The U.S. State Department's number two was to meet Wednesday with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood's party after it claimed a crushing victory in landmark post-revolution parliamentary elections.

William Burns "will meet leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party at their headquarters in Cairo," FJP spokesman Ahmed Sobea told Agence France Presse.

North Korea said Wednesday that before Kim Jong Il's death the United States offered to provide food aid if it halted its uranium enrichment program, and although Pyongyang blasted Washington for "politicizing" food shipments, it appeared to leave the door open for a deal.

Comments about the proposed deal, attributed to an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang, carried an indignant tone, but the North's statement also said it would wait and "see if the United States has a willingness to establish confidence" with North Korea.

Mitt Romney stormed Tuesday to a commanding win in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary, making him the clear favorite to take on President Barack Obama in November.

The former Massachusetts governor and millionaire venture capitalist immediately looked to South Carolina's January 21 primary, hoping a victory there and in Florida on January 31 could effectively anoint him the nominee.

A U.S. drone attack has hit a militant compound in Pakistan's northwest, the first since a November helicopter strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and triggered a crisis in relations.

Four militants were killed late Tuesday when two missiles struck the compound on the outskirts of Miranshah in North Waziristan, a lawless tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left on Sunday for a five-day Latin American tour that will let him tout some of Iran's few friendships while tensions grow over the country's threats to block oil shipments in retaliation for tighter U.S. sanctions.

His government finds itself largely isolated in the standoff over its nuclear program, and the new sanctions targeting Iran's Central Bank and oil industry have triggered an abrupt drop in the nation's currency.

The United States on Saturday expressed concern over fresh violence in Bahrain between police and demonstrators, and urged a probe into the most recent clashes.

U.S. embassy officials in Manama meanwhile met human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, a Shiite, who was injured during a demonstration on Friday, the State Department said.

Senior Hizbullah official Mohammed Yazbek slammed on Saturday United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon’s scheduled visit.

“Ban, (U.N. Special Envoy) Terri Rod Larson, and the messenger of evil and conspiracy’s (U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs) Jeffrey Feltman are unwelcomed in Lebanon,” Yazebk said.

The U.S. navy's rescue of 13 Iranians from pirates who had hijacked their fishing vessel was a "welcome" humanitarian act, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Saturday.

"We consider the actions of the U.S. forces in saving the lives of the Iranian seamen to be a humanitarian and positive act and we welcome such behavior," Mehmanparast told Iran's Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam.

A U.S. Navy ship has rescued 13 Iranians held hostage by Somali pirates for weeks in the Arabian Sea, the American military said on Friday.

The rescue effort came despite days of rising tensions between Iran and the United States, with Tehran issuing threats and warning Washington not to send the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

A Pakistani man convicted on terrorism charges has been sentenced to more than four years in jail in the United States over a plot to smuggle a member of the Pakistani Taliban into the country.

Irfan Ul Haq, 37 -- who last September pleaded guilty along with two other Pakistanis to conspiracy to provide support to a terror organization -- was sentenced to 50 months in jail by a U.S. federal judge in Washington on Thursday.