After serving as bureau chief in Cairo from October 1985, he continued to cover both national and foreign stories.

Kifner has reported on the wars and conflict in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Israel-Occupied Gaza, Southern Yemen and the former Yugoslavia.

Since joining The New York Times in 1963, Kifner has been both a national and a foreign correspondent based first in Chicago and then Boston.

While in the Middle East, Kifner covered the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and won a George Polk Memorial Award that year for his reporting of the event.

The Annenberg School for Communication, which administers the award, cited his ability to translate "complicated changes in the political, economic and cultural landscape for American readers."