It seemed an innocuous, catch-up phone call. Last year Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the pseudonym for a Pakistani known to U.S. intelligence as the main courier for Osama bin Laden, took a call from an old friend.

Where have you been? inquired the friend. We've missed you. What's going on in your life? And what are you doing now?

Kuwaiti's response was vague but heavy with portent: "I'm back with the people I was with before."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As details and rumors about the killing of Osama bin Laden coursed this week through Pakistan's streets, there was near-total quiet from an unexpected quarter.

In a nation that is home to an alphabet soup of militant organizations subscribing to the late al-Qaeda leader's violent ideology, retaliatory bombs did not explode. The cities did not fill with banned organizations' foot soldiers vowing revenge. A top religious party drummed up a few hundred demonstrators Friday afternoon, but their stated agenda — to protest the bin Laden killing — barely seemed to register, and instead they fell back on familiar anti-government, anti-American slogans.

Few individuals in recent history have exerted greater influence on world events than Osama bin Laden — and even fewer have inspired as much mythology. From the origins of the al-Qaeda terrorist network to the devastation of Sept. 11, 2001, to the manhunt that came to an end with such drama last Sunday, bin Laden's life has been shrouded in mysteries and misconceptions.

Common among conspiracy theorists is the notion that bin Laden was a CIA creation and that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were blowback from an agency operation gone awry. Typifying this view is filmmaker Michael Moore, who on the day after the terrorist attacks wrote: "WE created the monster known as Osama bin Laden! Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA!"

An online posting attributed to al-Qaeda on Friday confirms the death of Osama bin Laden and warns of retaliation against the United States and other nations for the slaying of the terrorist leader.

The statement, which was posted on jihadist Web forums, appears to mark the first acknowledgment by al-Qaeda that its founder and leader for more than two decades was killed in a U.S. commando raid in a garrison city in Pakistan.

If confirmed, the message would also represent the network's first attempt to appeal to its followers for continued commitment to its cause after the demise of the group's most inspirational figure.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — President Obama met Friday with some of the Navy SEALs who raided Osama bin Laden's compound and killed him, part of a day of events marking bin Laden's death that was far more celebratory than was Obama's solemn appearance a day earlier at Ground Zero in New York.

In private meetings at this Army installation, Obama and Vice President Biden congratulated members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6 and units that supported their mission, presenting them with the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest award for a military unit, a senior White House official said.

As Barack Obama neared the Democratic presidential nomination in March 2008, he delivered an address dubbed "Renewing the American Economy." The financial meltdown was still on the horizon, but he pointedly noted that most Americans were in the midst of a long economic slide that he said he would reverse if he were elected.

"For many Americans, the economy has effectively been in recession for the past seven years," he said in the speech, delivered at Cooper Union in Lower Manhattan. He added, "Americans are working harder for less."

The U.S. Senate has a gang problem.

To tackle immigration, senators formed a Gang of 12. On energy policy, they tried a Gang of 10 ( which became a Gang of 20). Now, under pressure to lower the national debt, Congress is waiting for a bipartisan plan from a Gang of Six.

Those are the gangs. This is the problem: Often, they don't work.

Senior Republicans said Friday that they are committed to a controversial overhaul of Medicare and will continue to support it as part of their deficit-reduction plan despite strong White House opposition.

The late-afternoon proclamation came at the end of a confusing week in which several GOP leaders publicly acknowledged that the most ambitious aspects of the plan would never be enacted, creating the impression they were distancing themselves from the politically unpopular proposal less than three weeks after pushing rank-and-file Republicans to vote for it.

It seemed an innocuous, catch-up phone call. Last year Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the pseudonym for a Pakistani known to U.S. intelligence as the main courier for Osama bin Laden, took a call from an old friend.

Where have you been? inquired the friend. We've missed you. What's going on in your life? And what are you doing now?

Kuwaiti's response was vague but heavy with portent: "I'm back with the people I was with before."

Ten days ago, Donald Trump was on top of the world.

President Obama had released his long-form birth certificate. Trump, touting the "birther" controversy as he sought momentum for a possible run at the GOP presidential nomination, was in New Hampshire crowing about it. Cable television showed the two men in a split screen! Everything was coming together.

Until it wasn't. Last Saturday, Trump — or, more accurately, Trump's hair — was the primary punching bag (can you punch hair?) in speeches by Obama and comedian Seth Meyers at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Trump, in keeping with his reputation, greeted the good-natured ribbing with a stone-faced stare.)

To see interviews with U.S. officials, and to view videos, photo galleries and graphics, go to washingtonpost.com/thehunt.

