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Wednesday, Jul 27, 2011 8:01 PM UTC2011-07-27T20:01:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

What should we believe about al-Qaida?

Too much of what we "know" about bin Laden and the terrorist group he led comes from anonymous U.S. officials

What do we really know about bin Laden

Almost everything we learn about Al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden these days is coming from anonymous U.S. officials.

Wednesday, for instance, U.S. officials told us via The Washington Post that Al-Qaida was on the verge of being totally wiped out. The comments echoed earlier ones from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the former C.I.A. director, who earlier said that only a couple dozen more Al-Qaida militants needed to be killed before the war was over.

Last week the officials were talking to the Wall Street Journal. They told the paper that Al-Qaida would likely be shifting the focus of its attacks to Western targets outside of the United States. They said this was because it had become too difficult for them to strike inside the United States.

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  More Peter Gelling

Thursday, Feb 23, 2012 2:00 PM UTC2012-02-23T14:00:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Is a Greek debt default still inevitable?

The bailout will avert a euro zone breakup for now, but many worry it won't be enough to fix the nation's economy

A pedestrian passes outside a pawnshop in Athens, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012

A pedestrian passes outside a pawnshop in Athens, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 (Credit: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

ATHENS, Greece — They contemplated a divorce but ended up having another baby.

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Greece and its euro zone partners saved their marriage by agreeing on a $170 billion bailout, but it hasn’t squashed talk of a messy breakup.

Some analysts see a Greek debt default as inevitable. Even Greece’s lenders fear the program is “accident prone,” as they said in a report for euro zone finance ministers before they approved Tuesday’s bailout.

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  More Ken Maguire

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2012 1:56 PM UTC2012-02-21T13:56:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Greece’s post-bailout woes

The 130 billion euro rescue brings austerity measures that could extend the nation's recession for another decade

Employees of the Byzantine and Christianity museum hold a cardboard replica of ancient ruins which reads: ''Monument for sale'' during a peaceful protest outside the Greek Parliament in Athens, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012

Employees of the Byzantine and Christianity museum hold a cardboard replica of ancient ruins which reads: ''Monument for sale'' during a peaceful protest outside the Greek Parliament in Athens, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012  (Credit: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

ROME — The European Union has finally agreed on its latest 130 billion euro bailout plan that should save Greece from going bust next month.

Global PostNow all it has to do is help the country pull out of a five-year recession, get the one-in-five unemployed Greeks back to work and make sure that Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy don’t end up sharing a similar fate.

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  More Paul Ames

Friday, Feb 17, 2012 11:25 PM UTC2012-02-17T23:25:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

When I was captured by Gadhafi’s forces

After the Libyan rebels we were embedded with came under fire, we became hostages of the regime

VIDEO
Libyan rebels head towards the front line outside the eastern town of Brega, Libya Friday, April 1, 2011

Libyan rebels head towards the front line outside the eastern town of Brega, Libya Friday, April 1, 2011  (Credit: AP)

GlobalPost correspondent James Foley spent 44 days in captivity inside Moammar Gadhafi's Libya. This first chapter of his story originally appeared on GlobalPost. For the full series, click here.

There is a single main highway along which lies every major city between the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the east and the capital Tripoli in the west. It snakes along the coast and passes through Ajdabiya, Brega, Sirte and Misrata, cities made world famous by months of back and forth, and deadly, conflict.

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The four of us were riding in the back of a blazing red minibus at the beginning of April, approaching the strategic oil town of Brega, where the worst fighting of the conflict had been taking place. Our driver was a teenage boy, like his friend in the passenger’s seat. The so-called front in this war was always changing. But we had already passed the last rebel checkpoint and we knew whatever front existed was beginning to reveal itself.

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  More James Foley

Friday, Feb 17, 2012 3:34 PM UTC2012-02-17T15:34:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Anthony Shadid, the best of his generation

The NYT reporter, acclaimed for his unparalleled coverage of the Middle East, died in Syria on Thursday

Anthony Shadid

Anthony Shadid, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with The Washington Post  (Credit: AP)

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

WARSAW, Poland — I woke up this morning to the news that Anthony Shadid has died — apparently of an asthma attack — while on assignment in Syria. Whether you knew his byline or not, the loss is incalculable.

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I can speak in absolutes about the quality of his work. No one reported the Middle East with greater clarity and nuance than Shadid. No one brought the humanity of the people of the region, people who live in a perpetual state of stress even when they are living in the comparative comfort of Beirut and Tel Aviv, to the wider world with a surer touch than Anthony.

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  More Michael Goldfarb

Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 2:10 PM UTC2012-02-16T14:10:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Is the Iran threat an illusion?

The nation's recent moves look increasingly like those of a desperate regime, not a war machine

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  (Credit: AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

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As a tit-for-tat war rages in the shadows between Iran and Israel and some are seeing signs of serious duress in Tehran.

Global PostIsrael’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some right-leaning voices in the United States, including most of the GOP’s presidential contenders, continue to pound the war drums over Iran’s nuclear program.

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  More Michael Moran

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