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DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 3 -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday to pursue improved relations with Syria, speaking during a visit that ended more than three years of Western isolation of the country.

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 3 -- The 55-page republican Party platform, approved here this week, contains exactly one paragraph devoted to the war in Iraq -- a sign of how the conflict that dominated the last two national election cycles has faded as a major political issue.

The Bush administration announced a $1 billion aid package to Georgia yesterday, making the former Soviet republic one of the highest per capita recipients of U.S. economic assistance.

BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 -- U.S. troops mistakenly killed six members of Iraq's security forces Monday, Iraqi officials said, further straining relations between the U.S. military and the Iraqis they are paying to secure the country.

TBILISI, Sept. 4 -- Vice President Dick Cheney arrived here on Thursday with harsh words for Russia and a message of support for the Georgian government, saying that the military conflict between the two countries had "cast grave doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an internati...

Seven people have been killed in a helicopter crash on an oil rig off the coast of Dubai, oil company officials say.

San francisco, Sep 4 (IPS) - Few people have thought as much about the morality of the U.S. occupation of Iraq than Joshua Casteel, a former U.S. Army interrogator who served at Abu Ghraib prison in the wake of the detainee abuse scandal there.

The US military says it will hand responsibility for paying members of Sunni Arab groups fighting al-Qaeda to the Iraqi government.

Thousands of expatriates living in Dubai will form a co-ordinated search for a missing South African, supposedly left in the desert after being beaten, says her brother Kurt Winter.

Syria has sent a list of proposals to israel aimed at laying the groundwork for direct peace talks, Bashar al-Assad says.