David E Sanger The New York Times

• IMF reports cyber attack led to 'very major breach'

  The International Monetary Fund, still struggling to find a new leader after the arrest of its managing director last month in New York, was hit recently by what computer experts describe as a large and sophisticated cyber attack whose dimensions...

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies

  Kim Jong-il, the reclusive dictator who kept North Korea at the edge of starvation and collapse, banished to gulags citizens deemed disloyal and turned the country into a nuclear weapons state, died Saturday morning, according to an announcement by the North's official news media on Monday. He was reported to be 69, and had been in ill health since...

• US had braced for fights with Pakistanis in Osama raid

  President Obama had insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said on Monday.In revealing additional details about planning for the mission, senior officials also said ...

• After Osama, What next for Afghanistan?

  From the Taliban's hidden mud compounds to NATO's headquarters in Brussels and the Pentagon, combatants in a decade-long war are asking versions of the same question: How does Osama bin Laden's death change the struggle over who will control Afghanistan? The Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is said to be in Pakistan. For the Taliba...

• US says it wants access to Osama's 3 widows

  US President Barack Obama's national security advisor Thomas E. Donilon demanded on Sunday that Pakistan let American investigators interview Osama bin Laden's three widows, adding new pressure in a relationship now fraught over how Bin Laden could have been hiding near Islamabad for years before he was killed by commandos last week.Both Mr. Donilo...

• Target in Libya is clear, intent is not

  All the deliberations over what military action to take against Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi of Libya have failed to answer the most fundamental question: Is it merely to protect the Libyan population from the government, or is it intended to fulfill President Obama's objective declared two weeks ago that Colonel Gaddafi "must leave"? "We are not going ...

• How bloggers led the way in Arab protests

  As protesters in Tahrir Square faced off against pro-government forces, they drew a lesson from their counterparts in Tunisia: "Advice to the youth of Egypt: Put vinegar or onion under your scarf for tear gas." The exchange on Facebook was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world -- a pan-Ara...

• A Pakistani assassin's long reach

  The assassination last week of one of the most moderate politicians in the Pakistani political elite was shocking enough, even in a country known for settling religious and political disputes with a hail of gunfire. But it was Pakistan's reaction to the killing of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer -- starting with the rose petals showered on th...

• WikiLeaks: Around the world, distress over Iran

  In late May 2009, Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, used a visit from a Congressional delegation to send a pointed message to the new American president. In a secret cable sent back to Washington, the American ambassador to Israel, James B. Cunningham, reported that Mr. Barak had argued that the world had 6 to 18 months "in which stopping Iran...