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WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2006 – Coalition forces in Afghanistan quelled rocket attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan border yesterday after extremists hiding in nearby hills fired on them, U.S. military officials said. “It’s a pretty common occurrence,” said Army 1st Sgt. David Christopher, the senior enlisted soldier for Company B, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “It happens at least every other day. That’s about 200 rockets we’ve taken in the past seven months.” Foreign fighters, al Qaeda terrorists and common criminals often attempt to cut away at coalition and Afghan efforts to improve governance and...

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

Army Threatens to Destroy Soldiers´ Homes 16:56 Aug 17, '06 / 23 Av 5766 by Hillel Fendel The bureaucracy rolls on. With its residents still in Lebanon under emergency call-up orders, the Yesha town of MaalehRehavam learned that officials were headed to post eviction orders on its doors. Families in Maaleh Rehavam - a small outpost community in eastern Gush Etzion - were surprised to note this morning that Civil Administration officials were on their way to post eviction orders on their homes. Of the 30 residents, including five families, five are in Lebanon after having been called up on...

An Afghan village elder, points to a footprint of an extremist who burned the Neizi Kran Shaku Village School on July 17 in the Parwan Province, Bagram District. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Robert R. Ramon Extremists Destroy Afghan School Village vows to continue children's education after extremists burn their school. By Army Staff Sgt. Robert R. Ramon 345th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 18, 2006-- Extremists destroyed a school in the Bagram District, Parwan Province on July 17. "We were very angry. Since they burned the school I haven't been able to sleep at...

Soldiers Destroy Terrorist Safe-route Soldiers launch operation to eliminate an escape route for terrorists. By U.S. Army Spc. Edgar Reyes 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, July 17, 2006 -- For U.S. Army soldiers from the 73rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, blowing stuff up is routine business. When they get to use their detonation abilities to deny terrorists freedom of movement with the confiscated explosives of the week, it takes their jobs to a whole new level.Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat...

KARABILAH, Iraq (July 7, 2006) -- Thanks to the work of Marines and Iraqi Security Forces, 800 elementary-aged girls will now have a school to attend this fall. Marines from 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment unveiled a brand-new grade school in this city of about 30,000 on the Iraq-Syria border in western Al Anbar Province July 7. About one week before its opening, insurgents planted an improvised explosive device inside the school which would have leveled a good portion of the building, destroying nearly three months of work by Marines and locals, said Gunnery Sgt. Joseph S. Mallicoat, team leader...

Biggest concern is human and dog waste contained in a trench, Forest Service says... Between 300 and 500 people remain in Big Red Park this week after the mass exodus of people from the Rainbow Gathering in Medicine Bow/Routt County National Forest. The Forest Service is working with these people this week to develop the environmental rehabilitation process, after an estimated 15,000 people attended the annual event. So far, approximately 600 citations have been distributed by the Forest Service for camping and parking violations. The Forest Service’s biggest concern regarding the rehabilitation is the human and dog waste, which is...

The rich smell of Indian spices wafted along the road. Voices babbled in Urdu and Sylheti, a Bangladeshi dialect that my own family speak. Thick-bearded men in robes strolled the streets and youngsters wore their jeans rolled above the ankle after leaving the mosque, as Muslim custom requires. I felt both at home and in a foreign land. This could almost be an Asian city, I thought, rather than Beeston, the suburb of Leeds where two of the July 7 bombers had lived. I had come to gauge the mood of the community after the 7/7 attacks, which struck London...

Fiber-optic cables used for high-speed Internet services are being severed by crows playing with the wires and using them for nesting material and perhaps as a form of stress relief, a phenomenon that increases with the breeding season.

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2006 – Coalition forces destroyed a truck used by terrorists to attack a patrol base southwest of Baghdad and uncovered multiple weapons caches last week, U.S. military officials reported. Four terrorists fired two 82 mm mortar rounds at the patrol base June 6. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, engaged the terrorists, wounding one. Coalition forces discovered a sniper scope, a complete 82 mm mortar system, several rifles, satchels containing unidentifiable ordnance, and two racks with four AK-47 magazines in the terrorists' truck. The vehicle was destroyed to prevent...

