President Barack Obama answered questions from Twitter users across the U.S. in a town hall meeting Wednesday that used the popular social media service and focused on jobs and the economy.

White House officials say Obama sees social media as a way to reach beyond the mainstream media and interact with Americans directly, particularly the younger and more tech-savy part of the electorate as his campaign for re-election in 2012 ramps up.

The United States on Wednesday warned the Palestinians against seeking U.N. recognition of a future state not first defined in talks with Israel, as a top Palestinian official met with U.S. diplomats.

"We don't see a contradiction between the efforts being exerted to revive the peace process and our bid to go to the U.N.," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters after his talks at the U.S. State Department.

An escaped convict allegedly murdered an elderly woman as part of a bizarre plot aimed at assassinating U.S. President Barack Obama after a cross-country killing spree, court records showed.

Maybelle Schein, 75, was discovered with her throat cut in the bedroom of her South Dakota home on Saturday afternoon.

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday launched a criminal investigation into the deaths of two detainee deaths in CIA custody, as it dropped probes into the vast majority of alleged CIA interrogation abuses.

Attorney General Eric Holder did not identify the two detainees who died in CIA custody in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks by al-Qaida on New York and Washington.

Call him the Digital Candidate: President Barack Obama is asking supporters to use Facebook to declare "I'm In!" for his re-election campaign and is using Twitter to personally blast out messages to his nearly 9 million followers.

Emails to supporters seek small-dollar donations in exchange for campaign coffee mugs or a chance to win dinner with the president. The campaign's website helps supporters find local events, plan meetings and raise money while its digital team develops the next big thing.

The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed on Saturday to join forces in combating terrorism, in a joint statement issued after three-way talks in Tehran.

"All sides stressed their commitment to efforts aimed at eliminating extremism, militancy, terrorism, as well as rejecting foreign interference, which is in blatant opposition to the spirit of Islam, the peaceful cultural traditions of the region and its peoples' interests," the statement said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a counter terrorism summit in Tehran on Saturday that despite his government's efforts, militancy was on the rise in both his country and the region.

"Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region," he told the opening session.

Iran protested to the United Nations on Friday over the latest sanctions imposed by the U.S. government, calling the measures "extremely dangerous" and aiming to harm civilians.

Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaei said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that "continuation of this awkward (U.S.) policy is extremely dangerous and will never serve to the maintenance of international peace and security."

In a symbolic but scathing rebuke to President Barack Obama, the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday rejected a resolution authorizing U.S. military action in Libya for one year.

Lawmakers defeated the measure with 295 voting against and only 123 for, and moved to take up a companion resolution aimed at sharply reducing the U.S. role in NATO-led, U.N.-mandated operations against Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

A cell phone used by Osama bin Laden's courier appears to show that the al-Qaida leader was aided by militants linked to Pakistani intelligence, The New York Times said Thursday.

Citing U.S. officials briefed on an investigation into the phone, the Times said calls from the device were traced to Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a militant group linked to Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.