President-elect Barack Obama yesterday stunned the national intelligence community by selecting Clinton White House chief of staff Leon E. Panetta, a longtime Washington insider with little intelligence experience, to serve as the next head of the CIA. (Today)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and a European delegation yesterday pleaded for Israel to call a temporary halt to its 10-day-old offensive in Gaza, but top Israeli leaders -- with explicit backing of President George W. Bush -- made clear that they aren't ready to end the fighting. (Today)

President-elect Barack Obama's two daughters yesterday were whisked into their new schools past a line of waiting photographers. (Today)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- India yesterday confronted Pakistan with a detailed dossier that it said showed that "elements from Pakistan" were behind the November terrorist assault on Mumbai, and said it was inconceivable that no one in the Pakistani government knew of the plans. (Today)

BAGHDAD -- The United States yesterday inaugurated its largest embassy ever, a fortress-like compound in the heart of the Green Zone -- and the most visible sign of what U.S. officials call a new chapter in relations between America and a more sovereign Iraq. (Today)