A Need-To-Know is a glimpse at an important and timely event, story or topic that we feel is critical to the intelligence community. Updated weekly, even daily, a Need-To-Know will summarize one key issue that you need to know about.

Timelines are chronological lists of key events important to a given subject. Some Timelines will be historical in nature, while others will be ongoing and updated periodically.

Advisories are news stories we feel are very important to our members and warrant special attention. When a story is flagged as an "Advisory" it will appear in a box at the top of every page. If there are no advisories then no box is visible. An Advisory can last a few hours, days or even a week.

Breaking News is a news story or event that is happening NOW that our editors feel you should know about. The Breaking News box will only appear when there is a story flagged as "Breaking News". Sometimes there is little information associated with a Breaking News item other than a headline. Sometimes we will provide a link. Breaking News items typically last a few hours and are then removed.

Today's Top Read Story is the news story from the site you are on that has received the most views within the last 24 hours. Since we are using a 24-hour cycle, Today's Top Read Story may in fact be from yesterday.

The Recent News box displays the next set of news stories older than those displayed on the default News page.

Each news story is classified by assigning it a topic. Topics are listed on the Topics page. Clicking on a topic icon will display all news associated with that topic.