What would it be?
I ask the question because I came upon the very same one on LinkedIn, a social networking service for professionals.
My go-to website for global news is BBC Online. Here's the answer I posted on LinkedIn:
My first choice as an online news destination is BBC Online. The site is staffed 24/7. The Beeb's website can draw on its TV and radio reporters around the world, and those working for foreign-language services such as the Urdu-language one targeting Pakistan.
Besides breaking news in text form, the Beeb offers high-quality analysis and multimedia.
The Beeb also has the advantage of not being American -- not that there's anything wrong with being American! :)
But with the NYT or CNN, to just use as examples, you're getting an American take on international news, not a true global perspective.
I find stories I can't find anywhere else on the Beeb, and that makes it my first choice.
Scanning the 80 responses in addition to my own, the Beeb appears to be the runaway favourite.
Without doing an in-depth analysis, Google News does fairly well (other aggregation services were also mentioned, such as Yahoo News, Digg and so on. Some fellow named a newspaper aggregator named PressDisplay).
CNN has its fans, as does the Guardian, the Economist plus Reuters and AP.
Some honourable mentions include the International Herald Tribune, the Times Online and the Financial Times.
A question to readers of this blog: What website would you recommend as the ultimate one-stop-shopping experience for global online news?