US Senator John Kerry said Saturday after talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad he is hopeful that strained US-Syrian relations can be improved. Assad in return assured Kerry he is interested in dialogue with Washington. The former Democratic presidential candidate, who arrived in Damascus Friday, met for two hours with Assad before meeting separately with Foreign Minister Farouk a-Sharaa. The talks centered on the situation in Iraq and how to prevent militants from entering Iraq through Syria. "I think we found a great deal of areas of mutual interest, some common concerns and some possibilities for initiatives that could be...