Washington - US President George W Bush left late Monday for Asia on a seven-day trip to South Korea, Thailand - where he is to deliver a major policy speech and meet with Myanmar dissidents - and China for the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

Bush was to arrive late Tuesday in Seoul, where he will meet Wednesday with President Lee Myung Bak, who visited the US in March at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. The two leaders will mark the 55th anniversary of US-South Korean ties.

Washington  - US President George W Bush heads to Asia later Monday for a seven-day journey that will take him to South Korea, Thailand - where he is to deliver a major policy speech and liaise with Myanmar dissidents - and finally China for the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics.

Bush was to arrive Tuesday in Seoul, where he will meet with President Lee Myung Bak, who visited the US in March at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. The two men are marking the 55th anniversary of US-South Korean ties.

Washington, Aug. 4 : A Chinese democracy activist has alerted President George W. Bush of the possibility of Chinese spies infiltrating into the U. S., even as the world gears up for the Olympics in Beijing.

Harry Wu, director of the Laogai Research Foundation, a Washington group that monitors Chinese human rights abuses and the political prison system in China, was quoted by the Washington Times as saying that he raised the issue of Chinese intelligence agents at a meeting in the White House last Tuesday.

Mr. Bush will make a brief statement in China in support of human rights and religious freedom after attending an officially sanctioned Chinese church service, said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

Washington - US President George W Bush heads to Asia later Monday for a seven-day journey that will take him to South Korea, Thailand - where he is to deliver a major policy speech and liaise with Myanmar dissidents - and finally China for the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics.

Bush was to arrive Tuesday in Seoul, where he will meet with President Lee Myung Bak, who visited the US in March at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. The two men are marking the 55th anniversary of US-South Korean ties.

Research published in the American Sociological Review shows that approval or disapproval of President Bush being determined by personal links to victims of Iraq War or 9/11.

According to the research conducted at the University of California, Davis, this pattern holds true for both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and across all races, ages, education levels and incomes.

Washington - US President George W Bush Thursday said combat tours for US forces in Iraq would be reduced from 15 months to 12 months, as a 20,000-strong troop surge to the region had now come to an end.

Bush said that a sharp reduction in violence in Iraq and the increasing ability of Iraqi forces to take on their own combat missions has allowed the United States to continue drawing down troops.

"We now have brought home all five of the combat brigades and the three Marine units that were sent to Iraq as part of the surge," Bush said.