U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jim Champagne guides a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle onto Forward Operating Base Falcon, Iraq, April 5, 2008. Champagne is assigned to Multinational Division – Baghdad’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Nathaniel Smith

Labels: 1st ID, Baghdad, FOB Falcon, Iraq, Multi-National Division-Baghdad, photos, US Army

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Battle Awaits Petraeus - General set to address Congress on Iraq gains
Top general in Iraq war to urge patience
Bombing kills 6 civilians in Iraq
Iraqi Forces, al-Sadr's Militiamen Clash in Sadr City
Iraq attacks up as U.S. officials to testify - Video
A timeline of Iraq war, troop levels
MND-B Soldier attacked by IED
Port city of UmQasr is open for business

Operation Enduring Freedom
Afghanistan Probes Civilian Deaths Claim: Ministry

Homeland Security War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Study: Ideology Tops Money for American Spys
Schwarzenegger Says His Medical Files Breached Too

Fallen Heroes
Georgia Soldier's Widow Fights Mother-in-Law for Husband's Sperm
DoD Identifies Army Casualties (Balad)
DoD Identifies Army Casualty (Baghdad)

Other Military News
Report Finds 101st Airborne and Tennessee National Guard Soldiers Bear Disproportionate Share of Burden of Wars

Religion of Peace??
YouTube, MySpace Blocked Over Anti-Islam Film

Worldwide Wackos
Iran Expands Uranium Enrichment
Israel Official Threatens to Destroy Iran if Iran Attacks Israel
US: N. Korea nuke talks must be resolved

Politics / Government
Candidates to Use Hearings to Reinforce War Positions
McCain: Dems Exhibit 'Failure of Leadership' on Iraq
Shades of Gray in Clinton Tale
McCain Has Best Fundraising Month, Still Lags Dems
Clinton Calls on Bush to Boycott Olympic Ceremonies
Condi Rice for VP talk persists despite denials
Pakistan's nuclear command stays unchanged: official
Sen. Vitter may testify in sex case

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Study: Banning Smoking Increases Drunken Driving
German Mother Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Killing 8 of Her Babies
'Peeping Tom' Dentist Pleads Guilty to Videotaping Employees
Abuse Investigated at Polygamist Compound After 400 Removed
2 Pregnant Women Attacked, 1 Maced in Home Invasion
Police Search Program Forgoes Warrants, Stirs Critics
Defense begins in homeless hit-run trial

U.N. News
Experienced Gender Official From Spain Chosen to Head UNIFEM

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
FOXBusiness: Yahoo to Microsoft: We Want a Better Deal
Washington Post Wins 6 Pulitzer Prizes - 2008 Winners
Google defends user data policy after EU report

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
Texas Girl to Have Half Her Brain Removed to Combat Rare Disease
FOXSexpert: Eight Sex Myths You Should Not Believe
Depressed people more prone to Alzheimer's: study
Too little childhood sleep tied to later problems
S.Korea's first space ride enters final countdown
Stem cells from skin treat brain disease in rats
Adobe merges business units serving PCs, mobile
Germans shun space race legacy
USDA bets on soy, but farmers like corn
Study: Dyslexia differs by language

News from My Neck of the Woods
$8 Traffic Fee for Manhattan Drivers Gets Nowhere

Oddities
Australian Father, Daughter Reveal Sexual Relationship That Led to Birth of Two Children
James Bond Creator's Preposterous Plan to Outwit Nazis Revealed
Japan village exposes secret world of ninja fighters
Postal workers attacked by wild turkeys

Other News of Note
Chalmers' 3-Pointer Lifts Kansas to OT Championship Victory Over Memphis - PHOTOS
IOC to Consider Stopping Global Olympic Torch Relay
Olympic torch headed to San Francisco
WITNESS: Death in the streets of Yangon
Maoists in, king out as Nepal faces historic vote
Al Fayed Still Believes MI6 Involved in Deaths - PHOTOS

Fox News
Man Claims His Family Was Kicked off Cruise Ship for Protest
Report: Pamela Anderson Dances Nude for Hugh Hefner's Birthday
'Crocodile Hunter' Wept Tears of a Clown, Dad Says

Reuters
Legal wrangle extends Zimbabwe uncertainty - Video
Manila court jails coup plotters for life
East Timor president hints at retirement
Summer gasoline use to drop, 1st time since 1991
"Izakaya" cookbook gives taste of night-time Tokyo
Chef David Lee carves out Canadian cuisine
"Idol" charity show hopes to top $100 million
Mischa Barton seeks plea for drunk driving: report
Merrill CEO says doesn't plan to raise more capital
WaMu finalizing capital injection plan: report - Video
Alcoa says energy costs, weak dollar halve profit
Greenspan says unfairly blamed, has no regrets: report
IMF agrees to sell some gold, broaden investments
AMD estimates weak sales, to cut 10 percent of jobs
Summer gasoline use to drop, 1st time since 1991
Food prices up in Japan but deflation still lurks
World stocks ease from one-month peaks - Video
Oil up above $109 on Iran, diesel supply concerns
TomTom cuts outlook after weak Q1
Euro holds firm, propped up by rates outlook
GW cannabis drug misses statistical significance
Gold near 1-week high on dollar, shrugs off IMF
Futures signal fall on Wall St; AMD, Fed in focus - Video
Alcoa shares fall after earnings miss
AMD shares drop on Q1 revenue outlook
Big pharma's diversity drive

