Japan and the United States are mulling a joint military drill to simulate retaking a remote island from foreign forces, reports said, amid a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing over disputed islets.

The exercise, part of broader joint manoeuvres to start in early November, would use an uninhabited island in Okinawa, southernmost Japan, Jiji Press and Kyodo News agencies quoted unidentified sources as saying on Saturday.

The drill would involve Japanese and US troops making an amphibious and airborne landing to retake the island using boats and helicopters, Kyodo said.

Japan and China have long been at loggerheads over the sovereignty of rocky outcrops in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China.

The Tokyo-administered island chain is uninhabited, but is thought to be sitting on top of valuable resources.

The dispute flared in August and September with landings by nationalists from both sides and the subsequent nationalisation of the islands by Tokyo.

The exercise would reportedly use the uninhabited island of Irisunajima. The tiny island, used as a firing range for US forces, is also in the East China Sea but hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the disputed island chain.

Jiji said some Japanese and US government officials were cautious about holding the drill, fearing a likely angry response from China.

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Most people know the intrepid, and let's just say it totally ballsy, Chuck Yeager strapped himself into a plane with more engine than wings and successfully exceeded the speed of sound on October 14, 1947.

What is less well known is that Yeager only got the chance to make the flight because Bell Aircraft's test pilot refused the offer, without an accompanying $150,000.

Yaeger could have cared less about the money, and jumped at the flight aboard Bell's X-1 that promised to hurl him through the air faster than any human ever before.

Yaeger lived for speed, whether planes, cars, or horses and two nights before the Bell flight he fell from his favorite mount and broke two ribs.

He was so concerned he'd be scratched from the flight that he went to a distant veterinarian for medical treatment and told only his wife and best friend what happened.

Broken ribs hurt, a lot, and Yaeger was in so much pain he couldn't seal the X-1's hatch without help from a broomstick his buddy had rigged up beforehand.

That round of discomfort must have paled to what all that G-Force did to him as the X-1 reached a top speed of Mach 1.07.

We ran these photos early last summer, but in honor of Yeager's 65-year flight anniversary and, Felix Baumgartner, who will attempt to break Mach I without any aircraft at all today, we thought we'd run them again.

This F/A-18F Super Hornet flew over visitors aboard the USS Kitty Hawk and stunned everyone with a supersonic demo

Air doesn't move fast enough to flow out of the way and builds into a wall around the plane...

Read more here.

If the temperature and humidity is right, water in the air condenses into a cloud like a white halo

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More worrisome signs are emerging of deteriorating economic conditions in Iran. Here are some of the latest news quotes:

1. Crude output is slowing.

NYT: - Daily oil production in Iran, the most important component of its economy, fell in September to the weakest level in nearly a quarter-century, according to monthly data released on Friday by the International Energy Agency. The agency forecast declines in Iran’s ability to produce oil for years to come if Western sanctions were not lifted

2. Trade in general has come under severe pressure. This is likely having a terrible impact on the population, particularly the poor.

Reuters: - Data from maritime intelligence publisher IHS Fairplay showed the overall number of vessels calling at Iranian ports in the year to early October was 980. That figure for more than three quarters of this year compares with 2,740 ships for the whole of 2011 and 3,407 for 2010.

Of that total, the number of visits by container ships - which carry consumer goods ranging from foodstuffs and household items to clothing and toys - was 86 so far this year, compared with 273 for the whole of 2011 and 378 in 2010.

...

Only eight refrigerated cargo vessels carrying fresh produce including bananas called at Iranian ports so far this year, down from 16 in 2011 and 36 in 2010, the IHS Fairplay data showed. Even fishing trawlers unloading their catch have slumped to five from 14 last year and 20 in 2010.

3. We are beginning to see the first signs of social unrest. But given the brutality with which the authorities are likely to respond, the protests have been largely subdued.

The Telegraph: - Economic hardship has triggered the first street protests in Iran for three years as Tehran struggles to cope with UN, US and EU measures imposed to punish the country for violating resolutions restricting its nuclear programme. Western officials believe that sanctions have put the regime under pressure. "There has been a wider effect on the economy and that affects people and businesses."

