One Christmas story above all deserves a run this year: the sound of Silent Night from the trenches in the first Christmas of the Great War.

A veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion, he fought alongside Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, and has a treasure trove of anecdotes...

A 93-year-old German man Oskar Groening, who claims he was an accountant at Auschwitz, to go on trial for being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 prisoners.

A 15-year-old was prevented from joining Isis by British police who hauled her off a plane at Heathrow just as it was due to take off.

55: For five anxious years the troopships set sail from New Zealand, carrying her men in uniform away to war.

54: Nothing seemed to frighten Dick Travis. His turf was No Man's Land, the zone of death between enemy trenches and his regiment's frontlines.

Four surviving veterans of one of New Zealand's most famous naval battles joined nearly 600 sailors and thousands of well-wishers in a parade on Auckland's Queen St yesterday to mark the Battle of the River Plate's 75th anniversary.

"I wasn't as dead as I had first surmised." Those were the words of HMS Achilles gunnery officer, Lieutenant Richard Washbourn, in a previously unpublished letter.

US embassies have been told to prepare for violent protests ahead of a report into the CIA's use of torture.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters claims "large-scale" military preparations are under way at New Zealand bases in anticipation of a deployment to Iraq.

51: New Zealanders from different points on the political spectrum hated censorship.

World War II's greatest escape, which involved Kiwi officers scaling barbed wire fences instead of the previously favoured method of tunnelling, has been told for the first time.

The Iraqi army includes 50,000 "ghost soldiers" who do not exist, but their officers receive their salaries fraudulently, according to the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

50: On a night-time sea-borne raid in a high-speed motor boat in 1918, mechanic Roy Alexander took a bullet in his stomach.

Today, Trevor Strong marks off another accomplishment in a long and remarkable life; tackling it in the same steely, unruffled style he has approached all of his missions.

Only in a topsy-turvy world would it be seen as rational to bring a posse of spies to heel by increasing their rights to snoop without a warrant, writes Brian Rudman.

Two military heroes - former spy Pippa Doyle and Willie Apiata - rubbed shoulders last night as France bestowed its highest honour on the 93-year-old Mrs Doyle.

British journalist and Islamic State (Isis) group hostage John Cantlie says in a newly released propaganda video he is likely to suffer the same fate as other US and UK hostages, who were beheaded.

46: Clive Collett had flown nearly 1200 hours in dozens of different aircraft when he took to the air in a captured German plane over the Firth of Forth.

Four brothers slipped out of Australia last week to join the fight with Islamic State (Isis) in Syria.

The World War I memorial unveiled this week in France remembers those who perished on both sides.

An agent who evaded the Nazis to send coded messages to Britain is to be honoured by France. Andrew Stone writes about a modest war hero who lives quietly in Auckland.

Armistice Day commemorations of the end of hostilities on the Western Front in World War I will involve services around New Zealand at 11am today.

44: Hastings-born George Masters took part in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 before being posted to Europe. His bravery was recorded in the London Gazette

When Tuareg fighters swept into Libya's biggest oilfield, they displayed the exuberance and eccentricity typical of fighting in the country.

Military records and images of thousands of NZ veterans - including Richie McCaw's grandfather - are being publicly released to mark Armistice Day.

John Key was playing to a vital international audience when he said that New Zealand has an opportunity to make sure the United Nations Security Council lifts its game.

The domestic dimension of the response to Isis, which according to Key is a "game-changer for NZ", contained confusions of its own, writes Toby Manhire.