President Barack Obama on Friday named Ashton Carter, a technocrat and academic with deep experience working in the Pentagon, to replace Chuck Hagel as U.S. defense secretary.

Obama praised the 60-year-old former deputy defense secretary, saying that he would bring to the job "a unique blend of strategic perspective and technical know-how."

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee will release a long-delayed, damning report next week on Bush-era "enhanced interrogation" practices by the CIA that President Barack Obama and others have described as torture.

On Thursday the panel's chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, confirmed to Agence France Presse that a declassified version of the controversial study would be released "next week" after her committee and the White House ironed out differences.

In a symbolic rebuke to U.S. President Barack Obama's unilateral action on immigration, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted Thursday to block his plan to shield millions of people from deportation.

The bill, which passed 219-197 along party lines, was introduced by conservatives furious with what they consider Obama's abuse of power when he announced his executive order last month.

President Barack Obama on Friday will announce his choice to replace Chuck Hagel as Pentagon chief, the White House said.

Favored for the post is Ashton Carter, a former deputy defense secretary under Leon Panetta from October 2011 to December 2013.

Texas led a group of 17 U.S. states Wednesday in suing President Barack Obama's administration over its plan to offer up to five million undocumented migrants protection from deportation.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Obama's unilateral immigration reform plans, unveiled last month to bypass Congressional gridlock by Republicans, "tramples" on the U.S. constitution.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is unlikely to shift his stance on Ukraine until the full force of economic sanctions levelled against Moscow hits home.

Obama said Putin's "nationalist, backward-looking" outlook had isolated Russia internationally but had played well domestically. 

Barack Obama showed some presidential support for small businesses on Saturday, when he stopped at a local Washington bookstore for a spot of holiday shopping.

His visit to the Politics and Prose independent bookstore came on "Small Business Saturday" -- a growing movement that encourages shoppers to support local merchants.

Condemned at the U.N. for rights abuses, North Korea hit back Friday, describing the United States as a human rights "tundra" where racial discrimination flourishes.

Citing the protests that erupted when a police officer was not charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, a foreign ministry spokesman heaped scorn on the notion of "rule of law" in the U.S.

The United States said Wednesday it was "horrified" by Syrian regime air strikes in the stronghold Raqa that killed at least 95 people, slamming the government for its "continued slaughter." 

The bombing Tuesday was the deadliest by President Bashar Assad's air force since Islamic State jihadists seized the city last year and declared it their capital.

U.S. President Barack Obama will host Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House December 5 to discuss ways to "calm tensions in Jerusalem," as well as other regional issues, the president's spokesman said Wednesday.

Obama will consult with the king on "efforts to counter ISIL and find a political solution in Syria, provide humanitarian assistance to refugees from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, and take steps to calm tensions in Jerusalem," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.