In a rare public concession that the regime was struggling with the sanctions, Ayatollah Khamenei decried the measures this week. "These sanctions are barbaric," he said. "This is a war against a nation. But the Iranian nation will defeat them."

4. Foreign firms are exiting Iran to avoid losing business with Western nations.

Reuters: - Iran has faced an exodus of international companies providing marine-related services including certification of its fleet, which is vital for securing insurance and ports access. Earlier this year, sanctions pressure also led to the near collapse of an Iranian-led shipping venture with an Indian firm.

5. Auto production is declining sharply.

NYT: - On Thursday, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported a 42 percent drop in automotive production in the past six months compared with the same period a year earlier, without providing an explanation. But the rial’s severe drop has made imports of auto parts far more expensive. Last February, Peugeot, the French automaker that is a partner of Iran Khodro, Iran’s leading domestic automaker, withdrew from the country because of the strengthened Western sanctions.

6. The EU is about to impose harsher sanctions that will be focused among other things on financial transactions.

WSJ: - European firms will be banned from contracting any ships to transport Iranian oil—even if they are from outside the bloc. There will be a ban on marine equipment sales and European firms will be prohibited from constructing oil tankers for Iran.

But the most effective measures may be in the financial sector. Even for trade that is still allowed, there will be tight thresholds on transactions with Iranian banks that can go ahead without authorization.

The level of the threshold will depend on the sector, with humanitarian trade in food and medicines having a ceiling of €100,000. But for many other items, any tr ansaction over €10,000 with an Iranian bank will need pre-approval, diplomats said.

7. There are stories of increased tensions within the Iranian government, although so far there isn't much evidence to substantiate such claims. A rift within the government could trigger wider, potentially violent internal conflicts (as discussed here).

NBC: - [A Western intelligence] official told NBC News there are some signs of “tension within the Iranian regime” over the issue.

"We’ve picked up some small signs of wavering on the nuclear policy," the official, who did not want to be named, said. "But I don’t want to exaggerate it."

This situation needs to get resolved soon. One can only hope these events do not result in a massive humanitarian crisis, because the current situation has all the makings of one.

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Via @BuzzFeedSports:

Read up on Felix Baumgartner >

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Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped from 24 miles above Earth today.

By doing this, the 43-year-old from Austria became the first person to break the speed of sound wearing only a high-pressure suit.  

A top speed of 833.9 mph, or mach 1.24 was reached. 

"I could feel myself break the speed of sound. I could feel the air building up and then I hit it," Baumgartner said according to the Red Bull Stratos Twitter feed.  

The landmark jump comes 65 years to the day after U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a rocket plane.

Baumgartner shattered three other world records: highest manned balloon flight, highest altitude jump and the fastest free fall.  

The latter two milestones were first set by former Air Force test pilot Joseph Kittinger in 1960, who served as Baumgartner's mentor throughout five years of meticulous preparation. 

Baumgartner did not set a new record for the longest free fall. Kittinger still holds onto that title with his free fall of 4 minutes and 36 seconds. The Austrian 's free fall only lasted 4 minutes and 19 seconds.  

There were a couple of scares during the skydiver's fall to Earth. He went into a flat spin shortly after jumping from the space capsule platform. Then, the heat plate in his face visor wasn't working. That caused his helmet to fog up.  

But after tumbling through the atmosphere, Baumgartner deployed his parachute and safely plopped down onto the New Mexican desert. He swiftly dropped to his knees and threw up his arms in victory.

It was a nail-biting two-hour ride to the stratosphere; the Austrian made it back home in less than 10 minutes.  

Here's all the preliminary data from the jump:  

Altitude reached: 128,097 feet

Total time from jump to landing: 9 min. 3 seconds

Freefall duration: 4 min. 19 seconds

Top speed:  833.9 mph

SEE ALSO

• How To Jump From The Edge Of Space And Survive
• Terrifying Videos Of Skydiving Accidents 

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When the first of October rolled in a couple of weeks ago it reminded many of us that summer was really over. Forget Labor Day and September 21, the first day of fall; October is changing leaves, pumpkins, and Halloween.