Finally, after weeks of searching the caves and mountains of Tora Bora for traces of Osama bin Laden, CIA field commander Gary Berntsen believed his men had a good peg on the terrorist. Berntsen called in the big bomb — the BLU-82, a 15,000-pound device the size of a car.

The bomb was pushed out of the back of a C-130 transport plane. It struck with such force that it vaporized men deep inside caves. The devastation spread across an area as big as five football fields, killing numerous al-Qaeda fighters — including, Berntsen believed, bin Laden.

It seemed an innocuous, catch-up phone call. Last year Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the pseudonym for a Pakistani known to U.S. intelligence as the main courier for Osama bin Laden, took a call from an old friend.

Where have you been? inquired the friend. We've missed you. What's going on in your life? And what are you doing now?

Kuwaiti's response was vague but heavy with portent: "I'm back with the people I was with before."

MOSCOW — Less than a year before the presidential election, with the country ruled in deep secrecy, political discourse has been reduced to parsing every remark by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev for signs of their intentions.

Neither has said whether he will run, but the exercise has produced a lively political horse race, with one sounding presidential and a certain candidate one week, only to fall victim to a barbed comment from the other and lag behind, out of the running, the next.

HONG KONG — Oil companies usually focus on barrels, but Chinese petroleum giant Sinopec is struggling to get a grip on bottles — or, to be more precise, 1,176 bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild and expensive Chinese liquor.

The alcohol, purchased with $245,000 in company cash, has created a public relations debacle for Sinopec, China's biggest company by revenue. The scandal is also a headache for the ruling Communist Party, which controls the oil behemoth and appoints its top management, and has reinforced a widespread belief that big state-owned corporations serve the interests — and lavish lifestyles — of a tiny group of insiders.

TEHRAN — Several associates of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's closest adviser have been arrested in the past few days, Iranian Web sites reported Friday.

Among them is the cleric who leads the prayers at the presidential mosque, Abbas Amirifar, as well as a person accused of sorcery, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The arrests follow increasing pressure by clerics, politicians and commanders on Ahmadinejad to cut ties with Esfandiar Rahim Mashaee, the closest adviser of the president, but a man hated by Iran's clerics for advocating the importance of Iranian culture over Islamic tenets.

BENGHAZI, Libya — A Libyan opposition leader said Friday that rebels plan to use money pledged for humanitarian and reconstruction needs to buy weapons from the Italian government, a claim an Italian official denied.

Abdul Hafidh Ghoga, the main spokesman for the opposition Transitional National Council, said shipments of weapons would begin arriving in rebel-held eastern Libya "within days."

"We still have ongoing negotiations with France to send us arms, too," he told reporters in Benghazi, the opposition's de facto capital. Ghoga declined to specify what types of weapons the rebels plan to buy, saying that was "a military secret."

LONDON — A British judge ruled Friday that failings in the security and emergency services did not contribute to the deaths of the 52 victims killed in the al-Qaeda-inspired transit bombings during the morning rush hour here on July 7, 2005.

While the verdict in the five-month inquest that the victims were "unlawfully killed" was expected, victims' relatives were anxious to see what role the responses by emergency services and Britain's spy agency played in attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus.

LONDON — A British judge ruled Friday that failings in the security and emergency services did not contribute to the deaths of the 52 victims killed in the al-Qaeda-inspired transit bombings during the morning rush hour here on July 7, 2005.

While the verdict in the five-month inquest that the victims were "unlawfully killed" was expected, victims' relatives were anxious to see what role the responses by emergency services and Britain's spy agency played in attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus.

MADRID — Golf great Seve Ballesteros has died. He was 54.

According to a statement on his website, Ballesteros died early Saturday surrounded by his family at his home in the northern Spanish town of Pedrena.

The Ballesteros family said it "is very grateful for all the support and gestures of love that have been received since Seve was diagnosed with a brain tumour on 5th October 2008."

MADRID — Seve Ballesteros, a five-time major champion whose passion and gift for imaginative shot-making invigorated European golf and the Ryder Cup, has died from complications of a cancerous brain tumor. He was 54.

A statement on Ballesteros' website Saturday said the golf great died peacefully at 2:10 a.m. local time, surrounded by his family at his home in Pedrena, in northern Spain.

Ballesteros was as inspirational in Europe as Arnold Palmer was in America, a handsome figure who feared no shot and often played from where no golfer had ever been.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Pat Perez is used to no one paying close attention, even when there are plenty of people around.

