CIA chief David Petraeus is visiting Turkey for meetings on regional issues, a U.S. official told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The official would not say with whom the CIA chief would be meeting and where.

Quartet envoy Tony Blair met Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil in Cairo on Saturday for talks on the "difficulties" facing the Middle East peace process, MENA state news agency said.

The former British prime minister was also scheduled to hold discussions with Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr during his brief visit, it said.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney campaigned in the swing state of Ohio on Saturday, where he likened Barack Obama's promises on job-creation to that of a failing sports coach.

Romney, fresh from being crowned the party's official candidate for the White House, campaigned in Cincinnati and unfavorably compared the job pledges made by Obama in 2008 against his subsequent record in office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief spokesman on Friday denounced as "inadmissible" a threat by Republican White House challenger Mitt Romney to take a tougher line with Moscow.

"Moscow and Washington have at various levels repeatedly stressed... that it is inadmissible to have situations in which bilateral relations turn into the victim and hostage of election campaigns," Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti.

The Pentagon on Thursday threatened legal action against the former Navy SEAL who has written a book recounting his role in the May 2011 raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

Just days before the release of the first-hand account of the operation on Pakistani soil, the Pentagon's top lawyer, Jeh Johnson, told the author he had broken his promise to abide by a strict non-disclosure agreement signed before he retired from the military this year.

South Korea and the United States on Friday completed an annual joint military drill denounced by North Korea as a rehearsal for war.

The computer-assisted simulation exercise, named Ulchi Freedom Guardian, was successfully finished after kicking off on August 20, the Combined Forces Command of the two allies said in a statement.

The United States warned Iran on Thursday its window for opening serious talks is limited, after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Iran had doubled enrichment capacity at its underground facility at Fordo.

White House spokesman Jay Carney also reiterated that President Barack Obama is determined to prevent Iran getting a nuclear bomb but added that U.S. officials would know whether it reached breakout capacity to reach that stage.

A U.N. official Thursday condemned an Israeli court finding that cleared the army of any blame for the death of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie as "a defeat for justice and accountability."

Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, also called Tuesday's decision in a civil case brought by Corrie's family "a victory for impunity for the Israeli military."

Osama bin Laden was shot in the head as he peered out of a door and then pumped with bullets as he convulsed on the floor, according to a book by a member of the U.S. commando team that killed him.

The Navy SEAL team member's version of the al-Qaida chief's death differs from previous accounts offered by President Barack Obama's administration and will fuel a debate on the handling of state secrets in the wake of the killing.

Ecuador's president fears Julian Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States and has insisted that Britain and Sweden guarantee they will not extradite the WikiLeaks founder.

Assange took shelter in Ecuador's London embassy after exhausting all appeals against his extradition to Sweden for questioning on sex crime allegations, and Quito later granted him asylum, sparking a diplomatic row.