Ambassadors

America's sometimes-freewheeling ambassador to the United Nations ran afoul of his superiors by taking part in unauthorized debate with two high-ranking Iranian officials during a conference of world leaders last week in the luxury Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland.

Roland Arnall, a major Republican financier who helped create and ultimately became a symbol of the troubled sub-prime mortgage industry, is resigning his post as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. Arnall, founder of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. of Orange, once the nation's largest sub-prime lender, is returning home to be with his adult son, who is battling Hodgkin's lymphoma. His resignation is effective March 7.

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan appeared on a video aired Saturday by an Arab satellite channel, saying he was kidnapped by Taliban militants more than two months ago. Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin, flanked by his driver and his bodyguard, was shown sitting on the ground amid green brush in front of three masked men wearing traditional robes and holding automatic weapons. "For 27 days, we have lived comfortably. . . .

To Zimbabwe's government, James McGee is the undiplomatic diplomat. McGee, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe for the last six months, has eschewed the tactful, almost invisible role that envoys often take. With foreign journalists largely blocked from covering events in the African nation, McGee and other Western diplomats have adopted an outspoken posture, exposing political violence and ratcheting up international pressure on the regime.

The nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Armenia avoided using the phrase "Armenian genocide" in her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, but she acknowledged that Armenians had suffered mass deaths, rapes and forced exile at the hands of Turks between 1915 and 1923. Marie L.

Early Monday, 41 foreign ambassadors and their spouses caught flights from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles to "Experience America." "Washington, D.C., is not America," said Ambassador Kailash Ruhee of the Republic of Mauritius. "D.C. is the center of power for the U.S., and it's extremely important, but also it's extremely important to know what else is happening in the other states." U.S.

Only a few months ago, he was a foreign policy commentator in Boston known around the world for blasting the government of his native Pakistan and, sometimes, the Bush administration as well. Today, Husain Haqqani is Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, charged with cultivating and promoting the turbulent U.S.-Pakistani relationship. It may be the toughest diplomatic job in Washington.

The first U.S. ambassador to Libya in more than three decades arrived in Tripoli on Saturday, in a further sign of the two nations' improving ties. Gene Cretz, a career U.S. diplomat whose foreign postings have included Tel Aviv, Cairo, New Delhi and Beijing, said he would strive to broaden links between Tripoli and Washington. "I'm happy to be in Libya," he told reporters on his arrival here in the Libyan capital, naming business and tourism among his priorities for expanded cooperation. U.S.

Nearly two years ago, John Evans did something no U.S. ambassador to Armenia before him had done: He used the word "genocide" -- in public -- to describe the deaths of about 1.2 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks. It has long been a sore point with Armenian Americans that the U.S. government does not refer to the killings that began in 1915 as genocide, and Evans' use of the word did not signal a change in that policy.

President Bush intends to nominate Zalmay Khalilzad as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the White House announced Monday, signaling that Washington plans to work with the U.N. in a high-profile way, with a high-flying troubleshooter. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the official announcement, which had been anticipated since last week, saying Khalilzad performed "heroically and at great personal risk" as the U.S.