There were plenty watching when he birdied five of the last six holes for a 7-under 65 to take a two-shot lead going into the weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship. He's just not sure they were there for him.

Here's some recent history on Perez and not-so-big crowds.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Mark Calcavecchia was dragging a bit with a few holes left in the second round of the Regions Tradition.

"I kind of told myself, 'We're not even halfway done yet. Better not get tired yet,'" Calcavecchia said.

He's also trying not to get too comfortable with a three-stroke lead over Kenny Perry in the Champions Tour's first major of the season.

MADRID — Golf great Seve Ballesteros has died. He was 54.

According to a statement on his website, Ballesteros died early Saturday surrounded by his family at his home in the northern Spanish town of Pedrena.

The Ballesteros family said it "is very grateful for all the support and gestures of love that have been received since Seve was diagnosed with a brain tumour on 5th October 2008."

He started playing basketball when he was 5 and has coached since age 23.

Friday at Comcast Center, Maryland Coach Gary Williams said goodbye to the game that has been his life's passion and sole professional calling amid glowing tributes, standing ovations and chants of "Gar-Ree! Gar-Ree!" and "Four more years!"

Williams's eyes filled with tears before he uttered his first word from the platform erected on the court for the occasion — part news conference, part celebration of his 22-year tenure at Maryland, which he led to a national championship in 2002. And he paused mid-sentence several times, determined to keep those welling tears in check as he thanked students, fans, administrators and players past and present for their support over the years, calling himself as a fortunate man who "has had [his] time."

T

he old gym at Fort Myer wasn't much to look at. Even after you were in your seat, you wondered if college teams played there. Those that did, such as American University and George Washington, were sometimes good, never great. But it was the place where plenty of people got their break in the shallow end of the big time, such as Gary Williams.

As soon as you first saw Williams, coaching AU from 1978 to 1982, you knew he was destined for great things. Or else, for a padded room. He was crazy. Good crazy.

In his first hire as George Washington's athletic director, Patrick Nero selected Mike Lonergan to become the next Colonials men's basketball coach. Nero announced the hiring on a conference call to reporters Friday evening.

"We had terrific pool of candidates," Nero said. "In the end, we're very excited that Mike will be joining us and excited for the seasons ahead with Mike."

It's a homecoming for Lonergan, 45, who grew up in Bowie and graduated from Carroll High School and Catholic University.

WALTHAM, Mass. — It took him about a week to get over the sadness and disbelief after being traded by the only franchise he had played for in his first 3¹ / ₂ seasons in the NBA. Jeff Green didn't have much time to wallow after the Oklahoma City Thunder dealt him to the Boston Celtics at the trade deadline, because the task put before him — to back up two potential Hall of Famers in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen and help the league's most storied organization claim an 18th NBA championship — was daunting enough.

Jeff Teague and Jordan Crawford were an inseparable pair during their time in Atlanta. They weren't playing much, so having each other helped them get through some difficult times. They hung out after games or on off days and were always heard cracking jokes and laughing at practice or while on the bench.

So, when Teague heard that Crawford was dealt to Washington near the trade deadline, he admitted, "I was hurt."

But looking back, Teague now realizes that the trade was best for the two of them. Crawford was given more minutes and a green light in Washington and with regular starting point guard Kirk Hinrich sidelined with a strained right hamstring, Teague has emerged as one of the surprising postseason revelations in the Hawks' second-round series against the top overall seed Chicago Bulls.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The previous three days had seen Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen confined to the bullpen, reducing two of the Washington Nationals' most potent weapons to spectators. They watched again for the first six innings Friday night, as tension built at Sun Life Stadium, while their teammates, flaws and all, crafted a situation worthy of their talents.

Finally given a chance, Clippard and Storen — with a game-ending cameo by Sean Burnett — helped wipe away three miserable days in Philadelphia and lift the Nationals to a heart-pounding, 3-2, 10-inning victory over the Florida Marlins before 15,325.

In immediate need of a fully healthy outfielder, the Nationals placed center fielder Rick Ankiel on the disabled list, retroactive to May 3, the night he dove for a ball and sprained his right (non-throwing) wrist.

The Nationals have not officially recalled Roger Bernadina, but he will be added to the roster Saturday after getting pulled from Class AAA Syracuse's game Friday in Durham in the fourth inning.

Ankiel, who is hitting .221 with a .302 on-base percentage and a .288 slugging percentage, received an MRI on his wrist Friday afternoon. The results came back negative, but he has not been able to take batting practice since hurting his wrist and the Nationals could not wait any longer for him to heal.