Unfortunately that routine awareness was lost to three members of the North Carolina National Guard who were killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, at about 9 a.m. that morning, as they made their way through an open air market.

The deaths passed largely unnoticed by Americans outside the military, but what caught global attention is Sgt. Donna R. Johnson's wife and the fact that the Army refuses to acknowledge her very much at all.

Gannett-owned Army Times is taking the brunt of the protest, but the Times only followed the AP's lead, when it mentioned the other two male soldiers killed were survived by wives, while failing to mention Johnson's wife Tracy Dice.

Readers who knew Sgt. Johnson expressed their outrage in the comments section of the story and asked why the woman, who was legally married just like the two men, couldn't have her surviving spouse mentioned as well.

Journalism pundit Jim Romenesko wondered the same thing, after being alerted to the lapse by one of his readers, and shot off an email to AP asking what was up. Then, on October 6 the AP wrote an entirely new story and The Army Times posted it to their site Sunday October 7.

Those details did little, however, to appease commenters on the Times original post who shed much light on what's left in the wake of Don't Ask, Don't Tell's (DADT) repeal.

It turns out that even though a servicemember can legally marry in a state of their choice and be recognized by law, the service denies same-sex spouses a long list of lucrative and fundamental privileges.

The Defense of Marriage Act enforces discrimination right where Don't Ask, Don't Tell left off — causing a whole different type of damage.

What that Defense of Marriage Act also means to Tracy Dice is:

• She could never use the commissary to do the grocery shopping where food is marked just 5 percent above wholesale.
• Tracy was never covered under Johnson's Tricare medical insurance.
• She and Sgt. Johnson never received the Basic Allowance for Housing stipend essential to many male-female couples in securing housing.
• She couldn't go to base-sponsored picnics and events.
• She couldn't get any assistance with relocating with her wife to a new duty station, including overseas.
• Once at a new base Tracy would not have qualified for employment or education assistance.
• She did not qualify for free legal service.
• If she were ever a victim of spousal abuse and the 'survivor' effects of PTSD, she could not go to family advocacy or spousal abuse centers.
• She will not receive any of Johnson's survivor benefits.

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The Iranian Revolutionary Guards has floated the idea of creating a vast oil spill in the Strait of Hormuz to block the vital shipping lane, Erich Follath of Der Spiegel reports. 

The "top secret" plan, reportedly obtained by Western intelligence officials, would be aimed at forcing the West to join Iran in a large-scale cleanup that would potentially require a temporary suspension of the biting sanctions against Tehran.

Follath notes that Iran derives more than half of its government revenue from oil exports, which have dropped from about 2.4 million barrels a day in July 2011 to 1 million in July 2012. 

But Iran has reduced oil production by less than a quarter, leading to its mainland storage tanks becoming full and forcing them to haul 40 million barrels of oil through the Gulf around the clock on 15 supertankers and smaller ships. 

Iran now disguises the tankers, as The New York Times reported in July, which increases the risk of accidents.

The supposed Revolutionary Guard plan, code-named "Murky Water," involves steering one of the supertankers onto a rock—thereby forcing the International Compensation Fund for Oil Pollution Damage to intervene financially, the West to temporarily lifting  the sanctions so that Iranian authorities could provide technical assistance with the decontamination effort, and possibly leading to Revolutionary Guards-owned oil companies to profit from the cleanup program.

A secondary consequence of the plan would be to "punish" Arab countries hostile to Iran by temporarily shutting down the fishing industry in addition to blocking the delivery of one-fifth of the world's oil.

Follath reports that the "Murky Water" sabotage plan is presumably being considered by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Reuters reports that on Monday the EU agreed to a new round of major sanctions against Iran.