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2006 – Iraqi police and coalition forces killed an insurgent in Samarra, Iraq, yesterday, and U.S. soldiers destroyed two weapons caches, U.S. military officials said. U.S. soldiers from the 978th Military Police Battalion were on a combined patrol with Samarra police when three insurgents started shooting at them from a sedan. The patrol returned fire, killing one of the occupants and disabling the car. The other two insurgents fled on foot. An artillery round was found in the vehicle. Samarra authorities confiscated both the shell and the car. In other news, coalition forces located and destroyed a...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, May 16, 2006) – The 506th Regimental Combat Team discovered a huge weapons cache today in the New Baghdad neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. During Operation Roll tide, a combined effort between elements from 6th Battalion, 2nd Brigade Iraqi National Police, and Soldiers from Company D, 3rd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, uncovered a huge weapons cache of land mines, rockets, explosives and documents. In one home the unit found more than 140 mines, 58 blocks of C4 explosives, 18 rockets and almost 40 mortars, as well as manuals and equipment to convert these munitions...

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2006 – Coalition forces killed more than a dozen enemy fighters in Afghanistan's Helmand province and, in joint operations with Afghan forces, destroyed weapons caches in Kabul, Kunar and Ghazni provinces April 29, military officials reported today. A coalition patrol saw 15 to 20 men carrying AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers moving with the apparent intent to set up an ambush, officials said. After positively determining the activity as enemy operations and confirming no civilians were in the vicinity, the patrol engaged and killed the enemy fighters. Coalition forces reported no casualties or damage. "Afghan armed...

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe. You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world. Fools. The Earth was built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily.

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2006 – Afghan and coalition forces killed a senior Taliban commander April 6 and destroyed a Taliban district headquarters this morning in a series of ongoing offensive operations in southern Afghanistan, military officials there said. A joint coalition force killed the senior Taliban commander in the Musa Qaleh District in northern Helmand Province. The commander was tied directly to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks that killed and crippled multiple Afghans since 2001. He also was responsible for the deaths of Afghan and Coalition soldiers, officials said. We "effectively disrupted the command and control of Taliban fighters...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, April 6, 2006 – Coalition forces destroyed a rocket pointed at a forward operating base in Ghazni province today. Residents advised Afghan National Army soldiers of the rocket, in the province's Ghazni district. The ANA forces informed their coalition counterparts, who dispatched an explosive ordnance disposal team to the scene and destroyed the munition in place. In a separate incident, also in Ghazni district, a village elder reported the location of a mortar round to Afghan National Police officers who recovered the round and delivered it to coalition forces. An EOD team will destroy it at a...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2006 – Iraqi and U.S. soldiers captured a terrorist cell leader, and more weapons caches have been found and destroyed, military officials reported. Officials at Forward Operation Base Kalsu said soldiers from 4th Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, conducted the main assault effort to capture the terrorist March 26 in the town of Haswa, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. U.S. soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, provided outer cordon security, officials said. The suspected cell leader and six others were captured. No...

CAMP MERCURY, Iraq (Feb. 25, 2006) -- Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Edward looked at the stacks of unearthed munitions and shook his head in disbelief. “We’re going to need more C-4,” Edward said. The 29-year-old explosive ordnance disposal technician with Mobile Unit 3, Detachment 9, 8th Engineer Support Battalion was witness to the largest weapons cache discovery made by Marines from L Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, since they arrived in Iraq nearly a month ago. The weapons are commonly used against Marines and Iraqi Security Forces in improvised explosive devices. The company made the find during...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Feb. 27, 2006) – Acting on a tip from an Iraqi citizen, a team from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s 53rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company stopped a potential threat Friday by finding and disposing of an MK-84 bomb near a mosque south of Al Hillah. Due to the bomb’s location near the religious shrine, the team had no other choice than to burn the bomb in place as a last resort, officials said. They said the team was able to do this without any damage to the mosque, Iraqi citizens or MND – B Soldiers. Elsewhere, Soldiers...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert wrote to President Bush on Tuesday asking for a moratorium on an Arab company's takeover of operations at six major U.S. seaports.