Updated at 9:35 p.m. with Bernadina being pulled from Class AAA game.

Both Rick Ankiel (sprained right wrist) and Michael Morse (right knee soreness) received MRI exams today at a doctor's office in South Florida. Results have yet to return, but the Nationals believe Ankiel's injury has a better chance to lead to a stint on the disabled list than Morse's.

Ankiel has not played since Monday night, when he rolled on his glove-hand wrist trying to make a diving catch in center field. Ankiel has not been able to swing a bat since, but Riggleman remained hopeful he will take batting practice and play tomorrow. That does not seem likely. Ankiel could pinch-run or be used as a defensive replacement, but the Nationals want to wait because it remains possible they will place him on the disabled list.

At times Thursday night, the Nationals offense seemed poised to snap its team-wide, season-long funk against Roy Halladay. They pounded six hits while using their first 10 outs of the game, and they had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth. And then, as has usually happened when their offense is about to turn things around, they wilted: Halladay retired the next 11 batters, and the Nationals, despite driving Halladay's pitch to 110 in seven innings, finished the game with three runs.

And so the Nationals will try to break out again tonight against the Marlins and Ricky Nolasco, who has a 5.28 ERA in three starts against the Nationals since the beginning of last season. The Nationals have scored 3.65 runs per game this year, 26th in the majors, with a .298 on-base percentage, 27th in league. Hitting coach Rick Eckstein is focused more on his daily process the only thing he can control, than on those results.

Rick Ankiel, as expected, remains out of the Nationals lineup. Laynce Nix is the cleanup hitter for the second straight day, with Alex Cora — who is 5 for 8 this road trip — batting second. Wilson Ramos sits.

Nationals

1. Danny Espinosa, 2B

LAS VEGAS — Ask Shane Mosley how he can beat Manny Pacquiao, and the answer is match his speed and don't be afraid to trade punches with a fighter who loves to trade punches. Ask trainer Naazim Richardson how his fighter can beat the best boxer in the world, and the answer is slightly different.

"If he can be the best Sugar Shane Mosley there is, then Pacquiao has problems," Richardson said.

Unfortunately, Mosley hasn't been his best for quite some time. And that could make for a rough night Saturday when he tries to bounce back from a bad loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. against a fighter who lately has been beating up everyone put in front of him.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — At 48, Evander Holyfield just won't give up on his hopes of regaining the world heavyweight title.

The former undisputed champion resumes his longshot quest Saturday when he takes on Denmark's 46-year-old Brian Nielsen in a non-title bout in the Danish capital.

"My goal is to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world ... again," Holyfield said.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Brian Nielsen showed more than his muscles at the official weigh-in with Evander Holyfield.

The Danish fighter pulled down his shorts Friday, exposing his bare backside to the audience before getting on the scale. He says a member of the crowd had shouted he wanted "to see my white backside."

Nielsen, who is known for his clowning stunts, says, "I gave it to them. It needn't be boring."

Barack Obama first made national news when, in 1990, he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was 28, and lengthy feature articles offered the initial draft of the personal history Americans would come to know well: His life as "a street kid" in Indonesia exposed him to the cruel gap between rich and poor; his correspondence in high school with his economist father in Kenya awakened him to a proud African heritage that "was to be a major influence on his life, ideals and priorities."

Timing can be a matter of life or death for a highly trained Navy SEAL — and never more so than when publishing a book about one's exploits in the field. Such is the lesson learned by Howard E. Wasdin, a former member of the elite SEAL Team Six. Last week, SEAL Team Six officers dispatched Osama bin Laden, and this week, Wasdin's memoir of his time with the squad hits bookstores at the most fortuitous moment imaginable. The book, which Wasdin co-wrote with Stephen Templin, is now hovering at the top of Amazon's best-seller list, and Hollywood is said to be screaming for the movie rights.

Three years ago the Atlantic Monthly published an article under the byline "Professor X," in which the pseudonymous author lamented the widespread assumption that every American should aspire to a college education. He (the pronoun used on the dust jacket) taught and still teaches adult night classes in writing and literature at a community college and a small private college. He argued that most of the students under his tutelage were there not out of a genuine desire to learn at a college level but because some degree of "higher" education is often required of people seeking jobs — highway patrolman, nurse, fireman — for which a liberal arts college education is unnecessary.

Julia Child, a spy? Though hardly a revelation (Child herself wrote about her secret-agent career), it's one of those pairings that boggle the mind, like the fact that Richard Nixon composed for the piano or that Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller. A gangly six-feet-two-inches tall, the cheerful and utterly sensible television chef hardly seemed a seductive Mata Hari or killer from La Femme Nikita.