SEE ALSO: The US Navy And Allies Showed Iran Who Really Controls The Strait Of Hormuz >

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Most of the weapons being sent from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Syrian rebels are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists as opposed to secular opposition groups that the West wants to strengthen, American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats told David Sanger of the New York Times.   

In 2011 the U.S. sold $33.4 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and $1.7 billion to Qatar as sales tripled to a record high and accounted for nearly 78 percent of all global arms sales.

So although the U.S. is not sending arms directly to rebels, most of the weapons being sent by Saudi Arabia and Qatar were purchased from the U.S. and are being funneled to the opposition by the CIA.

“The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” one American official familiar with the situation told the New York Times.

But if the U.S. may not have much of a choice if it wants to see Assad fall because a pro-opposition Middle Eastern diplomat told Senger that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has "failed to assemble a clear military plan, [lacks] a coherent blueprint for governing Syria afterward if the Assad government fell, and [quarrels] too often among themselves" while the Islamist rebel brigades are the best rebel fighters and recently decided to join forces.

A March article by the Brookings Institution noted that "a key step" for U.S. or allied-armed opposition victory would be to make the opposition "more coherent" before arming them.

Without that initial coherence, arming the opposition has led to reports of "Islamist rebels buying weapons in large quantities and then burying them in caches, to be used after the collapse of the Assad government," as Sanger notes.

Consequently, as we noted last week and American officials now acknowledge, the successful toppling of Assad may lead to armed and organized brigades of jihadist rebels competing for influence in the power vacuum that Syria would become.

SEE ALSO: Syria Is Looking At A Complete Free-For-All If The Assad Regime Falls >

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Many called the world wide web a 'democratizing force' when it hit mainstream use in the late 80s and 90s, but it could be just the force to bring the US to its knees in the coming years.

Many prominent experts and diplomats, including just days ago Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, have whistled warnings on the danger of cyber attacks to American infrastructure.

Recently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology publication Technology Review detailed how aging 'un-patched' American systems are particularly vulnerable to attacks.

Tom Simonite, staff writer at MIT Tech Review, said the reasons for the vulnerabilities were simple: whereas consumers of personal computing installed constant updates to protect against identity theft, public works systems developed a tendency to favor 'reliability' over cutting edge software tech.

The adherence to "whatever [software] keeps the lights on" puts these companies, and American infrastructure, at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to dealing with hackers — Simonite basically says some of these software systems haven't been updated since their initiation.

Furthermore, these companies' networks are not sheltered from the web for one simple reason: satellite staff.

"It could be a power engineer who wants to manage a substation without driving through the snow," Roy Campbell, critical-infrastructure systems researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Simonite. So systems that might otherwise run without access to the web have been exposed in order to facilitate hires that may work outside a commutable radius.

Campbell broke it down even further, describing how the nature of old power grids often isolates certain districts. If those districts were to suffer an attack, then it would take power to get them back online, but if there's only one supply route, and it's been compromised, then those areas could be out for days.

Turning off local water, electric, or chemical plants would have immediate effect, and short term effect of "loss of life," according to Panetta. To imagine the loss of life, one only needs to think about what would happen in an urban environment if the water stopped running.

Until recently, hackers have been a bit more focused on breaching the security of major companies in order to steal identities and potentially profitable bits of information, or they've been focused on embarrassing and denigrating political targets.

With the advent of the Stuxnet virus, the U.S. and Western countries have seen an increase in attention to their infrastructure vulnerabilities. Indeed, Israel reports that they repel daily cyber assaults from Iran's newly raised 'cyber corps.'

In the web arena, countries like Iran and China don't need to foot massive defense bills to compete with the U.S. — all they need is a computer and a modem.

As a response to the threat, Congress and the Obama administration have put forward a number of resolutions, but none thus far have seemed to stick.

NOW SEE: Iran Hackers Targeted Saudi Oil Companies >

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The Westboro Baptists were up to no good Saturday at a funeral for Army Sgt. Donna Johnson in North Carolina when they attempted to stomp the American flag in front of a group of vets.

