President Barack Obama revealed Thursday that an American and an Italian hostage were accidentally killed in a covert U.S. counter-terrorism operation near the Afghan-Pakistan border in January, taking "full responsibility" for the tragedy.

A senior al-Qaida leader, an American, was also killed in the operation and the group's English-language spokesman, U.S. convert Adam Gadahn, died in a separate strike.

Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio are early frontrunners to become the next president of the United States, according to a well-regarded poll released Thursday.

Clinton -- a celebrity former secretary of state, first lady and New York senator -- who is bidding to become America's first female president, is head-and-shoulders above her 2016 Democratic party rivals according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation Wednesday aimed at stopping human trafficking, after lawmakers overcame a dispute about the measure's abortion language that prompted weeks of gridlock.

The partisan standoff had delayed a confirmation vote on President Barack Obama's attorney general nominee, federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch. That Senate vote is now expected as early as Thursday.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, named by U.S. Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people, said Tuesday it was recognition that her party was on the rise.

Le Pen said it showed the National Front was being taken seriously internationally and that one day the once fringe protest party founded by her ageing father Jean-Marie could take power.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he was not surprised that Russia lifted its ban on supplying missile systems to Iran, despite the move coming at the height of intense international talks on Tehran's nuclear program.

President Vladimir Putin, whose own government is under strict economic sanctions for Russia's involvement in unrest in Crimea and Ukraine, earlier this week removed the ban on supplying Iran with sophisticated S-300 air defense missile systems.

U.S. President Barack Obama will welcome the six leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council kingdoms in mid-May for talks on Iran's nuclear program and the conflicts in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

The White House said the May 13 meetings at the White House and May 14 gathering at Camp David "will be an opportunity for the leaders to discuss ways to enhance their partnership and deepen security cooperation."

U.S. President Barack Obama has agreed to take Cuba off a list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House said Tuesday, a key step toward normalizing ties.

Obama submitted a report to Congress indicating his "intent to rescind" Cuba's inclusion on the list, which had been a major barrier to establishing embassies in Washington and Havana.

President Barack Obama hosted Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House on Tuesday and hailed the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces' progress against the Islamic State group.

Obama said the allies were "making serious progress" in pushing back the jihadists, taking back a quarter of the territory lost last year. 

U.S. President Barack Obama will decide in "the next days" whether to remove Cuba from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, top diplomat John Kerry said Sunday, refusing to divulge what he had recommended.

Obama held historic talks on Saturday with Cuban President Raul Castro, meeting for more than an hour on the sidelines of a Panama summit as the two countries seek to bury decades of Cold War-era hostility.

With a historic meeting with Cuba's president and a brief chat with Venezuela's leftist leader, President Barack Obama sought to turn the page on decades of rocky U.S. ties with Latin America.

The Summit of the Americas in Panama City became the stage for history-making diplomacy for Obama, who has intensified his engagement with the region in his second and final term in office.