VoteKansas.org

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon aims to complete steps towards establishing diplomatic ties with Syria within weeks, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was quoted as saying on Sunday.

BAGHDAD/KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims streamed home from Iraq's shrine city of Kerbala on Sunday at the end of an annual holy rite that passed without the factional violence that marred it last year.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The secretary general of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Sunday he believed a power-sharing deal with the country's ruling party will be reached soon.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan has changed the venue for its independence celebration on Monday to an undisclosed location, an official said, after President Hamid Karzai survived an attempt on his life by Taliban in a military parade in April.

TBILISI (Reuters) - Russia announced it would begin withdrawing forces from Georgia on Monday after a war that dealt a humiliating blow to the Black Sea state and raised fears for energy supplies to Europe.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Almost 50 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven soldiers have been killed and an important rebel training base has been captured in fighting in Sri Lanka's north over the past two days, the military said on Sunday.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish fighter planes hit a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla base in northern Iraq, the army said on its website on Sunday.

MANILA (Reuters) - Muslim separatists killed at least seven Philippine soldiers and wounded a dozen more in an ambush on Sunday on the troubled southern island of Mindanao, the military said.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's Attorney-General said on Sunday the latest plea by the three Bali bombers to the constitutional court would not affect plans for their execution.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's ruling coalition has prepared impeachment charges against President Pervez Musharraf focusing on violation of the constitution and misconduct, a coalition official said on Saturday.

LAKE FOREST, California (Reuters) - Barack Obama cited his youthful experimentation with drugs and John McCain noted his failed first marriage as their greatest moral failings on Saturday at a forum on faith that both U.S. presidential candidates used to appeal to religious voters.

RIYADH (Reuters) - With inflation rising across the Gulf Arab region, Saudi Arabia's perennial problem of unequal distribution of wealth has never been so obvious.

PARIS (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama said on Saturday China was mistreating and torturing civilians in Tibet while the Olympic Games were going on.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $51 million in July, his campaign said on Saturday, nearly double that of his Republican rival John McCain.

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday he plans to meet with Chevron Corp officials and lawyers for 30,000 jungle residents who are suing the U.S. oil giant for up to $16 billion over environmental damages.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, after meeting with his national security team, said on Saturday some progress has been made in resolving the Georgia crisis but Russia still needs to withdraw its troops.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday when the U.S. Congress returns next month from its summer recess, Democrats will offer legislation that could give oil companies drilling access to more offshore areas.

MINSK (Reuters) - Jailed Belarusian opposition leader Alexander Kozulin, considered in the West to be the ex-Soviet state's most prominent political prisoner, was released on Saturday and is on his way home, his daughter said.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian police arrested 10 people on Saturday who they said were behind bomb attacks which killed at least 45 people in the western city of Ahmedabad last month.

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region has agreed to withdraw troops from a neighboring Iraqi province and hand over security in the area to forces of the central government, a Kurdish official said.