In the amateur cell phone videos posted below, a soldier can be seen running out from the crowd to subdue one of the Westboro Baptists during an attempt to deface the American flag.

The soldier is quickly hauled away by police, but witnesses of the event have reported that two other soldiers ran up to retrieve the flag during the scuffle.

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The Pakistani Taliban have reacted to the torrent of negative media coverage after their attempt to assassinate a 14-year-old schoolgirl by threatening journalists.

Several Pakistani and international news organisations have been forced in recent days to take extra security precautions after receiving threats from militants that one news executive described as "specific" and directed against named individuals.

A journalist in Swat, the region where the attack on Malala Yousafzai took place, has even been given police guards after receiving a written warning saying police had "credible information that you are on the hit list of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat".

Coverage of the attempted killing, which the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were quick to take credit for, has been unrelenting.

"Undoubtedly this is the worst press the TTP has ever had, there is no doubt," said Rana Jawad, Islamabad bureau chief at Geo News, who believed Pakistani media coverage had been "sustained, purposeful and focused".

According to Jawad, in the first day after the shooting the TTP demanded news organisations provide "balanced" coverage, by which they meant giving prominence to the Taliban's justification for the attack.

The Pakistani Taliban have made an unusually large number of statements about the killing, in which they have cited Islamic laws they claim Yousafzai broke with her campaign for girls' education.

The militants appear to have been especially enraged by remarks made on television and radio by commentators and ordinary members of the public alike, who have been unusually outspoken in their condemnation of a movement that most people are normal careful not to cross.

Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, which monitors jihadi media, said the TTP had long held grievances against a mainstream media they regarded as a westernised, secular "puppet" of the armed forces.

But he said their current alarm at the country's broadcasters was reflected in a new peak in public opposition to the TTP.

"We have seen a similar public sentiment in the past, but this time it is quite unique," he said. "This case has provided a catharsis of the masses for all the grievances that have been building up for years."

NOW SEE: This Soldier Passed Away In Combat And The Army Refused To Recognize Her Spouse >

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A new cyberespionage tool linked to the Flame virus has been infecting computers in Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere, security researchers said Monday.

Kaspersky Lab, which was credited with revealing the Flame virus earlier this year, dubbed the new malware "miniFlame," and said it was "a small and highly flexible malicious program designed to steal data and control infected systems during targeted cyber espionage operations."

Russian-based Kaspersky said miniFlame "is based on the same architectural platform as Flame," widely reported to be part of a US-Israeli effort to slow Iran's suspected nuclear weapons drive.

The smaller version "can function as its own independent cyber espionage program or as a component" inside Flame and related malware.

Unlike Flame, which is designed for "massive spy operations," miniFlame is "a high precision, surgical attack tool," according to Alexander Gostev at Kaspersky Lab.

"Most likely it is a targeted cyberweapon used in what can be defined as the second wave of a cyberattack."

Kaspersky Lab data indicates the total number of infections worldwide is just 50 to 60, including computers in Lebanon, France, the United States, Iran and Lithuania.

MiniFlame operates "as a backdoor designed for data theft and direct access to infected systems," according to Kaspersky, which said development of the malware might have started as early as 2007 and continued until the end of 2011, with several variations.

"We believe that the developers of miniFlame created dozens of different modifications of the program," Kaspersky said. "At this time, we have only found six of these, dated 2010-2011."

Flame previously has been linked to Stuxnet, which attacked computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.

Most Stuxnet infections have been discovered in Iran, giving rise to speculation it was intended to sabotage nuclear facilities there. The worm was crafted to recognize the system it was to attack.

Some reports say US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop the computer worm to sabotage Iran's efforts to make a nuclear bomb.

NOW SEE: The U.S. Should Be Freaking Out About Its Cyber Vulnerabilities >

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A Danish man claims that he helped the CIA track radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki until the al-Qaeda figure was killed in a U.S. drone strike in September 2011, Brian Ross of ABC News reports.

Muslim convert Morten Storm provided letters, emails, audio recordings and videos to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that he says prove that he became a double agent for the Danish intelligence service (PET) and later was paid $250,000 by the CIA to find al-Awlaki a wife.

