Maziar Bahari's ordeal inside Tehran's Evin Prison.

Italy can no longer afford the antics of its playboy in chief.

New studies of suicide bombers say that most have three important qualities in common: testosterone, a narrative fantasy, and a desire to make theater.

Facing down Iran, French president Nicolas Sarkozy stood shoulder to shoulder with President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Pittsburgh last week. Or so it might be said. The statements of all three were consistent as they denounced the Islamic Republic's construction of a secret nuclear facility. But in this stage show of solidarity, body language sent a different message. Obama and Brown really did stand side by side. Sarkozy stood apart, looking a little like he'd been asked to stand as best man at a stranger's wedding....

The Libyan may look like the Michael Jackson of global politics, but his political talent sets an example for other leaders and petro-players.

NEWSWEEK correspondent imprisoned in Iran is in contention for the prestigious Asturias Award.

Caught in Iran's political maelstrom, forced to "confess" at the show trial in Tehran, will Newsweek's Maziar Bahari be free in time to see the birth of his first child?

The problem with Arab education goes beyond a few extremist schools.

In Afghanistan, Americans should deploy Pvt. Social Worker and Maj. Sociologist.

The U.N. drug czar says that efforts to eradicate opium have failed.

Will the final American pullout from Iraq be a parade, a retreat, or a rout?

Calling for the release of NEWSWEEK correspondent Maziar Bahari.

A new form of totalitarianism is being born in Iran. Why—and what—Big Brother is watching.

"They are not going to answer your greeting," begins a poem that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, knows well, and loved once. "Nobody is going to raise his head to answer a question or to see a friend." The verse was written in the time of the shah, in the 1950s, when Khamenei was a young, idealistic Shia cleric who shared with its hard-drinking author a sense of claustrophobic alienation and deep frustration. "Winter," by Mehdi Akhavan Sales, is about as vivid a metaphor for oppression—externally imposed, but deeply internalized—as you can find:Now, in this summer of 2009 in the overheated air of Tehran's stifling streets, it is Khamenei himself who has come to symbolize for millions of Iranians that cold, hard weight of authority. (Story continued below...)What is unfolding in Iran is no simple confrontation between tyranny and freedom. The protests, wave upon wave of them, have not overturned the regime, nor have they sought to do so. But 30 years after the Islamic...

What Ahmadinejad's win means for Iran, Israel and the United States.

Why It's So Hard to Get Out of Iraq, Afghanistan or ... The Comoro Islands

The elections in Lebanon present Washington and its Arab allies with a real opportunity. But it won't last long.

The election results are good news for the Americans. But Obama shouldn't read too much into the vote.

The day after President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo offering a "new beginning" in relations between the United States and the Muslim world, NEWSWEEK'S Christopher Dickey sat down with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud al-Faisal, to discuss the speech and its implications. Excerpts: ...

To address the future of the Middle East, Obama must look to the past.

Two diplomats pick up a discourse put on hold for 30 years.

The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency on what it's like to negotiate with the Iranians.

Why the NYPD heavily publicizes foiled terror plots.

Jordan's King Abdullah is trying to get the Arabs lined up for peace. But they're all waiting for a sign from Obama.

Arab gays are under siege in societies that want to pretend they don't exist. But a new biography of an Arab artist offers another view.

It will take a lot more than SEALs and snipers to defend global shipping and American prestige. What Obama can learn from the French.

These days, NATO's future seems to be mired in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. With 70,000 troops on Afghan soil, and with the U.S. pressuring for an even greater commitment, "NATO is about Afghanistan and nothing else," says an official in Brussels.But the Afghan trap is stretching NATO so thin, it may prove incapable of handling problems in its own backyard. In February, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said that the deepening financial crisis could provoke civil unrest and even "violent extremism" in Europe's weaker states. Already, mass protests in Greece and crumbling economies in Latvia and Hungary have been cited as worrisome. And just outside NATO's borders, Ukraine is "closer to a failed state than a functioning one," says one NATO official.But budget cutbacks are handicapping the alliance, affecting its Afghan deployment and making it unlikely that NATO could manage two conflicts at once. Eastern Europe and the Baltics are now fretting that NATO's...

King Abdullah, 85, is racing to reform Saudi Arabia. How much can he accomplish—and will it last?

The president revives French ambitions in the Gulf, with allies old and new.

David Cohen and the NYPD are pioneering a new way of fighting terrorism.