AP World News
Perez says sex scene was 'very awkward'
Giants fall in post-Bonds home opener
Ewing, Olajuwon, Riley named to Hall
Protests divide SoCal's Little Saigon

News Blaze
PHOTOS: IA Soldiers Distribute Food, Water to Eastern Baghdad Residents
ISF, CF Join Forces to Ensure Safety of Local Citizens
Soldiers' Angels and Patriot Guard
Iraq News
Operations in Iraq
FOB Warhorse Memorial Photos
Videos

CENTCOM
Joint team provides medical aid in Africa
Afghan school gets new library, science lab
Engineer Infrastructure Battalion graduates in Taji
15 caches, IED factory discovered in northern Iraq
Iraqi troops contain violence in Hillah

USJFCOM
USJFCOM opens new Joint Intelligence Laboratory
More about the Joint Intelligence Laboratory
Joint fires team assists Army training center
More about JFIIT
Industry symposium to raise awareness of 21st century capabilities
Workshop looks at strengthening capabilities in the urban environment - podcast

Multi-National Force - Iraq
MND-B Soldier attacked by IED
Iraqi Army distributes food and water al-Hayyaniyah
ISF recover weapons cache, kill 10 in separate operations in Basra

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Coalition Forces Go After Rocket, Mortar Squads
Gates Reaffirms Ties With Oman
Bush Lauds Democracies' Progress

IRAQ NEWS
Coalition Kills Five, Captures Eight
'Village of Hope' Vocational School Gives Iraqis New Perspective

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Afghan Government Improves Consistently, General Says
Coalition Forces Clear Insurgents From Nuristan Villages During Raid

MILITARY NEWS
Family Support Network Supports Marine Families
Drilling Kenyan Well Builds Bond

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Fort Myer Kids Get to Clown Around For a Day
Group Helps Guard, Reserve Kids Keep Routine

FACE OF DEFENSE
Marine Works Hard to Keep Mail Flowing

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
1195 - Alexius III Angelus drives out brother Isaäk II as Byzantine emperor
1341 - Francesco Petrarca crowned in Rome
1378 - Bartolomeo Prignano elected as Pope Urban VI
1455 - Alfonso de Borgia elected as Pope Callistus III
1500 - Battle at Novara - King Louis XII beats duke Ludovico Sforza
1716 - Duke Karel Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin signs covenant with Russia & marries Czar Peter the Great's niece
1759 - British troops chase French out of Masulipatam India
1783 - Catharina II of Russia annexes the Krim
1789 - House of Representives 1st meeting
1801 - Soldiers riot in Bucharest, kill 128 Jews
1832 - Charles Darwin begins trip through Rio de Janeiro
1848 - 1st battle at Gioto Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians; Battle at Xaquixaguana, Peru Pedro de la Gasca beats Gonzalo Pizarro
1861 - US mint at Dahlonega GA seized by confederacy
1862 - John D. Lynde, patents aerosol dispenser
1864 - of Mansfield, Federals routed by General Richard Taylor
1865 - General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House in Virginia
1869 - American Museum of Natural History opens (New York, NY)
1879 - Khedive Ismael of Egypt fires French/British ministers; Milk is sold in glass bottles for 1st time
1893 - The Critic reports that the ice cream soda is our national drink
1898 - Battle of Atbara River, Anglo-Egyptian forces crush 6,000 Sudanese
1904 - Great Britain & France sign Cordial Entente concerning colonial matter
1908 - Lord Herbert Henry Asquith succeeds Henry Campbell-Bannerman as British Prime Minister
1912 - Steamers collide in the Nile, drowning 200
1913 - 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified; Opening of China's 1st parliament takes place in Peking (now Beijing)
1914 - US & Colombia sign a treaty concerning the Panamá Canal Zone
1916 - Norway approves active & passive female suffrage
1933 - Manchester Guardian warns of unknown Nazi terror
1935 - Works Progress Administration approved by Congress
1939 - King Zog I of Albania, flees
1940 - Germany battle cruisers sink British aircraft carrier Glorious
1945 - Nazi occupiers executed, Nazi General Christiansen flees Netherlands
1946 - League of Nations assembles for last time
1947 - Largest recorded sunspot (7,000) observed
1952 - President Harry Truman seizes the steel mills to prevent a strike
1953 - Dag Hammarskjöld chosen as Secretary-General of UN
1956 - 6 marine recruits drown during exercise at Paradise Island SC; M Bandaranaike's People's front wins election in Ceylon
1960 - Netherlands & Germany sign accord concerning war casualties
1961 - British liner "Dara" explodes in Persian Gulf, kills 236
1962 - Accords of Evian (Algeria) accepted by referendum in France
1964 - Unmanned Gemini 1 launched
1966 - OAO 1, the 1st orbiting astronomical observatory, is launched; Leonid Brezhnev elected Secretary-General of communist party
1968 - New socialist constitution of East Germany takes effect; Czechoslovakia Cernik government forms
1970 - Senate rejects Nixon's nomination of Carswell to Supreme Court
1977 - Israel premier Yitzhak Rabin resigns
1979 - People's Republic of China joins IOC
1985 - Amdahl releases UTS/V, 1st mainframe Unix
1986 - Clint Eastwood elected mayor of Carmel, CA
1988 - Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, 52, was defrocked by the Assemblies of God following the disclosure of his involvement with a prostitute. (Swaggart was ordered to stay off TV for a year, but returned after only three months.)
1990 - King Birendra of Nepal lifts 30-year ban on political parties; Norwegian Scandinavian Star catches fire; about 170 die
1993 - STS-56 (Discovery) launches into orbit
1994 - Japan's premier Morihiro Hosokawa resigns; Smoking banned in Pentagon & all US military bases
1997 - STS 83 (Columbia 22), lands