Storm, 36, said that he gave al-Awlaki — a New Mexico-born cleric who called for jihad against Americans — a bugged USB stick that tracked the al-Qaeda propagandist until an American drone strike killed him in Yemen in September 2011.

The CIA declined to comment to ABC News.

Storm said he was a radical Islamist in the UK in the mid-2000s before being turned by PET in 2006. He claims that he befriended al-Awlaki after traveling to Yemen several times and eventually the cleric would ask Storm, through encrypted USB messages, to buy things like clothes and perfume for his wife.

Storm provided the Danish newspaper with "proposal" videos and e-mails that seem to corroborate that he found al-Awlaki his third wife, a 32-year-old Croatian named Aminah who now works for "Inspire" — the al-Qaeda on-line magazine in which al-Awlaki's writings appeared.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, told ABC News that Storm's story "is consistent with how you would infiltrate a terrorist group like al Qaeda" because Storm is "the perfect kind of infiltrator, perfect kind of plant inside of al Qaeda."

The PET denied playing a part in al-Awlaki's death, but Storm's story has caused some public anger in Denmark among citizens who are concerned that their government participated in an illegal assassination given that al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen.

In February the ACLU filed a suit against the Obama administration to force the government to explain the legal basis for the strikes that killed al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son, and Samir Khan (all U.S. citizens). 

Here is the "proposal" video that Storm gave Jyllands-Posten:

SEE ALSO: A Top Reporter In Yemen Explains What's Really Going On In The Country's Secret US Drone War >

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Would-be foreign policy experts haunting airport bars in odd corners of the U.S. used to ask me, as I sat uncomfortably in my green and red Marine Corps monkey suit, what it was the Coalition Forces did in Iraq that would most benefit the people.

"Oust Saddam?" or "free up the oil?" or, more often than not, "give them freedom?"

The last one was closest, I'll admit, because I do believe one of the best things we did was: "Cable TV," I would answer.

Indeed, I knew we were winning the war when Iraqis whose homes we'd invade would ask if we'd like to check MySpace accounts. Media might be the key, and it's worked all across the Middle East.

The Washington Post's Joby Warrick reported recently that the U.S. dropped a Jennifer Lopez bomb in Azerbaijan, armed with a short skirt and her own personal security detachment. She performed a concert on the coast of Caspian Sea, in sight of Iran.

“You could almost feel the Iranians seething,” said an Azerbaijani official who attended the U.S. pop star’s first concert in this predominantly Shiite Muslim country of 9 million. “This stuff makes them crazy.”

Yes, so crazy in fact that they're willing to sterilize their own people to keep out foreign television. Yet the BBC reports that, despite Iran's efforts, it's Persian TV channel audience has nearly doubled since 2009.

Internet access and media freedom is one of the surest barometers the West has to gauge the progression, for lack of a better word, of certain repressive regimes the U.S. would hope to sway. In the recent Arab Spring, which ousted several dictators, use of the web facilitated the organization and communication of progressive-minded youth movements.

Aside from free communication, cable television can also educate common people on the otherwise opaque human side of American and Western pop culture.

"You know that joke," one Iraqi Army officer once asked me, "about their only being three channels, all of them with Saddam saying death to America?"

"Uhh, yeah, I've heard of it."

"Well it was true!" He said, chuckling. "Many of us thought Americans were evil, that they wished us harm. We were very sheltered as a culture."

He's actually over-estimating — Iraq had only one TV channel prior to the invasion. Following, there was "an explosion" of cable demand, according to a 2006 report by Paul Cochrane.

In the report, Cochrane says, "many Iraqis suddenly found themselves with access to over 300 satellite channels and a handful of new Iraq-oriented networks."

Jean-Claude Boulos, head of Iraqi broadcaster Al Sumaria, told Cochrane, "These people had nothing, and now they are overwhelmed with satellite channels. It is a chance to get back to the real world."