In fact, she was neither. She wasn't really a spy at all, but rather a kind of office manager, albeit an effective one, for the Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence and covert-action agency created during World War II.

Mohamed ElBaradei fought the Bush administration over the war in Iraq, blocked it from attacking Iran, and for his efforts received harassment from American hardliners and, eventually, the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, having retired from the International Atomic Energy Agency, he plans to run for president of Egypt. He has interesting stories to tell, and he tells them with verve.

Like other presidential aspirants, ElBaradei places himself in a flattering light and takes the popular side of issues voters care about. But "The Age of Deception" is more than a campaign biography: Written before the recent Egyptian upheaval, it reaches far beyond the politics of Cairo. The struggles ElBaradei waged in Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Libya to shape the international management of nuclear technology represent a central dynamic of the 21st century.

GREENWOOD, Miss. — It's probably a good thing that Robert Johnson has three graves outside this Mississippi Delta town. If the devil comes back to claim his share of the royalties, the confusion should give the long-dead bluesman a head start.

On the other hand, the people he really might need to shake are the interpreters, mythologizers, agents and lawyers.

The legendary bluesman, possibly the most influential of the Delta acoustic school, would have turned 100 Sunday. Johnson's birthday is being celebrated here with a four-day festival of music, art, talk, T-shirts and posters. Leflore County's 825 hotel rooms are almost all booked. German public radio is making an hour-long special. One of the headliners is Johnson's grandson Steven, who will play music Saturday night in the town park and preach a sermon at a country church Sunday afternoon.

GREENWOOD, Miss. — It's probably a good thing that Robert Johnson has three graves outside this Mississippi Delta town. If the devil comes back to claim his share of the royalties, the confusion should give the long-dead bluesman a head start.

On the other hand, the people he really might need to shake are the interpreters, mythologizers, agents and lawyers.

The legendary bluesman, possibly the most influential of the Delta acoustic school, would have turned 100 Sunday. Johnson's birthday is being celebrated here with a four-day festival of music, art, talk, T-shirts and posters. Leflore County's 825 hotel rooms are almost all booked. German public radio is making an hour-long special. One of the headliners is Johnson's grandson Steven, who will play music Saturday night in the town park and preach a sermon at a country church Sunday afternoon.

Arthur Laurents, an irascible eminence of musical theater and movies out of whose typewriter came the stage scripts for "West Side Story," "Gypsy" and the three-hanky film romance "The Way We Were," died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93 and had pneumonia.

In a show-business career that spanned eight decades, Mr. Laurents wrote radio dramas, Broadway plays and novels. Besides "The Way We Were" (1973), his film credits included Alfred Hitchcock's thrill-kill melodrama "Rope" (1948) and the acclaimed ballet drama "The Turning Point" (1977). He was a sought-after director for the stage as well, and continued to direct into his 90s.

Gordon Wood has been writing brilliantly on the American Revolutionary era since at least the 1960s, but many of the essays and lectures collected in this volume date from the 1980s on. In "The American Revolutionary Tradition, or Why America Wants to Spread Democracy Around the World," Wood explains our irrepressible international ambitions by noting that not only have Americans always considered themselves unique for being a self-created nation endowed with an inordinate amount of moral virtue, but that for much of our history the rest of the world ratified that view with their feet: "The migration to the United States between 1820 and 1920 of over thirty-five million refugees from monarchism gave the Americans' conception of themselves as a chosen people a less divine and more literal meaning and confirmed for them their preeminence as a revolutionary people."

Julia Child, a spy? Though hardly a revelation (Child herself wrote about her secret-agent career), it's one of those pairings that boggle the mind, like the fact that Richard Nixon composed for the piano or that Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller. A gangly six-feet-two-inches tall, the cheerful and utterly sensible television chef hardly seemed a seductive Mata Hari or killer from La Femme Nikita.

In fact, she was neither. She wasn't really a spy at all, but rather a kind of office manager, albeit an effective one, for the Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence and covert-action agency created during World War II.

Three years ago the Atlantic Monthly published an article under the byline "Professor X," in which the pseudonymous author lamented the widespread assumption that every American should aspire to a college education. He (the pronoun used on the dust jacket) taught and still teaches adult night classes in writing and literature at a community college and a small private college. He argued that most of the students under his tutelage were there not out of a genuine desire to learn at a college level but because some degree of "higher" education is often required of people seeking jobs — highway patrolman, nurse, fireman — for which a liberal arts college education is unnecessary.