WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A U.S. Bush administration assessment of Afghanistan to be given to the next president tacitly acknowledges its Pakistan strategy has failed, sources say.

BAGHDAD, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Iraq's Cabinet Sunday approved a status of forces agreement with the United States allowing U.S. troops to stay there after Dec. 31, officials said.

MOSCOW, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday blamed Washington for encouraging Georgia to invade South Ossetia.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bush administration says it is legally free to give taxpayer funds to religious groups that discriminate against non-believers in their hiring.

PARIS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy secured parliamentary backing for a continued military commitment in Afghanistan but critics warn of trouble ahead.

NEW YORK, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bush administration and local officials are locked in an ideological struggle over how best to relieve airport congestion in New York, observers say.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Heading into its final months, the U.S. Bush administration is moving to institutionalize controversial aspects of its "war on terror," political observers say.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government denied local media reports that three men working for the Interior Ministry arrested as insurgents were Iranian citizens.

JERUSALEM, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered that new settlement construction on contested land must be cleared by him personally.