U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed Egypt's proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, saying he hoped it could restore calm.

At an Iftar dinner marking the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan, Obama also said Israel had a right to defend itself against "inexcusable" rocket attacks but described the deaths of Palestinian civilians in the conflict as a "tragedy."

German and Russian support for U.S. President Barack Obama has nosedived in the past year over revelations of spying and tensions in Ukraine, an influential American research group said Monday.

And while the United States remained relatively popular, the Pew Research Center said it found widespread opposition to U.S. eavesdropping as well as to the Pentagon's use of drones overseas.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accepted an invite to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington in September, a statement said, as the two countries look to rebuild strained relations.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns formally invited Modi during a meeting between the pair in New Delhi on Friday, as part of a two-day visit to India to strengthen diplomatic and trade ties.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he was worried fierce fighting with Hamas in Gaza could escalate, and offered U.S. help to broker a ceasefire.

Obama spoke to the Israeli leader after Israeli warplanes pounded the Palestinian enclave but did not stop militants firing rockets at cities inside the Jewish state, and as global concern over rising Palestinian casualties mounted.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned parents in Central America not to send their children alone on the perilous journey through Mexico to illegally cross the U.S. border.

Obama also urged Congress to stop playing politics and work with him to pass his request for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to deal with the building immigration crisis.

Afghanistan's capricious politics and fresh claims of poll fraud Tuesday clouded President Barack Obama's search for a "responsible" exit from Afghanistan by year's end.

The United States, which pointedly stayed mute during two rounds of voting for Afghanistan's next president, swung into action as claims of mass electoral irregularities threatened the country's first democratic transfer of power -- in which Washington has a huge stake.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday requested $3.7 billion in emergency funding from Congress to help cope with a surge of unaccompanied child immigrants from Central America.

Obama said the funds, far higher than the president signaled he would request late last month, would help ease an "urgent humanitarian situation" that has seen tens of thousands of minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras illegally cross the southern U.S. border this year.

President Barack Obama on Friday called America's legacy as a country of immigrants part of the nation's "DNA," as members of the military community were sworn in as citizens at the White House.

At a Fourth of July event marking the 238th anniversary of American independence, Obama praised the newly minted citizens -- some two dozen active duty military, their spouses, veterans, and reservists -- who "remind us that America is and always has been a nation of immigrants."

Russia's President Vladimir Putin congratulated U.S. counterpart Barack Obama on America's Independence Day Friday and expressed hope that bilateral relations would "successfully develop" despite their disagreements.

Putin predicted that relations between Russia and the United States "will successfully develop on a pragmatic and equal foundation despite the difficulties and differences," the Kremlin said.

A new poll Wednesday found President Barack Obama, who is enduring a tough second term, topping a list of the worst U.S. leaders since World War II.

The survey, by the polling institute at Quinnipiac University, revealed that 33 percent of those asked saw Obama as the worst leader in the last 70 years. Twenty-eight percent picked his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.