Pope Francis will immerse himself in some of Asia's most fervent Catholicism during a trip to the Philippines and Sri Lanka starting Tuesday, with millions of devotees set to turn out.

The Argentinian pontiff with a man-of-the-people reputation could attract one of the biggest gatherings ever for a pope during an open-air mass in the Philippine capital of Manila.

The United States on Saturday slammed an offer by North Korea to suspend future nuclear tests temporarily if Washington cancels military drills with the South as an "implicit threat."

Pyongyang was "inappropriately" linking routine military exercises between Washington and Seoul to the possibility of a nuclear test, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The FBI and U.S. Justice Department prosecutors have recommended bringing felony charges against retired General David Petraeus for allegedly providing classified information to his former mistress while he was director of the CIA, The New York Times reported Friday.

The investigation stems from an affair Petraeus -- who was also commander of American forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan -- had with an Army Reserve officer who was writing his biography, the newspaper said, citing unnamed officials.

A U.S. teen arrested at a Chicago airport while allegedly trying to join up with Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, has been formally charged, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, faces one count of "attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization," which carries a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000.

A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced British hate preacher Abu Hamza to life behind bars for the deadly kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen and terrorism, calling his crimes "evil" and "barbaric."

The hook-handed imam, blind in one eye and a double-hand amputee, was a tabloid bogeyman in Britain after the 9/11 attacks for preaching vitriolic, anti-American sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Iranian counterpart in Geneva on January 14 ahead of the next round of talks on Iran's nuclear program, a U.S. official confirmed Friday.

The two foreign ministers will discuss "guidance for the negotiating teams" which will meet in the Swiss city from January 18 seeking to reach a deal before the end of June, a senior State Department official said.

A team of camouflage-clad Iraqi soldiers lines up near the door of a one-storey house north of Baghdad with rifles ready, preparing to enter and search it.

For now, there are no militants inside, and American and Iraqi instructors are on hand to tell them how to position themselves, where to look when they enter and how to hold their Kalashnikov assault rifles.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will attend international terror talks convened by France in Paris on Sunday after a deadly attack on a satirical newspaper, a Justice Department official said Thursday.

"The meetings will include discussions on addressing terrorist threats, foreign fighters and countering violent extremism," the official told Agence France-Presse.

The U.S. military will close a major air base in Britain and withdraw from more than a dozen installations across Europe as part of a reorganization of forces, the Pentagon said Thursday.

U.S. operations at RAF Mildenhall in Britain will end and the money-saving consolidation plan will result "in a slight decrease in our force levels" in the region but no loss to American military power, the Pentagon said.

Turkey is planning to buy four more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from the US, in addition to the two it had already ordered, the country's defense industry agency said.

"It has been agreed that four more F-35 planes will be procured in addition to the two previously ordered as part of a plan to buy a total of 100 new generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighters," the defense industry executive committee (SSM) said in a statement posted on its website.