U.S. President Barack Obama pledged Sunday to maintain pressure on al-Qaida in Yemen, where the president and prime minister have resigned over the country's deepening crisis involving a Shiite militia.

Obama said his priority was to make sure Americans in Yemen were safe, describing it as a "dangerous part of the world."

North Korea Sunday described U.S. President Barack Obama as a "loser" over his criticism on its regime, accusing him of being obsessed with hostility towards Pyongyang.

The comment from the North's foreign ministry came after Obama spoke of the eventual collapse of the regime ruling what he called "the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth". 

U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned Saturday the killing of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State group, though the execution has not yet been independently confirmed. 

"The United States strongly condemns the brutal murder of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa by the terrorist group" Obama said in a statement, referring to IS. Japanese officials were still working to verify a video posted online claiming that one of two men held hostage by Islamic State jihadists had been executed.

A bubbly shopping guide, a charitable "internetainerpreneur" and a comedian who wears green lipstick and eats ladles of cinnamon quizzed U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday in a series of unorthodox YouTube presidential interviews.

Bethany Mota, Hank Green and GloZell Green -- video bloggers who between them have received more than 1.5 billion views on YouTube -- were invited to talk to Obama about his recent State of the Union address.

U.S. President Barack Obama will not meet Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister makes a controversial visit to the United States in early March, the White House said Thursday. 

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said it was a "matter of long-standing practice and principle" that the president not meet candidates or incumbent leaders while they on the campaign trail.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday met the wife of a Christian pastor who has been jailed in Iran for over two years, vowing to work to win his release.

Obama met the wife of Saeed Abedini during a visit to Boise, Idaho, where the president was selling his vision of a more equal America, unveiled in a State of the Union address on Tuesday.

The United States on Wednesday said it was closely monitoring a crisis in Yemen that has seen Shiite militia seize much of the capital Sanaa, with Washington calling for a peaceful solution.

President Barack Obama "is being updated by his national security team," on the unrest, a senior administration official told AFP, as the government of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi -- a U.S. political ally -- teetered on the brink.

Russia on Wednesday responded disparagingly to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, claiming it showed that the United States wanted to dominate world affairs.

"Americans have set a course for confrontation," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after the U.S. president said sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine had left the Russian economy in tatters.

Washington stands side-by-side with victims of terror around the world, President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday, asking lawmakers to give him updated war powers to defeat Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria.

"We stand united with people around the world who've been targeted by terrorists --  from a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris," Obama said in the country's annual State of the Union address.

U.S. President Barack Obama will on Tuesday demand a hostile Congress increase taxes on the rich, in a State of the Union address that sets the stage for coming election battles.

Emboldened by faster economic growth, higher poll numbers and a string of political victories, Obama will outline tax plans that Republican opponents say are little more than class warfare.