The Real World, The Biggest Loser, Snooki, MTV — they may be the annoying background noise to otherwise important, busy American lives, but in the Arab world and in the eyes of its most feared dictators, they are a volatile weapon of common human communication, outreach, and understanding, to be blocked as aggressively as bombs or missiles.

NOW SEE: What Happens When 'Red Air' Strands Marines In Taliban Territory >

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Fidel Castro recruited former members of the Nazi SS Waffen to train his troops at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, declassified German intelligence files show.

The Communist leader also sought to buy weapons from arms dealers connected with Germany's extreme Right, showing the extent to which he was prepared to collaborate with his ideological enemies to prevent a US invasion on the Caribbean isle.

Papers released this week by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) – the German foreign intelligence agency – show information gathered by German operatives 50 years ago during the tense days of the Cuban missile crisis.

They reveal that Castro personally approved a plan to hire former Nazi officers to instruct the Cuban revolutionary army, offering them wages that were four times the average salary in Germany at the time and the chance to start a new life in Havana.

They papers, dating from October 1962, show that four former officers from the elite Nazi death squads had been invited to the Cuban capital, although subsequent reports could only confirm that two had arrived.

It also showed how the Castro regime negotiated with two traffickers linked with Germany's far Right to purchase Belgian made pistols to arm the Cuban forces.

The conclusion drawn by German secret service officials was that the Cuban regime wanted to free itself from total dependence on Soviet backed training and supplies.

"Evidently, the Cuban revolutionary army did not fear contagion from personal links to Nazism, so long as it served its their own objectives," said Bodo Hechelhammer, historical investigations director at the BND, in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt.

The papers provide insight into Cuban actions during a Cold War period that brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of war.

The 13-day missile crisis began on Oct 16, 1962, when then-President John F. Kennedy first learned the Soviet Union was installing missiles in Cuba, barely 90 miles off the Florida coast.

After secret negotiations between Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the United States agreed not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles from the island.

NOW SEE: Devastating Russian-made Cluster Bombs Dropped In Syria >

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'Hobo hunting,' sexual misconduct, and fraudulent expense reports totaling more than $1 million are some of the allegations facing the Arizona National Guard.

The Arizona Republic recently published a report on criminal and ethical misconduct in the organization based on months of investigations and public records requests from the U.S. Army. Governor Jan Brewer is said to be involved at this point, and has directed further investigations into the "cronyism" and "lack of discipline" which has fostered this sort of lawless culture.

One of the officials who talked to The Republic said, "They (wrongdoers) know nothing's going to happen. Nobody can touch them ... This is the inbred stepsister of the active-duty military."

Among the worst allegations are:

- A noncommissioned officer who got drunk with privates, has sex with a female enlistee and was still allowed to deploy, where he was further disciplined for similar offense. Then, instead of being charged, he was simply moved.

- A group of soldiers who drove around a Humvee and shot people with paint balls, who then bullied a whistleblower. The whistleblower claimed they said to her, "What, you never heard of the 'bum hunts?'" The investigation reveals that the "recruiter of the year" allegedly participated in upward of 35 of these "hunts." They also allegedly made transients perform humiliating "song and dance" routines.

- Several soldiers cited with drunk driving were either let off the hook or faced light discipline.

Governor Jan Brewer has vowed to get to the bottom of the situation, expressing confidence in Maj. Gen. Hugo Salaza, the Arizona National Guards top officer. But Lt. Col. Rob White, a decorated combat veteran who's responsible for future operations in Arizona's Joint Forces Headquarters, wasn't so hopeful.

"The way the Arizona National Guard is today, I would not trust it with my son or daughter," White to The Republic. "It disgusts me ... People don't get fired, they get moved."

The Republic's report is quite thorough, and you can read the rest of it here >

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In an election where most issues are cutthroat and divisive, the presidential candidates' split on veterans issues is actually surprising minimal. 

In short, both candidates support veterans and have plans that confer on them special privileges and benefits.

While there are some distinctions, neither candidate has come out in favor of slashing benefits or cutting the G.I. Bill.

