President Barack Obama on Thursday tapped veteran Africa expert Gayle Smith to head the U.S. Agency for International Development, which manages $20 billion of taxpayer money.

"I've worked closely with Gayle for nearly a decade," Obama said, lauding Smith's "energy and passion."

The United States and Japan sought to reinvigorate their 70-year alliance in the face of China's growing clout Tuesday, with President Barack Obama welcoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House.

Voicing shared anxiety about China's activities in the South and East China Seas, the two leaders vowed to counter new threats and increase joint military deterrence. 

National Guard troops deployed to head off further rioting in Baltimore on Tuesday as President Barack Obama warned that recent incidents "raise troubling questions" about the policing of black communities.

Violence and looting erupted in Baltimore on Monday after the funeral of 25-year-old African American man Freddie Gray, who died after suffering severe spinal injuries during a police arrest.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Washington's Holocaust Memorial on Monday to hail a rare hero of Japan's brutal World War II past.

Previously, Abe has faced criticism for his allegedly revisionist views of Japan's own war-time behavior.

President Barack Obama's choice for U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch, was sworn in at her new job on Monday, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.

A career prosecutor known for trying high-profile anti-terrorism trials in New York, Lynch, 55, said she was "honored beyond words" to take over the job of the nation's top prosecutor.

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri's ongoing visit to the United States is focusing on safeguarding Lebanon from regional unrest and raising support for its army and security forces, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Sunday.

It added that efforts are underway to schedule a meeting between the former premier and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Emails to and from President Barack Obama were read by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House's unclassified computer system, The New York Times said Saturday.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials admitted there was a cyber "event" late last year, but refused to confirm reports Russia was behind the attack.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday lashed out at the European Union and world leaders who have recognized the 1915 massacres of Armenians as genocide on the centenary of the events. 

Erdogan accused the leaders of France, Germany and Russia of "supporting claims based on Armenian lies" after they described the slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide -- which Turkey strongly objects to. 

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday described the World War I massacre of Armenians as "terrible carnage", but avoided the term genocide, as tempers flared ahead of the 100th anniversary of the bloodshed.

Friday marks a century since the start of the massacres waged by Ottoman forces, which Armenia says killed 1.5 million people between 1915 and 1917. 

The U.S. Senate confirmed Loretta Lynch as the nation's first black female attorney general Thursday, installing an aggressive counter-terrorism prosecutor as the top law enforcement official for President Barack Obama's final 21 months in office.

Lynch was confirmed in a 56-43 vote -- with 10 Republicans crossing the political aisle to lend their support -- following weeks of gridlock after her confirmation process was dragged into a bitter partisan battle over abortion.