As C.I.A. director, William J. Burns was deeply focused on China and Russia when the Middle East conflict plunged him back into his old life. By Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger Julian Barnes ...

(Ukrainian presidential press service/AFP/Getty Images) No one would ever refer to CIA Director William J. Burns as “Wild Bill,” the nickname of William J. Donovan, who led the OSS, the agency ...

In a wide-ranging exit interview, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly asks Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns about the resurgence of ISIS, and what's next for the intel community.

Towing the line between diplomat and intelligence agent, Burns's trips to the region are shrouded under a cloak of mystery.

A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban has freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism

While the United States tries to spy on one of the hardest targets, Burns has also tried to reopen a dialogue with Beijing, including via his counterpart, Chen Yixin, the security minister. (The head of the China Mission Center, a career CIA officer fluent in Mandarin, accompanied Burns on one of his trips to Beijing.)

Two other American captives remain in Afghanistan: George Glezmann, a former airline mechanic, and Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized American who was seized soon after a U.S. strike in Afghanistan killed Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has announced the release of two Americans in a prisoner exchange. In a statement Tuesday, the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul did not name the two U.S. citizens,

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

KABUL, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister called on his senior leadership to open schools for Afghan girls, among the strongest public rebukes of a policy that has ...

A Taliban official has publicly urged the group's leadership to lift the ban on women's and girls' education. He has called it unjust and contrary to Islamic law. In a rare public rebuke ...

Trump Asserts a Muscular Vision of Presidential Power on First Day Back In a flurry of executive actions, President Trump revived disputed claims of broad presidential authority from his first ...