Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday blasted President Barack Obama's approach to Israel, charging he has "immeasurably" damaged Middle East peace prospects and failed to confront Iran.

The former Massachusetts governor, in excerpts of a speech to be delivered on Wednesday to the Republican Jewish Coalition, also declared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "should be indicted for the crime of incitement to genocide."

As potential voters in New Hampshire and Iowa scan the Internet, they probably are seeing ads for Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama alongside deals for shoes and holiday gifts.

The campaign ads will then follow those voters around the Web, popping up on news sites, Google searches and on social networking sites like Facebook.

Pakistan decided Tuesday to boycott a key international conference on Afghanistan next month, ramping up its protest over lethal cross-border NATO air strikes that have plunged U.S. ties into deep crisis.

The decision was taken at a Pakistani cabinet meeting in the eastern city of Lahore, just days after Islamabad confirmed it was mulling its attendance in the German city of Bonn, where Pakistan's participation was considered vital.

The United States is to spend more than $6 billion in Iraq in 2012 even though its forces are to withdraw from the country by the end of this year, US ambassador James Jeffrey said on Sunday.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced on October 21 that the last troops would leave by year's end, but Baghdad will still host the largest American embassy in the world, with up to 16,000 people at the full mission.

Iraqi forces need an American troop presence or at least U.S. training forces, President Jalal Talabani has said, according to a Saturday statement on the Iraqi presidency's website.

Regarding "internal security, I believe that the police and army forces are capable of maintaining security as it is now," Talabani said in an interview with Iraqiya television, according to the statement.

Britain will eventually be proud of its role in the Afghanistan war but it could be another decade before its gains are realized, the head of Britain's armed forces said in an interview published in Thursday's Times.

General Sir David Richards, the chief of the defense staff, admitted tactical mistakes had been made but that he had "every expectation" history would judge the war positively.

China has said it will conduct "routine" naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, in the week after a major diplomatic campaign by U.S. President Barack Obama to assert the United States as a Pacific power.

The defense ministry said the exercises were pre-arranged and did not target any particular country, but the announcement comes against a background of growing tensions over maritime disputes in the Asia-Pacific region.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Yemen on Wednesday to immediately implement a deal under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to hand over power after 33 years in office.

"The United States will continue to stand by the Yemeni people as they embark on this historic transition," Obama said in a written statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama stressed to President Michel Suleiman that the United States stands by the Lebanese people in their pursuit for justice, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy emphasized the need for Lebanon to commit to its international obligations, especially the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Obama told Suleiman in a cable congratulating him on Lebanon’s Independence Day that the United States will continue its support for Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty, reported the National News Agency on Wednesday.

Envoys of U.S. President Barack Obama voiced "deep concern" at violence and the humanitarian crisis on the border of Sudan and South Sudan during a visit to the region, the White House said Monday.

Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough joined Washington's special envoy for Sudan, Princeton Lyman, for talks in Khartoum and then in Juba, the capital of newly independent South Sudan, on Sunday and Monday.