U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged NATO allies Thursday not to rush out of Afghanistan as he vowed that a U.S. troop drawdown next month would not mean a hasty exit for Washington.

Gates, who attended his final NATO meeting in Brussels before retiring at the end of the month, said the alliance was making "substantial military progress on the ground" and repeated that it was too early know the impact of Osama bin Laden's death on the war.

The United States on Thursday slammed Iran over its plans to triple its uranium enrichment capacity in defiance of multiple U.N. sanctions.

The move was "the most recent brazen example of (Iran's) deepening non-compliance" with its international obligations, U.S. envoy Glyn Davies told the 35-member board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency at a meeting here.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the international community needs to be more united on dealing with the Syrian government's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement there.

"Right now the attitude of the international community is not as united as we are seeking to make it," the chief U.S. diplomat told reporters.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Army General Martin Dempsey as his choice to succeed Admiral Mike Mullen as chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff Monday, rounding out an overhaul of his national security team in his third year in office.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright had long been rumored to be Obama's favorite, and the president singled him out for praise at Monday's Rose Garden announcement. But he turned instead to Dempsey, an accomplished veteran of the Iraq war, to succeed Mullen.

President Hamid Karzai on Sunday scolded the U.S. military for "arbitrary and unnecessary" missions that kill Afghan civilians, saying it was his last warning on the issue after 14 died in an air strike.

Citing initial reports that 10 children, two women and two men were killed in a strike in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday, Karzai said such operations amounted to the "murdering of Afghanistan's children and women."

A delegation from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon traveled to northern Lebanon on Thursday to follow up on the status of Syrian civilians who have fled the violence in Syria, the embassy announced in a statement.

“The delegation also investigated press reports that Lebanese security agencies have repatriated some of these displaced people to Syria against their will,” the embassy added.

The U.S. is upping pressure on Lebanon to reduce its ties to Syria and is warning Lebanese officials that they risk being isolated, diplomats and officials told the Los Angeles Times.

A Western diplomat and Lebanese officials said that during his visit to Beirut last week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman bluntly warned Lebanese officials that the tide had turned against Syria’s Assad regime and urged them to distance themselves from it.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that Hizbullah has a sizable arsenal of missiles and rockets which could be tipped with warheads carrying biological or chemical warfare agents.

The Shiite group possesses a stockpile that outstrips the number of missiles and rockets held by most nations, Gates said Tuesday after a speech on Pentagon budget issues at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday the possible Palestinian drive for national recognition at the United Nations was a "mistake", in his most direct criticism yet of the campaign.

Obama also urged Israel and the Palestinians to make "wrenching compromise" for a peace deal after a week of acrimony left prospects of a final settlement more distant than ever.

Scientists from the United States, Italy and Mexico, were on Wednesday awarded Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias prize for their research into brain-related disorders.

Joseph Altman, Arturo Alvarez-Buylla and Giacomo Rizzolatti were named joint winners of the Prince of Asturias Prize for Technical and Scientific Research.