.gov and .edu of course!!! Unfortunately, we can't exactly register those, so I'd stick with the consensus of .net and then .org.
I have had success with ccTLDs like .hk, .jp, .se, .co.uk, .in, and even .us domains. I hear that .de, .fr, .cn, .br, and .ru are good ones, too. My dot infos do well if they are not USA targeted. I have been dropping all my USA targeted .info domains except one.
Agreed. Dot com is usually king. However, for certain countries, .net and .org fall below ccTLD. If you are USA targeted, get .net and .org first.
Not in Germany. Dot de is king there. I tend to agree that, usually, a so-so dot com is often better than a good dot net in almost any language. This has been my experience, no data to support that.