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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that Russian forces appear to be pulling back from positions inside Georgia and dismissed questions about whether U.S. troops might aid the pro-Western Georgian government.

The truce between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia remains precarious. Russian troops are still inside the former Soviet republic. The United States is standing strong with Georgia.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, this week in an effort to resolve the Russia-Georgia conflict. On Thursday, Rice meets with France's president, who has taken the diplomatic lead in dealing with the conflict.

As radical Islamist groups across Northern Africa are tempered by government crackdowns, the situation in Algeria is very different. A group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is a key player.

When Vladimir Putin stepped down as president and named Dmitiri Medvedev his successor, there were questions over who would hold power in Russia. No longer. The past week's events have made clear Russia is still under Putin's control.

Hours after it agreed to a provisional cease-fire with Georgia, Russia has demonstrated its military can freely move across Georgian territory. The authority of the Georgian government doesn't extend much beyond the capital, Tblisi.

Fears that a North African wing of al-Qaida was emerging in the wake of 2003 attacks in Casablanca have largely failed to materialize, and countries such as Morocco have contained or subdued their Islamist threats. But some say the fight on terror has eroded civil rights and set back democracy efforts.

Russia's president has ordered his troops to halt military action in Georgia. In return, Russia wants Georgia to agree not to try again to take separatist areas Moscow supports. The French have taken the lead on this diplomatic effort to end the fighting.

Russia and Georgia have agreed in principle to a cease-fire, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday after the two sides fought for days inside Georgian territory. It was unclear how any agreement would play out on the ground.

Among the political luminaries attending the Beijing Olympics are Henry Kissinger and former President George H.W. Bush. Kissinger was a national security adviser for Richard Nixon who opened up U.S. relations with Communist China in the 1970s. Bush served as the senior U.S. diplomat in Beijing in the early days of U.S.-China relations.