Department Of State U S

A top architect of the Bush administration's policy of greater diplomatic engagement announced his resignation Friday amid signs that U.S. efforts on key issues have been losing momentum. R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department's third-ranking official and one of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's closest aides, said he would leave his post in March for personal reasons.

Three State Department contract employees improperly looked at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's private passport files, the State Department told Obama's Senate office Thursday. A department spokesman said two employees were fired and one disciplined for accessing the files on three separate occasions this year, on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14.

He refused to take the Americans' blood money. Mohammed Hafidh Abdul-Razzaq had been summoned by U.S. Embassy officials who wanted to make amends for the killing of his 10-year-old son. The boy died during a shooting involving employees of Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. security firm. Deputy Chief of Mission Patricia A. Butenis told him that she was sorry for what had happened, Abdul-Razzaq recalled. She gave him a sealed envelope. It had his name written on it. Abdul-Razzaq pushed it away.

John D. Negroponte, who in 2005 became the first director of national intelligence, overseeing the 16 U.S. spy agencies, will give up that job to become deputy secretary of State, U.S. officials said Wednesday evening. A veteran diplomat, Negroponte, 67, joined the new agency at a time of growing concern over the failures of U.S. intelligence to anticipate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to accurately assess Iraq's illicit weapons programs before the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Four ranking Republican lawmakers on a committee with oversight of U.S. policy in Afghanistan are calling on the Pentagon and State Department to dramatically change their tactics in that country to better contain its growing insurgency and flow of opium to the rest of the world. In a letter dated today, the GOP House members are urging the Bush administration to act quickly to counter a host of problems in Afghanistan that they say are being made worse by mismanagement and misplaced priorities.

Fictional gay cowboys and a faux reporter from Kazakhstan suffered human rights abuses in 2006 as crackdowns extended beyond flesh-and-blood victims to the Internet, award-winning films and noted plays worldwide, the State Department says. Foreign governments banned or restricted access to a variety of big and little screen entertainment -- including the movies "Borat" and "Brokeback Mountain" -- as well as live events, the State Department says.

Now the long line forms even before you get to the airport. Travelers applying for passports are facing waits of 10 weeks -- instead of the usual four to six -- as the State Department grapples with record demand. Procrastinators are spending hours queuing up at passport offices and on hold after calling the agency's toll-free phone number. Nearly 100 people were outside the Los Angeles office in Westwood by 7:30 a.m. Monday, and some had arrived well before dawn.

Congress should force the State and Defense departments to cooperate in planning and overseeing any future wartime reconstruction to prevent the kind of problems that befouled rebuilding efforts in Iraq, according to an investigative report to be issued today.

The White House wants to appoint a czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies but has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation. At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the job, the Post has learned. "The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where ...

A defiant Paul D. Wolfowitz said Sunday that he would not resign as president of the World Bank in the face of controversy over his role in securing a State Department job and large raise for his girlfriend, a former communications official at the bank. "This is important work and I intend to continue it," Wolfowitz said when asked if he would step down after the spring meetings of the bank and the International Monetary Fund.