Death Toll for the American Military in Iraq in 2005 Is 844

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 31 - At least 844 American service members were killed in Iraq in 2005, nearly matching 2004's total of 848, and the number of service members wounded in 2005 was significantly higher than in the previous year, according to information released by the United States government and a nonprofit organization that tracks casualties in Iraq.

In historical terms, the number of casualties in Iraq is still relatively small. At the height of the Vietnam War, the American military was sustaining 500 killed and wounded each week. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916, about 58,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded on the first day.

New York's Subways and Buses Operating on Normal Schedules

Subways and buses operated on normal schedules, taxis used their meters instead of charging by zones, and the morning rush returned to normal today as the transit union completed 24 hours back on the job.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had restored full subway and bus service by midmorning - much to the relief of the users of a system that provides 7.2 million rides a day.

"I feel very happy; it went on too long and it cost me too much of a hassle, and a lot of money," said Madhad Abbas, 49, who manages a restaurant in lower Manhattan and had to take $16 ferry rides to get to work during the strike. "I don't get an increase in salary every three years like they do."

This afternoon, an official involved in the talks acknowledged that the union and the transit authority were bargaining on health benefits and trying to reach an understanding on various lesser issues. The official spoke on condition that he not be identified because both sides have agreed to refrain from publicly discussing negotiations, as demanded by state mediators.

The return of public transit overnight meant the end of shared cab rides, in which taxis charged a flat fee of $10 or $20 per passenger; schools starting on time instead of two hours late; the demise of 3:30 a.m. traffic jams as commuters rushed into Manhattan before 5 a.m. carpool rules took effect; and the resumption of alternate-side parking rules.

The abrupt return of workers on Thursday - many strikers simply laid down their placards and walked into the buildings they had been picketing - capped a day of fast-moving developments in a labor showdown that just a day before seemed headed for an intractable and ugly stalemate.

Despite the end of the strike, a final settlement of the dispute remains to be reached.

Officials have previously hinted that in exchange for the union's ending the strike, the authority would significantly scale back or even abandon its insistence on less-generous pensions for future workers. In return, the union would consider having its members pay more for health insurance.

Transit Union Walkout Follows Collapse of Contract Talks

The transit workers' union ordered a strike this morning, shutting down New York City's subway and bus system after contract talks with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke down - a disruption that will prevent people from going to work, cause millions of dollars in economic damage and seriously upend the life of the city in the week before Christmas.

Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, which represents 33,700 subway and bus workers, announced its first strike in 25 years after feverish last-minute negotiations faltered over the transportation authority's demands for concessions on pension and health benefits for future employees.

The state's Taylor Law bars strikes by public employees and carries penalties of two days' pay for each day on strike, but the transit union decided it was worth risking the substantial fines to continue the fight for what it regards as an acceptable contract.

Across the city this morning, New York City Transit began to safely shut down the subways and buses, line by line. About 5,000 managers and supervisors, a fraction of the 47,000 workers, will remain on the job to maintain the system during the strike.

Yesterday, work trains, including trains that collect trash and transport money and normally begin their runs between 8 and 10 p.m., were ordered out of service. General orders, which alter service so that tracks can be used for construction work, were suspended.

The transit agency plans to store the majority of the 6,300 subway cars underground, one next to another, to protect them from the elements. Supervisors will run empty trains over the rails to keep them polished and prevent rust.

At Least 19 Killed In Plane Crash Off Miami Beach

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A seaplane carrying 20 people crashed into the water off Miami Beach Monday afternoon, killing 19 people, authorities said. The other person has not been found.

Nineteen bodies were recovered after the Chalk's Ocean Airways propeller plane crashed around 2:30 p.m. after takeoff en route to Bimini in the Bahamas, Coast Guard officials said. Two crew were aboard along with 18 passengers, including three infants.
Sandy Rodriguez, 14, said he saw the plane flying low with white smoke trailing from it and flames coming from the bottom. The right wing then fell off as the plane went down behind a condominium tower on Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, he said.

"It exploded in the air and one of the wings flew out of there. The other part of the plane was on fire and it just went straight down," said Maurice D'Giovianni, 42, a surfer who was in the water at the time.

Warr also saw the crash from the Coast Guard office on Government Cut.

"Everything looked normal, I saw the aircraft take off like it does every other times. I didn't think anything of it when I saw the black smoke from the pier, until I then heard the Coast Guard alarms go off," he said.

The twin-engine Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard was headed to Bimini and was operating under visual flight rules, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate.

Footage from Chopper 6 showed a debris field in Government Cut, the channel that cargo and cruise ships take past South Beach into the Port of Miami, which was closed because of the crash. Three cruise ships were stuck in the port.

Coast Guard officials and emergency workers wearing protective suits hauled bodies up from rescue boats. Law enforcement speedboats, divers and helicopters were in the area doing searches. They were joined by others in private boats, on personal watercraft and on surfboards.

