President Barack Obama has ordered that "all appropriate steps" be taken to protect Americans in response to a threat of an al-Qaida attack, a White House official said Friday.

"The president is being updated on a potential threat occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Russia's awarding of asylum to U.S. leaker Edward Snowden dealt a new blow to already bruised relations between Moscow and Washington but it remains in their interest to prevent the row from erupting into a Cold-War style crisis, analysts said.

Washington immediately rebuked Moscow for granting one year asylum to a man the United States wants to put on trial for leaking details of a vast U.S. intelligence program.

Russia on Friday faced fury from the United States after granting asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, whose whereabouts are now a mystery after he was finally able to walk free from an airport transit zone where he was marooned for over five weeks.

The White House said it was "extremely disappointed" by Moscow's decision, adding that it would now review if a U.S.-Russia summit in September is necessary.

The U.S. Senate easily confirmed President Barack Obama's selection for ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday.

The Irish-born Samantha Power, a former Obama foreign policy adviser and outspoken human rights advocate, moves into the job formerly held by Susan Rice, who is now Obama's national security adviser.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their leadership in agreeing to resume peace talks, the White House said.

In separate statements with very similar wording following phone calls with the two men, Obama praised their "leadership and courage" in sending negotiators back to the table this week in Washington for the first time in three years.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday pledged support for Yemen's leader as he praised his visitor's cooperation against al-Qaida and the country's comparatively smooth political transition.

Obama welcomed President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi hours after a deadly U.S. drone strike in Yemen, where Washington has been deeply involved in a campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

President Barack Obama was to welcome his Yemeni counterpart to the White House Thursday against a backdrop of drone strikes and the unresolved fate of Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo.

The meeting with President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi comes hours after a deadly U.S. drone strike in Yemen, where Washington has been deeply involved in a campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Pensinsula (AQAP).

Two leading U.S. senators said they have been asked by President Barack Obama to travel to Egypt to urge the country's military to hold new elections, U.S. media reported Wednesday.

Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, seen as leading legislative voices on U.S. foreign policy and security matters, told reporters that they plan to travel next week to Cairo.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly confirmed James Comey on Monday to become FBI director, elevating the one-time Justice Department official who defied efforts by President George W. Bush's White House to renew a program that allowed warrantless eavesdropping.

Comey was approved 93-1 after one of the Senate's leading conservatives abruptly ended delaying tactics that had blocked a vote on the nomination. Sen. Rand Paul, mentioned as a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, had been thwarting the vote over his concerns about the FBI's domestic use of drones.

President Barack Obama renewed a “national emergency” which imposes a freeze on assets of people linked to Hizbullah, stressing that they still “undermine Lebanon's stability.”

Obama said in a message to Congress on Monday that the situation in Lebanon made it necessary for him to renew the measure, which expires on August 1.