Firefighters said Saturday they have contained 45 percent of a deadly blaze that has left hundreds homeless in Colorado, as President Barack Obama again hailed their efforts.

Obama used his weekly radio address to urge Americans to support emergency workers like those tackling the week-old Waldo Canyon blaze, which has killed two people and destroyed 347 homes in the state's second largest city.

Sizzling high temperatures punished much of the eastern United States again on Saturday, one day after hurricane-like thunderstorms killed at least 11 people and cut power supply to millions.

Thermometers brushed the 100 degree Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) mark from the Mississippi River to the Mid-Atlantic coast as a vast area of high pressure squatted over the southern states with no signs of moving on soon.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Americans Saturday to support firefighters battling blazes in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado that have killed at least two people and left hundreds homeless.

"It's important that we remember what they do each and every single day, and that we continue to provide support to our first responders, our emergency management folks, our firefighters, our military -- everybody who helps secure our liberty and our security each and every day," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed President Barack Obama's nominee to be the first U.S. ambassador to Myanmar in more than two decades, the latest step in greater engagement with a nation undergoing dramatic reforms.

Derek Mitchell, a veteran U.S. policymaker on Asia, was confirmed by unanimous consent, capping a startling series of developments in recent months which saw the two nations normalize diplomatic relations following democratic reforms in the reclusive Southeast Asian nation.

A shocked U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday toured "heartbroken" Colorado neighborhoods torched by rampaging wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and left two dead.

Crews are still searching for human remains in the ashes of homes destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire, which blazed into the outskirts of the state's second largest city Colorado Springs earlier this week.

A raging wildfire that forced tens of thousands to flee Colorado Springs has left at least one person dead and destroyed an estimated 346 homes this week, making it the most destructive fire in the U.S. state's history, officials said.

Police Chief Pete Carey said late Thursday the remains of one person were found in a home where two people had been reported missing. He didn't elaborate or take questions after making the announcement late Thursday.

The "dysfunction" in the U.S. Congress, where Republicans and Democrats have failed to compromise on debt reduction, threatens U.S. national security, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

"One my greatest concerns as secretary is the dysfunction that we see in Washington," he said late Thursday at a ceremony in which he received an award for public service.

Syrian President Bashar Assad may be granted safe passage or even clemency by the United States and Britain if he agrees to join peace talks in Syria likely to be held in Geneva, reported the Guardian on Thursday.

It said that Britain and the U.S. are willing to make this offer as part of diplomatic pressure aimed at holding the conference in Geneva.

Iran's uranium enrichment effort has picked up speed in the past three years and has not been crippled by cyber sabotage from the Stuxnet virus, experts told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.

As a result, Iran could produce enough fissile material needed for a nuclear weapon within four months, if the leadership decided to go ahead, the experts told the House Armed Services Committee.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday said Russia and China understood the dangers of a Syrian civil war but had not yet "signed on" to a plan to prod President Bashar Assad from power.

Obama said after meeting Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao at the G20 summit in Mexico that he hoped work could take place on a political transition plan to present to the Syrian people in the next two weeks.