Approximately 20 medically evacuated personnel from Haiti and USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) arrived on board USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Jan. 21 and the medical team activated the ship's walking blood bank. Volunteer Sailors on board make up the walking blood bank. Those Sailors are willing to provide blood in the event of a mass casualty or other medical emergency. The medical team put the call out over the ship's announcing system for A-negative and O- negative blood types. Medical team members initially triaged the patients whose injuries range from abdominal pain to fractures.

Angola's main opposition party has walked out of parliament to protest a new constitution that expands the powers of the presidency.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders has appeared in an Amsterdam court on charges of incitement and discrimination against Muslims for his comments about Islam and for an anti-Muslim film he made.  The trial in the Netherlands is being closely watched around the world, because it pits the right to free speech against religious freedom and freedom against persecution. The defendant is Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose remarks against Islam and Muslims, and his anti-Islamic movie, Fitna, have offended many Muslims around the world. At the Amsterdam courthouse where he went on tr

The U.S. Geological Survey says the new quake, which shook Haiti just after sunrise Wednesday, was centered about 35 miles northwest of the capital Port au Prince. It was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks following the January 12th quake. There have been no reports of injuries from the new quake. Meantime, relief efforts continue in the aftermath of last week's earthquake, which killed an estimated 200,000 people.

The Afghan national army's 2nd Kandak completed a successful mission at Forward Operating Base Sperwan Ghar, Jan. 13. Soldiers patrolled through villages near the FOB and checked compounds for insurgents and explosive devices that could harm civilians or coalition forces. "We received intelligence on enemy activity around the area," said ANA Capt. Shafi Feela. "We planned a two-day mission to sweep through the villages and find any enemies or enemy equipment." ANA and ISAF soldiers found a number of IEDs.

An Afghan-international security force searched a compound in the village of Qal-eh-ye-Bara, in the Qarah Bagh District of Ghazni province. During the operation the joint force responded to an imminent threat and killed insurgents and captured another. In Kandahar today, a joint security force stopped a vehicle near Maiwand village in the Maiwand District. While searching the vehicle and a nearby compound, the Afghan-international security force found three men, including one with fragmentation wounds he was unable to explain, who were attempting to bury a handheld radio.

The 2010 Camp Pendleton Rifle and Pistol Intramural Matches culminated with an award ceremony held at the Camp Horno range complex, Jan. 15.

The event was organized by the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Operations and Training marksmanship training branch and included the participation of 42 Marines from various units on base.

When disaster struck Haiti, relief and humanitarian agencies around the world quickly looked to see if they could locate ways to provide a clean water supply among other basic life necessities. Jan. 18, members of 3/405th Army Field Support Brigade (AFSB) were quickly putting together pallets of humanitarian aid support of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) U.S.