Talk is prone to get a little giddy over the coming days as Obamania hits town.

Enduring alliance, no closer friends, vital relationship, that sort of thing. Imagine the outbreak of euphoria had he actually made it those other times he promised to drop by, back when he was still wildly popular, before the chains of office really started to weigh.

A former RAF navigator has claimed the size of a nuclear bomb detonated during tests in the 1950s could have been three times bigger than the Government officially stated, in evidence which could that prove crucial for more than 1,000 service veterans suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for upwards of £100m.

Flight Lieutenant Joseph Pasquini, who served in the RAF's 76 Squadron, took measurements during the UK's biggest nuclear test blast at Christmas Island in the Pacific on 28 April, 1958 - known as Grapple Y.

In their attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, traditional news organisations seem to have forgotten that his objectives are the same as theirs.

The latest United Nations report on Iran's nuclear program may not be the "game changer" it was billed to be, as some nuclear experts raise doubts about the quality of evidence - and point to lack of proof of current nuclear weapons work.

In a 14-page annex to its quarterly report on Iran released yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said new intelligence and other data gave it "serious concern" about the allegedly peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. But the casus belli for military strikes that anti-Iran hawks in the US and Israel expected to gain from the IAEA report is far from clear-cut.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard used a surprise appearance at today's Remembrance Day service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to defend Australia's ongoing involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

Veterans' Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon, who had been scheduled to represent the Prime Minister today, said she had ''become available'' earlier in this week.

It is understood Australian War Memorial Officials did not learn of the changes until last night.

Barack Obama is to announce that the US will begin rotating Marines through an Australian base in Darwin in a permanent new military presence, intensifying the alliance in a sign of heightened concern about China.

He is scheduled to make the announcement with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, when they visit Darwin next Thursday during Mr Obama's first visit to Australia as president. The 26-hour visit will mark the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.

The Marines are the chief US ground combat force in the Pacific theatre, the so-called ''tip of the spear''.

Today in Westminster, less than 48 hours after it was revealed that the News of the World hired an ex-policeman to carry out surveillance on scores of politicians, sportsmen, actors and even the lawyers acting for the paper's phone-hacking victims, James Murdoch will appear before the Commons culture committee to explain discrepancies in the testimony he gave them on 19 July.

When he last appeared in front of the committee to answer questions about the phone hacking scandal at the NotW, a paper he was responsible for as chairman of News International, it was as one half of a double act with his father, Rupert Murdoch.

ISRAELI TAKEOVER OF FREEDOM BOATS VIOLENT AND DANGEROUS

Contrary to Israeli claims that the takeover of the two Freedom boats Tahrir and MV Saoirse by the Israeli navy was peaceful, organisers of this latest Freedom Wave to Gaza say it was aggressive and dangerous. The two boats were violently intercepted in international waters, says Michael Coleman, an Australian aboard the Tahrir, who is currently imprisoned in Israel.

Tourists have been warned not to expect to get into Parliament House during the visit of the US President, Barack Obama, next week.

Mr Obama will arrive in Australia on November 16 and has accepted an invitation from the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to address Parliament the following day.

But the security arrangements are so stringent the public will not be allowed into Parliament House on the day of his address, leaving people with few opportunities to see the President.

''Planning for the proposed visit is still at an early stage,'' a government source told The Sun-Herald.

The family of the 14-year-old boy on drug charges in Bali has sealed a six-figure deal with Nine Entertainment to tell the story of his arrest and trial.

Here we go again. Three more young soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Three more families plunged into bottomless grief.

Captain Bryce Duffy was 26. "We loved Bryce to the ends of the world and not a day will go by when he is not thought of,'' his people said in a written statement. Corporal Ashley Birt was just 22. Lance-Corporal Luke Gavin, 27, left behind a wife and three children, Joshua, 7, Holly, 5, and Olivia, just seven months. "I can't explain how we feel except that our hearts are broken,'' Mrs Gavin wrote.

Until last week Occupy Oakland took up about as much space in the national consciousness as Occupy Tulsa.

But then, last Wednesday, the Oakland Police Department tried to end the occupation in a violent clash that lead to the injury of Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen. As a result, Occupy Oakland saw an explosion of bodies and attention unseen at any camp elsewhere in the world.

In early May this year, two Dutch men reported a murder to their local police station in the city of Tilburg.

"There is a murderer who has admitted the deed on television and who dumped the evidence at sea," one of the men apparently said.

The "murder" in question referred to the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Navy Seals. By all accounts the Dutch men's actions in going to the police were not at all tongue-in-cheek, but completely serious.

Results of a new poll commissioned by the European Commission show that Israel is believed by Europeans in 15 countries to be the greatest threat to world peace, greater than North Korea, Iran or Afghanistan.

While the European Commission will release the full results of the poll on Monday, the International Herald Tribune reported that the 7,500 people polled living in the European Union (500 in each of the 15 E.U. member states) were presented with a list of 15 countries and asked if these countries present a threat to world peace. Shockingly, Israel was rated first.