ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- U.S. efforts to build closer ties to this energy-rich former Soviet republic are not meant to undermine Russian influence in Central Asia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Yesterday)

NADARBAZEVI, Georgia -- Russian troops began dismantling positions yesterday in the so-called security zones inside Georgia that they have occupied since August's brief but intense war, a Georgian (Yesterday)

OTTAWA -- In the shadow of a historic national election in the United States, Canada is amid its own historic campaign that could redraw the electoral map and produce a fundamental political realignment. (Yesterday)

BAGHDAD -- Eleven Iraqis, including six women and children, were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber set off explosives during a raid by U.S. forces on a house in Mosul, the U.S. (Yesterday)

National news briefs (Yesterday)