Russia is not discussing Bashar Assad with the United States, a deputy foreign minister said Wednesday after a report said the West was pushing Moscow to offer the Syrian president exile.

"The situation with the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad is not being discussed with the United States," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency.

Pakistan is reopening key supply routes into Afghanistan closed since November, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday, adding the U.S. was sorry for the loss of life in an attack last year.

During a telephone conversation Tuesday with her Pakistani counterpart Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, she "informed me that the ground supply lines into Afghanistan are opening," Clinton said.

The United States has moved new forces into the Gulf to keep strategic waterways open and strike deep within Iran in the event of a regional military escalation, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The Times cited senior officials as saying the quiet build-up was aimed at reassuring Israel that Washington is serious about addressing Iran's nuclear program and keeping the Straits of Hormuz -- a key oil choke point -- open.

A U.N. sanctions committee on Monday removed a leading London-based Saudi reform activist from its al-Qaida blacklist in the face of opposition from the Saudi government.

Saad al-Faqih and his Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia were both removed from the U.N.'s al-Qaida sanctions list following a recommendation from an ombudsman.

The White House welcomed Sunday's implementation of an EU embargo on Iranian oil, calling it "an essential part" of an international response to Tehran's nuclear program.

President Barack Obama's press secretary Jay Carney in a statement said the United States and the European Union were committed to holding Iran accountable "for failing to meet its international obligations."

Iran on Sunday said weekend talks held between major powers seeking a solution to the conflict in Syria were "unsuccessful" because it and Syria were excluded.

"This meeting was unsuccessful... because Syria was not present and some influential nations were not present," Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdolahian told state television.

The U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan pledged Saturday to continue efforts to locate and return an American army sergeant who was kidnapped by the Taliban three years ago.

Bowe Bergdahl, now believed to be 26, was taken prisoner by the Taliban in the southeastern province of Paktika on June 30 2009, and was subsequently officially declared as "Missing-Captured" by the United States.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that Germany and the United States would benefit from having a closer relationship -- if they can first manage to overcome their differences.

"We could better develop our economies, stimulate growth, more jobs, if we didn't have so many obstacles in our talks," Merkel said in her weekly video podcast.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Americans Saturday to support firefighters battling blazes in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado that have killed at least two people and left hundreds homeless.

"It's important that we remember what they do each and every single day, and that we continue to provide support to our first responders, our emergency management folks, our firefighters, our military -- everybody who helps secure our liberty and our security each and every day," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed President Barack Obama's nominee to be the first U.S. ambassador to Myanmar in more than two decades, the latest step in greater engagement with a nation undergoing dramatic reforms.

Derek Mitchell, a veteran U.S. policymaker on Asia, was confirmed by unanimous consent, capping a startling series of developments in recent months which saw the two nations normalize diplomatic relations following democratic reforms in the reclusive Southeast Asian nation.