Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said Monday a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama during a coming visit to Malaysia would have been "consistent with U.S. democratic ideals," after Washington said there would be no such encounter.

But Anwar, who was convicted of sodomy in March and whose opposition is engaged in a fierce political battle with Malaysia's longtime government, stopped short of criticizing the U.S. president.

About 100 Malaysian Muslim activists protested Friday outside the US embassy against the coming visit by President Barack Obama, denouncing him as an enemy of Islam.

The demonstration underscored the delicate nature of Obama's trip to Muslim-majority Malaysia, which will make him the first siting U.S. president to visit in nearly half a century, a period marked by mutual distrust.

Eight million people have signed up for health care through new insurance exchanges and the proportion of younger applicants has increased, President Barack Obama said Thursday. The enrollments exceeded expectations and offered new hope to Democrats who are defending the law ahead of the midterm elections.

An impromptu appearance in the White House briefing room offered the president an opportunity to trumpet the new figures, which beat initial projections by 1 million. With an eye toward November, Obama castigated Republicans for continuing to seek out every opportunity to thwart the Affordable Care Act.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday offered "deepest sympathies" to the families of the victims of a ferry sinking in South Korea, from which nearly 300 people, mostly children, are missing.

"The bonds of friendship between the American and Korean people are strong and enduring," Obama said in a statement also offering the condolences of his wife Michelle.

The United States warned Wednesday it was "actively preparing" new sanctions to hit Russia if critical Ukraine talks do not produce concessions from Moscow.

U.S. officials privately signaled they had little hope that the Geneva talks between Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and Washington would make significant progress.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call Monday to press pro-Moscow groups to lay down their arms in Ukraine, as the Kiev government sought U.N. help to tackle the growing insurgency.

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia were exacerbated by two episodes at the weekend -- a confrontation in the Black Sea in which a Russian warplane "buzzed" a U.S. destroyer and a visit to Kiev by CIA chief John Brennan.

President Francois Hollande of France and Barack Obama of the U.S. share the same "concern" over the violence witnessed in east Ukraine over the past few days, the French presidency said in a statement Monday.

The two leaders voiced their worry in a telephone conversation in which Hollande expressed hope that a Geneva meeting on Thursday between representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the United States and Europe "will start a dialogue" to defuse the situation.

A gunman shot three people dead Sunday at a Jewish community center and a retirement community in Kansas, drawing widespread condemnation and consternation on the eve of Passover.

The 70-year-old white male suspect, who is in custody, was not local and did not know the victims, Overland Park Police Department Chief John Douglass told reporters.

Iran signalled its defiance Saturday over America's refusal to grant a visa to its chosen U.N. ambassador, saying it does not plan to pick an alternative envoy.

Tehran also said it was examining its legal options over the row, which has undermined a cautious thaw in relations after decades of enmity following the storming of the U.S. embassy in 1979 and the hostage crisis that followed.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday nominated budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell as his new health secretary, seeking to capitalize on an enrollment surge to cement his signature health law.

Obama paid tribute to outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, saying she had pulled off a "historic accomplishment" by securing health insurance for millions of Americans for the first time.