Today's Headlines from Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes, the U.S. Military's Independent News Source: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Top headlines from Stars and Stripes. See the rest of today's news at www.stripes.com Mom fights to be buried with soldier son Denise Anderson lost her only son in the Iraq war. She's determined not to lose her fight to be buried with him in a national veterans cemetery. Obama vows to use nation's power to thwart terrorists President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to use "every element of our national power" to keep Americans safe and said the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner was "a serious reminder" of the need to continually adapt security measures against changing terrorist threats. Confusion fills the skies after attempted bombing On some flights on Monday, passengers were told to keep their hands visible and not to listen to iPods. Even babies were frisked. But on other planes, security appeared no tighter than usual. Military working to unleash laser weapons The military is inching closer to using laser weapons on the battlefield after recent tests in which lasers were used to shoot down a drone aircraft and were fired from an airplane to damage a vehicle on the ground. 2009, as seen by Stars and Stripes' photographers A look back at some of the year's top images from Europe, the Mideast, the Pacific and stateside. USS Cole bombing survivor dies in Florida home U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool lost his left foot when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of the USS Cole nearly a decade ago, but the injury was nothing compared with the mental torment that ravaged him almost daily. Obama: U.S. intel had info ahead of airliner attack President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the intelligence community had bits of information that should have been pieced together that would have triggered "red flags" and possibly prevented the Christmas Day attempted terror attack on a Detroit-bound airliner. Security tight for flights into U.S. after foiled attack Airports and airlines in Europe have taken steps —in some cases, drastic measures — to beef up security following last week's thwarted bombing attempt of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit. Standoff over base closure sours U.S.-Japan ties When the U.S. took over a Japanese airfield here in the closing days of World War II, it was surrounded by sugarcane fields and the smoldering battlegrounds of Okinawa. It is now the focus of a deepening dispute that is testing Japan's security alliance with the United States and dividing its new government in Tokyo.
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