NBC 6's Amara Sohn spoke with a woman who said she had family on board the plane.

"The flight was going to Bimini," she said. "The only thing that we know was that something happened after takeoff. My father-in-law and my nephew were on that plane."

Cheney Cites Progress During Surprise Visit to Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 18 - Vice President Dick Cheney, taking a look for himself at the country he once predicted would greet Americans as liberators, made a surprise visit to Iraq today, and proclaimed that last week's election showed tangible progress toward a stable democracy.

After arriving in Baghdad amid great secrecy this morning, Mr. Cheney hop-scotched around Iraq for nine hours under intense security. He got a briefing from the senior American officials in Baghdad, met with Iraq's leaders, got a first-hand look at newly trained Iraqi forces and spoke to United States military personnel.

It was Mr. Cheney's first trip to Iraq as vice president, and upon touching down here, he became the highest-ranking American official to visit since President Bush's stop here on Thanksgiving 2003. As defense secretary in 1991, Mr. Cheney traveled to southern Iraq immediately after the Persian Gulf war.

Mr. Cheney's dramatic visit today came three days after 11 million Iraqis went to the polls to elect a Parliament. Mr. Cheney's trip gave him a chance to deliver a preholiday thank you to American troops and to focus attention on the progress that Iraqis are making toward self-governance and providing their own security.

The trip also kicked off a day of extraordinary effort by the White House to turn the page from how and why the United States went to war to the administration's case that the struggle to put Iraq on sound footing is making headway. Mr. Bush is to make a nationally televised address on the war from the Oval Office tonight.

"Each one of you is helping to write a proud chapter in the history of freedom," Mr. Cheney told one gathering of American troops.

In Speech, Bush Says He Ordered Domestic Spying

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 - President Bush acknowledged on Saturday that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."

In an unusual step, Mr. Bush delivered a live weekly radio address from the White House in which he defended his action as "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities." He also lashed out at senators - both Democrats and Republicans - who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance, with warrants, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.


This is the kind of thing that makes me proud of our President. He's more of a leader than any Democrat could ever wish to be.

Clemency Denied!

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday refused to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution after midnight in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row.

Schwarzenegger was unswayed by pleas from Hollywood stars and petitions from more than 50,000 people who said that Williams had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and children's books about the dangers of gangs.

"After studying the evidence, searching the history, listening to the arguments and wrestling with the profound consequences, I could find no justification for granting clemency," Schwarzenegger said, less than 12 hours before the execution. "The facts do not justify overturning the jury's verdict or the decisions of the courts in this case."

Excellent choice Mr. Governor. We knew you'd make the right decision. Gang violence should always be treated with the most severe sentence possible. That's all there is to it.

Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chief of naval operations, wants to reverse years of decline in shipbuilding.

Navy to Expand Fleet With New Enemies in Mind

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Navy wants to increase its fleet to 313 ships by 2020, reversing years of decline in naval shipbuilding and adding dozens of warships designed to defeat emerging adversaries, senior Defense Department officials say.

The plan by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who took over as chief of naval operations last summer, envisions a major shipbuilding program that would increase the 281-ship fleet by 32 vessels and cost more than $13 billion a year, $3 billion more than the current shipbuilding budget, the officials said Friday.

While increasing the fleet size is popular with influential members of Congress, the plan faces various obstacles, including questions about whether it is affordable in light of ballooning shipbuilding costs and whether the mix of vessels is suitable to deal with emerging threats, like China's expanding navy.

"We are at a crisis in shipbuilding," a senior Navy official said. "If we don't start building this up next year and the next year and the next year, we won't have the force we need." The officials would not agree to be identified because the plan had not been made public or described to members of Congress.

The Navy's fleet reached its cold war peak of 568 warships in 1987 and has been steadily shrinking since then. Admiral Mullen's proposal would reverse that, expanding the fleet to as many as 325 ships over the next decade, with new ships put into service before some older vessels are retired, and finally settling at 313 between 2015 and 2020.

Bush's Speech on Iraq War Echoes Voice of an Analyst

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - There could be no doubt about the theme of President Bush's Iraq war strategy speech on Wednesday at the Naval Academy. He used the word victory 15 times in the address; "Plan for Victory" signs crowded the podium he spoke on; and the word heavily peppered the accompanying 35-page National Security Council document titled, "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

Although White House officials said many federal departments had contributed to the document, its relentless focus on the theme of victory strongly reflected a new voice in the administration: Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who joined the N.S.C. staff as a special adviser in June and has closely studied public opinion on the war.

Despite the president's oft-stated aversion to polls, Dr. Feaver was recruited after he and Duke colleagues presented the administration with an analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004. They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believed it would ultimately succeed.