Here are the plans:

The Obama plan

Obama right now is standing on a pretty strong record of accomplishment on veterans' issues. His first term performance has actually led some to believe that veterans — a group that historically tends to vote with Republicans — could electorally be in play in the 2012 presidential election.

The president has so far largely delivered on his promise to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has aggressively pursued strategies to incentivize the hiring of unemployed or wounded veterans, including a 2011 tax credit to businesses that hire vets. According to his campaign, the Obama administration has so far motivated 1,600 companies to commit to hiring more veterans. 

The president also has campaigned on providing PTSD treatment at VA medical centers. And on the campaign trail, he has also touted his implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which covers in-state tuition at no cost for veterans.

The Romney Plan 

Romney's plan is less clear on statistics and numbers than Obama' plan, but by and large he supports most of the same things that the president has pushed for.

There are, however, some key differences:

Romney wants to focus on revamping the bureaucracy at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has been bogged down with claims and long wait times as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan draw to a close. He, like Obama, also wants to improves availability of VA health services in rural areas. 

He also wants to make more credit available for military training for veterans seeking trade certifications outside of the service. He wants to stop the impending defense cuts as a result of sequestration, and include veteran mental health covered by the TRICARE network of providers at the VA's expense. 

Romney also wants to grant all GI Bill veterans in-state college tuition, regardless of their state of residency. 

Now, check out Mitt Romney's full economic plan >

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European Union foreign ministers on Monday approved moves to "urgently" plan for a possible military mission to help Mali reconquer its vast arid north from rebels and Islamist extremists.

Gathered in Luxembourg, a statement from 27 EU ministers said the bloc "is determined to back Mali in re-establishing the rule of law and a democratic and fully sovereign government across its entire territory".

A two-page document calls for "planning work on a potential military mission ... to be pursued and deepened urgently".

"The European Union has clearly committed in favour of Mali," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

"We cannot allow terrorism to take root in an area beyond all lawful control in northern Mali," said German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

Military putschists seized power in the capital Bamako in March, ousting President Amadou Toumani Toure, only to see the north and east fall to Tuareg rebels and militias linked to Al-Qaeda.

And in Bamako last week, thousands took to the streets demanding armed intervention by a West African force to oust Islamists forcing women to wear veils and destroying ancient tombs as they impose Sharia law.

The plan being mulled by the EU will touch on "the organisation and training of the Malian defence forces, taking into account the conditions needed to efficiently fulfill a possible mission, including the full and entire support of the Malian authorities," the EU statement said.

"We have an ungoverned space under the control of terrorists, with narco-trafficking and smuggling of all kinds," an EU official told AFP. "A credible threat of force -- that is what is lacking."

Different ideas are currently under examination ahead of key talks in Bamako on Friday gathering the West African regional body ECOWAS, the African Union, the EU, the United Nations and Mali's neighbours to thrash out a political and military strategy to end the crisis.

The most likely scenario will be the quick dispatch of some 150 senior army trainers, an EU official said.

But another scenario is for sending EU instructors to work alongside the Mali military, Afghan-style, as its soldiers march north.

France has drawn up a UN Security Council resolution seeking a detailed plan within 30 days on an international military intervention following a formal request from the authorities in Bamako.

The UN Security Council approved a resolution last Friday that presses West African nations to speed up preparations for an international military intervention aimed at reconquering northern Mali.

The council asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to work with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union in order to submit to the council within 45 days "detailed and actionable recommendations" in preparation for the deployment of an international military force in Mali.

After details for military intervention are submitted, the 15-member council would still have to pass a second resolution to give the green light to the deployment. That is not expected to happen before the end of the year.

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After nearly a year of back-and-forth between its neighbors regarding island rights in the China Sea, Beijing just concluded a very well documented, live-fire island landing drill.

The mission involved landing craft, artillery, infantry troops, and multiple aircraft. To be sure their abilities were documented and seen by the world Beijing released the following video, which to be honest seems to show a pretty sophisticated array of equipment and personnel.

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