U.S. President George W. Bush has asked Congress for an additional $3.2 billion to pay for sending at least 4,000 U.S. troops to Iraq.

Russia has warned former Soviet republics in the Caucasus that relations with Moscow would be damaged if any country even considered deploying parts of a planned U.S. missile-defense shield.

A new report by a senior analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations recommends the United States withdraw most of its armed forces from Iraq within the next 12 to 18 months. The recommendation comes as more than 21,000 additional U.S. troops are arriving in Iraq in an effort to quell sectarian violence in Baghdad and fight insurgents in al-Anbar province.

U.S. officials have wrapped up an exercise to prepare for the possible mass flow of migrants arriving by boat from Cuba or another Caribbean nation. From Miami, VOA's Brian Wagner reports that the drill was intended to test existing U.S. resources to combat illegal migration, as well as drug and people smuggling.

U.S. forces killed one suspected militant and captured 16 others in raids across Iraq on Friday morning, the military said.

Oil prices were nearly flat in Asian trading Friday as market participants looked for trading cues from U.S. jobs data due later in the day.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says the U.S. State Department's latest human rights report is not objective.

The United States has urged Russia to investigate fully the suspected thallium poisoning of two U.S. citizens in Moscow.

The White House has vowed that President George W. Bush will veto any measure passed by Congress that calls for the early withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The United States says it is "deeply" concerned by reports that Iranian authorities attacked peaceful women's rights protesters at a gathering to mark International Women's Day, Radio Farda reported.

A U.S. official says U.S. diplomats will not "walk away" if they are approached by Iranian and Syrian diplomats at a conference on stabilizing Iraq scheduled to be held in Baghdad on March 10.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives announced they will sponsor legislation setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008.