President Barack Obama says Russia needs to make a strategic decision to go after the Islamic State group, not the moderate opposition forces trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

He says initial military operations by Russia did not add to efforts to deter IS, and in some ways, strengthened it.

Canada's freshly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to remain a "strong" partner in the fight against the Islamic State group Thursday, during a first formal meeting with President Barack Obama.

The two men joked about greying hair and traded compliments about their spouses and kids, even as Trudeau said he would not reconsider a decision to pull Canadian jets out of Iraq and Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said Syria's civil war would not end unless Bashar Assad leaves power, discounting suggestions the Middle Eastern leader could take part in future elections.

"I do not foresee a situation in which we can end the civil war in Syria while Assad remains in power," Obama said on the sidelines of a trade summit in Manila.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday slammed U.S. domestic "hysteria" about the security risks posed by Syrian refugees, accusing his political foes of demonizing "widows and orphans."

In an unusually fierce rebuke, Obama struck out at American politicians who have called for migrant curbs in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday praised Russia's role in talks to end the Syria crisis and offered the prospect of better ties if Moscow focused military strikes on the Islamic State group.

Obama said Russia had been a "constructive partner in Vienna in trying to create a political transition," referring to international talks in Austria.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday the United States had no precise intelligence warning of the Paris bombing and shooting attacks that have been claimed by Islamic State jihadists.

The United States has agreed to speed up its sharing of military intelligence with France to try to avert such assaults, the U.S. leader added in a news conference after a summit in Turkey.

U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in the Philippines Tuesday with his much-vaunted "pivot to Asia" again overshadowed by events in Europe, the Middle East and politics at home.

Obama will touch down in Manila with the world's focus on the murderous attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group and soul searching about how to counter it in Syria and Iraq.

Myanmar's military establishment pledged Thursday to ensure a smooth transition of power as Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party stood on the verge of a crushing election win.

The country has been dominated by the military for half a century through direct junta rule and -- since 2011 -- by a quasi-civilian government run by its allies.

President Barack Obama's administration on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold measures shielding around four million undocumented migrants from deportation.

Thrusting the country's top court into the position of arbiter in a charged political row, the Justice Department said it would challenge lower court rulings that blocked Obama's efforts to reform immigration policy.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday congratulated his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on recent elections that extended the Turkish president's term in office.

Days before traveling to Turkey for a G20 summit, Obama spoke to Erdogan to "congratulate the Turkish people on the November 1 elections" and discuss the summit, the White House said.