Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas meets on Tuesday the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, in Doha as Washington presses the Palestinians to abandon plans to bid from UN membership next month, an Arab diplomat said.

The meeting will take place as several Arab foreign ministers convene after a request by the Palestinian Authority "to maintain cohesion in the Arab stand," the diplomat told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

U.S. President Barack Obama said as momentous scenes unfolded in Tripoli Sunday that Moammar Gadhafi's regime had reached a "tipping point" and the Libyan "tyrant" must leave now to avoid further bloodshed.

In a written statement, Obama also looked to the post-Gadhafi era, calling on Libyan rebels who have surged into Tripoli to respect human rights.

President Barack Obama says members of Congress should put country before politics, set aside their differences and act together to put people back to work.

The president is vacationing on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, but he recorded his weekly Saturday radio and Internet address earlier in the week while in Illinois during an economy-focused Midwestern bus tour.

Russia opposes Western calls for Syria's president to step down and will send a delegation to Syria to meet the opposing sides, the Interfax news agency said Friday citing a source and a lawmaker.

"We do not support such calls and believe it is now that President Bashar Assad's regime needs to be given time to implement all the reform processes that have been announced," Interfax quoted a ministry source as saying.

Damascus accused Washington and the West on Thursday of seeking to stoke violence in Syria, after U.S. President Barack Obama and European leaders said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down.

"It is strange that instead of offering (Damascus) a helping hand to implement its program of reforms, the West and Obama are seeking to stoke more violence in Syria," Reem Haddad, the information ministry's director of external relations, told Agence France Presse.

U.S. President Barack Obama demanded Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "step aside" and imposed tough sanctions on Damascus including an asset freeze and ban on U.S. investments in Syria.

"We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Obama said.

Russia and Iran pinned their hopes Wednesday on a new Kremlin-backed nuclear proposal aimed at reviving stalled negotiations with Western powers suspicious of Tehran's weapons drive.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi to iron out the details of a "step-by-step" plan proposed by Moscow that rewards Tehran for greater transparency with a gradual easing of U.N. sanctions.

President Barack Obama accused Republican Tea Party activists of holding back the economic recovery Tuesday, hiking pressure on Congress to pass his yet-to-be unveiled jobs plan.

On the second day of a three-day bus tour of midwestern states, Obama expanded on his theme that political brinksmanship in Washington was harming America's capacity to speed up the slowed recovery.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday played down prospects for a spectacular al-Qaida attack 10 years after the September 11th strikes, saying he worried more now about solitary extremists.

"The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well coordinated terrorist attack," he told CNN television during a campaign-style swing through Iowa.

One will emerge flush with success and nine will go down the drain: it's America's competition for best public toilet and decision time is fast approaching.

Fans have until September 19 to cast online votes for the perfect privy in America's Best Restroom contest.