German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that she would work towards a political union in Europe with willing partner countries even if that meant a two-speed approach.

"We need more Europe...a budget union...and we need a political union first and foremost," Merkel told German public television. "We must step by step cede responsibilities to Europe."

U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday issued an unusually personal video tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on her diamond jubilee, saying he hoped she would continue to "reign supreme for many years to come."

In a video posted on the White House website, Obama said the 86-year-old British monarch was a "living witness" to the power and resilience of America's "special relationship" with Britain in times of plenty and of hardship.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in India on Tuesday for talks focusing on Washington's strategic shift towards Asia, as the United States eyes New Delhi as a potentially pivotal partner.

Security ties with India have steadily improved in recent years but U.S. officials have yet to realize the goal of a game-changing alliance that could check China's role and empower the two countries' economies, analysts say.

When 11-year-old Tyler Sullivan goes back to school on Monday, he will have the ultimate excuse note for missing class one day last week -- written and signed by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Sullivan played hooky Friday to see Obama in action during a visit to a Honeywell factory in Golden Valley, Minnesota. When the president finished his speech, the schoolboy took advantage of a chance to meet him.

U.S. drone strikes targeting a militant compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area killed at least five insurgents Sunday, security officials said, the second attack in 24 hours.

Two U.S. drones fired four missiles at a house belonging to a militant commander in Wacha Dana town, 10 kilometers (six miles) west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that any military action in Syria would need backing from the United Nations, but called recent violence "intolerable."

Asked if he could foresee a scenario in which the United States would back military intervention even without U.N. authorization, Panetta said: "No, I cannot envision that."

U.S. President Barack Obama has personally overseen a top-secret process for determining which al-Qaida suspects should be placed on a "kill list," the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The Times, citing dozens of top officials and former advisers, said the administration had developed what it termed the "kill list" as part of a stepped-up drone war against al-Qaida and its affiliates in Pakistan and Yemen.

The administration of President Barack Obama is considering working with Russia on a plan calling for the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad under a proposal modeled on the transition in Yemen, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said the plan calls for a negotiated political settlement that would satisfy Syrian opposition groups but that could leave remnants of Assad's government in place.

Afghanistan's parliament on Saturday voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a strategic partnership agreement with the United States signed earlier this month, lawmakers said.

"We voted with a majority in favor of the strategic pact," MP Shukria Essakhil told AFP.

Russia said on Wednesday that Iran was ready to hold serious talks on its nuclear program that could lead to a gradual lifting of sanctions in exchange for broader transparency from Tehran.

"We have a clear understanding... that Iran is ready to agree on concrete actions," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters, without elaborating.