WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2010 – Defense Department officials are coordinating with their State Department counterparts to provide life-saving assistance in Haiti as quickly as possible after a devastating earthquake struck near the capital of Port-au-Prince yesterday afternoon.  U.S. Southern Command is coordinating with the State Department and U.S.

Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Marine Battalion Landing Team-3-with assistance from Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines-treated 135 patients and 31 farm animals in Barangay (community) Asin, located in the Panamao municipality Jan.

KEY FIELD, Miss. (1/12/10) – Mississippi Air National Guardsmen showcased a new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform training facility here Jan. 9 for the director of the Air National Guard. "Project Liberty is the Air Force's new ISR platform," said Lt. Col. Rick Berryhill, the facility's spokesman at the 186th Air Refueling Wing.

Retired New York cop, female Alabama judge get a dose of reality. Spoiler: The retired detective has just learned the ugly truth about New York City gun laws.

The U.N.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Tuesday that the government will spend billions of dollars this year to rebuild infrastructure in the war-shattered north and east. He also is offering to consider political demands of the minority Tamil community, such as power sharing-arrangements in parliament and greater autonomy in Tamil dominated areas.    The promise comes just days after the president visited Jaffna in the north -- the heartland of the Tamils.  The government has taken other steps, in recent weeks, to improve conditions for Tamil civilians, who were affected by the military cam

Venezuela has sent a formal letter of protest to the United States, alleging a U.S. military plane violated Venezuelan airspace last week after taking off from the nearby Netherlands Antilles.  The Venezuelan government Monday presented the formal protest to U.S. diplomats in Caracas.  The U.S. denies the accusation. Late last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept what he said was a U.S. P-3 aircraft over his country.  He said the American plane twice entered his country's airspace from the Netherlands Antilles. Washington has said the U.S.

ISAF forces did not open fire on civilians in Garmsir District as claimed in a report from the Chinese wire service Xinhua. As noted in our previous press release, during today's protest an insurgent sniper shot an Afghan official who was within Forward Operating Base Dehili. ISAF service members identified the insurgent sniper, shot and killed him. There were no other injuries or shots fired by ISAF forces. Local ISAF task force leadership in Garmsir District have been invited to participate with the District Governor and Chief of Police in a shura, Jan. 13.

In an early morning operation yesterday in the Now Zad area of Helmand province, ISAF forces witnessed a large number of insurgents near a safe house preparing ammunition and observed insurgent mortar teams moving equipment. An unmanned aerial vehicle launched one Hellfire missile killing 13 insurgents. There are no reports of civilian casualties or damage to residential compounds. In another operation yesterday, three insurgents with weapons were killed after they took up previously used firing positions in the Nad Ali district, Helmand.