Steven Erlanger New York Times

European countries have taken their boldest step so far in the increasingly tense standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, agreeing in principle to impose an embargo on Iranian oil, French and European diplomats said on Wednesday.

Since the start of the euro crisis two years ago, the big fear has been contagion, that market unease about the high debt and slow growth in Europe's southern rim would infect the core. On Wednesday, contagion arrived with brute force.

Hours after Prime Minister George A Papandreou of Greece emerged from a meeting with Europe's leaders, pledging to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal, key ministers in his government rebelled against the idea on Thursday, deepening rifts within his government that could force its collapse.

The Norwegian man charged Saturday with a pair of attacks in Oslo that killed at least 92 people left behind a detailed manifesto outlining his preparations and calling for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination, according to Norwegian and American officials familiar with the investigation.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport minutes before it was to depart for Paris on Saturday, in connection with the sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the authorities said. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was widely expected t...

Overcoming internal squabbles, NATO prepared on Friday to assume leadership from the United States of the military campaign against Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi's forces, senior NATO officials said, while the allied effort won a rare military commitment in the Arab world when the United Arab Emirates said it would send warplanes to join patrols with Wes...

President Obama worked on Tuesday to bridge differences among allies about how to manage the military campaign in Libya, as airstrikes continued to rock Tripoli and forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi showed no sign of ending their sieges of rebel-held cities. On a day when two United States airmen bailed out over Libya and were rescued after t...

A day after American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader delivered a fresh and defiant tirade on Sunday, pledging retaliation and saying his forces would fight a long war to victory.He was speaking in a telephone call to state television, which, apparently for se...

American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war. On Sunday, American B-2 bombers were reported to have struck a major Libyan airfield.The mission to impos...

American, European and Arab leaders on Saturday began the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq in an effort to stop Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi's war on the Libyan opposition.Leaders meeting in Paris on Saturday afternoon announced that air operations to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians had...

France and Britain continued to press their hawkish position on Libya on Friday, saying they intend to take the lead in enforcing a no-flight zone. Both countries, the most adamant backers of the United Nations Security Council resolution to authorize military action in Libya, also pointed to the passage of the measure on Thursday as an important -...

Moving ahead of its allies, France  on Thursday became the first country to recognise Libya's rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi and said it would soon exchange ambassadors with the insurgents.The move was a victory for the Libyan National Council in its quest for recognition and a setback for Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi who has been...

Maintaining a tough line, President Nicolas Sarkozy  warned on Thursday that "troublemakers" using violence in the protests against his proposed pension changes would be pursued and punished "with no weakness" on the part of the authorities.The president spoke at a meeting with rural officials southwest of Paris as strikers blocked traffic in ...

The historical legacy of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War thawed, is as political as the upheavals of that decisive year.

European countries have taken their boldest step so far in the increasingly tense standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, agreeing in principle to impose an embargo on Iranian oil, French and European diplomats said on Wednesday.

Since the start of the euro crisis two years ago, the big fear has been contagion, that market unease about the high debt and slow growth in Europe's southern rim would infect the core. On Wednesday, contagion arrived with brute force.

Hours after Prime Minister George A Papandreou of Greece emerged from a meeting with Europe's leaders, pledging to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal, key ministers in his government rebelled against the idea on Thursday, deepening rifts within his government that could force its collapse.

The Norwegian man charged Saturday with a pair of attacks in Oslo that killed at least 92 people left behind a detailed manifesto outlining his preparations and calling for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination, according to Norwegian and American officials familiar with the investigation.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport minutes before it was to depart for Paris on Saturday, in connection with the sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the authorities said. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was widely expected t...

Overcoming internal squabbles, NATO prepared on Friday to assume leadership from the United States of the military campaign against Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi's forces, senior NATO officials said, while the allied effort won a rare military commitment in the Arab world when the United Arab Emirates said it would send warplanes to join patrols with Wes...

President Obama worked on Tuesday to bridge differences among allies about how to manage the military campaign in Libya, as airstrikes continued to rock Tripoli and forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi showed no sign of ending their sieges of rebel-held cities. On a day when two United States airmen bailed out over Libya and were rescued after t...

A day after American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader delivered a fresh and defiant tirade on Sunday, pledging retaliation and saying his forces would fight a long war to victory.He was speaking in a telephone call to state television, which, apparently for se...

American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war. On Sunday, American B-2 bombers were reported to have struck a major Libyan airfield.The mission to impos...

American, European and Arab leaders on Saturday began the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq in an effort to stop Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi's war on the Libyan opposition.Leaders meeting in Paris on Saturday afternoon announced that air operations to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians had...

France and Britain continued to press their hawkish position on Libya on Friday, saying they intend to take the lead in enforcing a no-flight zone. Both countries, the most adamant backers of the United Nations Security Council resolution to authorize military action in Libya, also pointed to the passage of the measure on Thursday as an important -...

Moving ahead of its allies, France  on Thursday became the first country to recognise Libya's rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi and said it would soon exchange ambassadors with the insurgents.The move was a victory for the Libyan National Council in its quest for recognition and a setback for Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi who has been...

Maintaining a tough line, President Nicolas Sarkozy  warned on Thursday that "troublemakers" using violence in the protests against his proposed pension changes would be pursued and punished "with no weakness" on the part of the authorities.The president spoke at a meeting with rural officials southwest of Paris as strikers blocked traffic in ...

The historical legacy of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War thawed, is as political as the upheavals of that decisive year.