U.S. President Barack Obama is supporting U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon for a second five-year term at the helm of the 192-member organization, the White House said Tuesday.

"President Obama welcomes United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's announcement that he will run for a second term, and the United States supports his candidacy," a White House statement said.

U.S. missiles killed 18 militants in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan on Monday, destroying compounds and a vehicle in the deadliest drone strikes for months, officials said.

Three strikes were reported just days after Pakistani officials said they believed senior al-Qaida commander Ilyas Kashmiri had died in a similar attack late Friday, also in South Waziristan which borders Afghanistan.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told France he is ready to attend a Paris peace conference if Israel accepts talks based on the 1967 borders, an aide told AFP on Sunday.

Nimr Hammad, a political advisor to Abbas, said the president had told French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that he agreed officially to France's proposal to host a peace conference in Paris before the end of July.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew into Kabul on Saturday for a farewell visit to Afghanistan after four and a half years of heading up the war effort at the Pentagon.

Gates is expected to visit some of the roughly 90,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan as part of a 130,000-strong U.S.-led international force trying to stabilize the country and reverse a nearly 10-year Taliban insurgency.

An array of sometimes disconcerting sights and sounds went on public display Saturday on the shores of the Venice lagoon for the Biennale contemporary art festival.

From a picture of Jesus in his underwear to a human skull decorated with pearls, the images at the festival provoke, bemuse or titillate.

Former presidential hopeful John Edwards pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of using $900,000 in campaign funds to cover up an extramarital affair, proclaiming: "I did not break the law."

Edwards, 57, was charged in a six-count indictment "for allegedly participating in a scheme to violate federal campaign finance laws," the Justice Department said.

Military pressure on the Taliban could lead to "real opportunities" for peace talks with leaders of the Afghan insurgency within a year, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday.

"My own view is that the political opportunities will flow from military pressure," Gates said at a security conference in Singapore as part of a final tour before stepping down later this month.

French authorities suspended a customs inspector for having a photo taken of himself with U.S. President Barack Obama's passport as the leader entered France for the G8 summit, a union said Friday.

The inspector annoyed travelling U.S. officials by posing for a picture after stamping Obama's passport as the White House delegation arrived on May 26, local radio station France Bleu Cotentin reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Army General Martin Dempsey as his choice to succeed Admiral Mike Mullen as chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff Monday, rounding out an overhaul of his national security team in his third year in office.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright had long been rumored to be Obama's favorite, and the president singled him out for praise at Monday's Rose Garden announcement. But he turned instead to Dempsey, an accomplished veteran of the Iraq war, to succeed Mullen.

U.S. President Barack Obama named Twitter's chief and a high-ranking Microsoft executive among a handful of technology veterans to be appointed as telecommunications security advisors.

"I am proud to appoint such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this administration," Obama said in a White House press release available online Friday.