Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's acceptance of an invitation to address the U.S. Congress, without the blessing of the White House, is destructive to U.S.-Israeli ties, a senior official said Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated America's first ambassador to Somalia since 1991, when ties soured as rival warlords took over the African nation.

Katherine Dhanani, a long-time diplomat with deep experience of African affairs, will have to be confirmed by the Senate for the role in Somalia, where extremists have targeted government officials in a bloody campaign.

The American public has grown more supportive of the U.S. fight against the Islamic State group, with nearly two-thirds now backing the air campaign against the jihadists, according to a survey released Tuesday.

About twice as many approve (63 percent) as disapprove (30 percent) of the military campaign against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, a national survey carried out by the Pew Research Center found.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo "owes it to its people" to end the threat posed by Rwandan Hutu rebels hiding in its eastern provinces, the outgoing U.S. special envoy said Tuesday.

Speaking as the DRCongo army launched a long-awaited assault on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Russ Feingold said getting rid of the rebel threat was "an international responsibility."

A former Marine was convicted Tuesday in the deaths of the "American Sniper" author and another man at a Texas shooting range two years ago, as jurors rejected defense arguments that he was insane and suffered from psychosis.

The trial of Eddie Ray Routh has drawn intense interest, in part because of the Oscar-nominated blockbuster film based on former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's memoir about his four tours in Iraq.

The United States expressed fury at Russia's "lies" over Ukraine after European powers urged a frayed ceasefire be respected, while a rare overnight calm was reported in the war zone on Wednesday.

But the crisis still simmered dangerously. Britain said it was dispatching a team of soldiers to Ukraine for "training" and warned Russia could be cut off from the SWIFT international banking network, while Russia's Gazprom is threatening to stop gas supplies to Ukraine.

Police on Tuesday arrested the driver of a truck that got stuck on train tracks in California, causing a crash with a commuter train in which 28 people were hurt.

The stranded vehicle exploded into a fireball after being hit by the four passenger cars and the locomotive pushing the Los Angeles-bound Metrolink train, officials said.

An exiled Iranian opposition group Tuesday accused Tehran of running a "secret" uranium enrichment site close to Tehran, which it said violated ongoing talks with global powers on a nuclear deal.

"Despite the Iranian regime's claims that all of its enrichment activities are transparent ... it has in fact been engaged in research and development with advanced centrifuges at a secret nuclear site called Lavizan-3," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

U.S. President Barack Obama praised Qatar as a "strong partner" in the fight against Islamic State militants Tuesday, as he hosted Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in the Oval Office.

"Qatar is a strong partner in our coalition to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL," said Obama, using another name for the jihadist group.

The United States and regional power India voiced concern after former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was forcibly dragged into court to face terrorism charges, and denied legal access and medical treatment.

Nasheed, who was ousted three years ago, was denied bail in a brief hearing Monday after being arrested on what critics have labelled "trumped-up charges" designed to shut down growing opposition to the government of President Abdulla Yameen.