Birthdays
0563BC - Gautama Buddha (as celebrated in Japan-Kambutsue)
1460 - Ponce de León San Tervas de Campos, Spanish conqueror/explorer, searched for fountain of youth, found Florida
1605 - Philip IV, King of Spain & Portugal (1621-65)
1642 - Gerard Callenbach, Dutch Admiral
1655 - Louis Willem I Margrave (Baden-Baden)
1726 - Lewis Morris, US farmer (signed Declaration of Independence)
1775 - Adam A. earl von Neipperg, Austrian General/Napoleon's wife Marie lover
1818 - Christaan IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906)
1828 - George Baird Hodge, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1832 - Alfred von Waldersee, Prussian fieldmarshal
1875 - Albert I von Saksen-Coburg, King of Belgium (1909-34)
1898 - Achiel H. Acker, Belgian Premier (1945-46, 1954-58)
1904 - John R. Hicks, British economist (Nobel 1972)
1905 - Helen B. M. Fennell Joseph, anti-apartheid writer (Side by Side); Pierre Wigny, Belgian minister of Foreign affairs (1958-61) [or 4/18]
1908 - Neil Lawson, British high court judge
1909 - William James Millar Mackenzie, political scientist
1911 - Melvin Calvin, US chemist (photosynthesis, Nobel 1961)
1912 - Josef Gabcík, Czechoslovakian resistance fighter (attacked Heydrich)
1919 - [Douglas] Ian Smith, Premier of Rhodesia
1921 - Betty [Bloomer] Ford, First Lady (1975-76)/namesake for Betty Ford Clinic
1935 - Albert G. Bustamante (Representative-TX)
1937 - Seymour Hersh, award winning investigative reporter (New York Times)
1943 - Tony Banks English politician (Labour Party)
1944 - Anthony Farrar, Hockley military historian
1945 - Ian White, Member of European Parliament for Bristol
1947 - Thomas D. Delay (Representative-TX)

Passings
0217 - Caracalla [Marcus Aurelius Antoniius], Roman emperor (198-217), murdered at 29
1143 - John II Comnenus, Emperor of Byzantium (1118-43), dies in an accident
1364 - Jan II the Good, King of France (1350-64), dies at 44
1492 - Lorenzo I de' Medici "il Magnifico," ruler of Florence (1469-92)
1498 - Charles VIII, King of France (1483-98), beheaded at 27
1697 - Niels Juel, Danish Admiral (Oland, Moen, Kjögebocht), dies at 67
1861 - Elisha G. Otis, US elevator builder (Otis), dies at 50
1897 - Heinrich von Stephan, UK politician
1902 - Sipyagain, Russian minister of interior/headed Secret Service, assassinated
1919 - Roland baron Eötvös, Hungarian physicist, dies at 70
1943 - Paul Colin, Belgian journalist/collaborator, executed
1947 - Henry Ford, US industrialist (Ford cars)
1969 - Denton Cooley, got 1st fully artificial heart, dies at 48
1981 - Omar Bradley, last US 5-star General, (Normandy) dies in New York at 88
1987 - Francis C. Denebrink, US Naval officer (WWI, WWII, Korea) dies at 90
1990 - Ryan White, hemophiliac AIDS sufferer, dies at 18 - The Ryan White Foundation was founded later in 1991 by Jeanne White and Phil Donahue

Reported Missing in Action
1962
Groom, George E., US Army SF (MO); released May, 1962

Gabriel, James, Jr., US Army SF (HI); remains recovered April, 1962

Marchand, Wayne Ellsworth, US Army SF (NE); remains recovered April, 1968

Quinn, Francis, US Army (NY); released May, 1962

1970
Bellendorf, Dieter, Civilian - NBC (Germany); (sp Ballendorf?)

Gensluckner, Georg, Civilian (Austria)

Yieng, Ung Ling, Civilian (Cambodia);

1972
Ray, Johnnie L., US Army (OK); released by PRG February, 1973

Wanat, George K., Jr., US Army (CN); released by PRG February, 1973

Labels: Headlines, History