Turkey's economic development and its role as a regional power will be reinforced by a strengthening of its democracy and peace with its neighbors, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday.

"Turkey’s ability to realize its full potential depends upon its resolve to strengthen democracy at home and promote peace in the neighborhood," Clinton said in a speech at the American-Turkish Council.

The ringleader of a rogue U.S. army unit accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport treated the locals like "savages," a court martial heard Monday.

The so-called "kill team" led by Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was "out of control," prosecutors added as grisly photos of soldiers posing with a corpse were shown in court.

The United States is trying to secure the help of Pakistani intelligence service to organize reconciliation talks in Afghanistan aimed at ending the war there, The New York Times reported Monday.

The newspaper said overtures are taking place just a month after President Barack Obama's administration accused Pakistan’s spy agency of secretly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has mounted attacks on Americans.

Iran on Saturday dismissed a renewed U.S. offer of dialogue by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the "contradictions" of pursuing talks at the same time as threats undermined the proposal.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the comment at a joint media conference in Tehran with the visiting leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in neighboring Iraq, Massud Barzani.

A Syrian-American pleaded not guilty in U.S. court Friday to charges he spied on anti-Assad protesters and handed recordings to Syrian intelligence in a bid to silence the opposition.

Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, was remanded to custody by U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton, who set a March 5 trial date.

An Israeli man pleaded guilty in New Jersey on Thursday to brokering kidney transplants as part of a black market organ business, U.S. prosecutors said.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 60, confessed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, to three counts of acquiring and transferring human organs and a fourth count of conspiracy.

An American evangelical pastor whose church's burning of a Quran sparked deadly violence in Afghanistan announced on Thursday that he plans to run for president in 2012.

In a campaign manifesto titled "Stand Up America!," Terry Jones pledged that on entering the White House he would immediately stop government overspending, bring all foreign-based troops home, and deport all illegal immigrants.

The United States on Thursday issued a warning to its nationals to avoid all but essential travel to parts of Thailand hit by floods, but pointed out that many tourist hotspots were unaffected.

Thousands of Bangkok residents fled the capital on Thursday ahead of a mass of approaching floodwater. The city's metropolitan area and 20 provinces are affected by the extensive flooding, the State Department said.

Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, has confirmed an Interpol request concerning a suspect wanted over U.S. allegations of an assassination plot, but suggested the name was too common to pinpoint the individual, Iranian reports said Thursday.

"There are 150 Gholam Shakuris (in Iran). Interpol sent us a question about this name, and our investigation showed a certain Gholam Shakuri who lives in the United States and is a member of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization," Salehi was quoted in Iranian media as saying in Saudi Arabia.

The United States should use covert action against Iran or even "kill" some of its top officials in retaliation for an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's U.S. envoy, lawmakers heard Wednesday.

"I'm saying we put our hand around their throat right now in every interest they have," retired U.S. Army general Jack Keane told a hearing of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee.