Bill Clinton said in an interview aired Sunday that he admires his wife Hillary as she makes her second run for the White House, defending her integrity in the face of attacks.

On Saturday, Clinton held the first major rally of her campaign to become America's first woman president, on home turf in New York.

The White House on Tuesday rejected suggestions that President Barack Obama had deliberately ignored the Iraqi prime minister at a G7 summit in Germany.

News footage emerged from the summit showing an apparently eager-to-talk Haider al-Abadi awkwardly sitting down next to Obama, only to be shown the U.S. president's back.

The White House press room was briefly evacuated and a Secret Service sniffer dog deployed Tuesday delaying a scheduled briefing.

Journalists, including an AFP reporter, were escorted out as a security sweep was performed.

The leaders of Germany and the United States hammered home a tough line on Russia Sunday at the start of a G7 summit dominated by crises in Ukraine and Greece.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off the day by treating U.S. President Barack Obama to some traditional Bavarian beer garden hospitality, with frothy ale, pretzels and oompah brass music played by locals in lederhosen.

The White House on Friday urged Congress to come out of the "dark ages" and pass new cyber security rules, using a massive security breach to press its case for reform.

President Barack Obama's allies seized on news of that data on four million government employees had been compromised to press for legislation stalled in the Republican-dominated Congress.

Legislation ending the U.S. government's bulk collection of telephone data is "a historic victory for the rights of every citizen," former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden said in a commentary Thursday.

In the opinion piece, published in several newspapers internationally including The New York Times, Snowden reflected on what he said was a profound shift in the public's awareness of mass surveillance since his infamous leaks disclosing the extent to which the U.S. government and some partners monitor electronic communications.

Globe-trotting U.S. diplomat John Kerry on Tuesday underwent successful surgery to mend a broken leg, and his doctor hopes to get him up and walking within 24 hours.

"The procedure was uncomplicated, the fracture was fully repaired, and we plan to get him up walking on Wednesday," Kerry's orthopedic surgeon Dennis Burke, from Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement.

The White House signaled its intent Tuesday to veto legislation that would stymie President Barack Obama's push to open travel to Cuba, the latest political clash over his landmark foreign policy goal.

The transportation bill includes measures designed to scupper Obama's broader effort to thaw Cuba ties that were set in deep freeze during the Cold War.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham launched his presidential bid Monday near his childhood home, insisting he is more qualified than any other candidate on national security issues -- including Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Graham, 59, joins eight other GOP candidates already in the 2016 race, and with support for the three-term senator eclipsed by other White House hopefuls in national polls, he will be one of the clear underdogs in the crowded race.

The White House denounced the U.S. Senate Sunday for its "irresponsible" failure to prevent a lapse in crucial counterterror operations, but said it hoped lawmakers could put aside partisanship and swiftly rectify the problem.

"The Senate took an important -- if late -- step forward tonight," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement after the chamber advanced an important reform measure that ends the controversial bulk telephone collection program, while maintaining other key provisions.