President Barack Obama Tuesday stressed the need for political freedoms in Egypt, as he spoke to the country's new president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew his freely elected predecessor and crushed his party.

Obama spoke by telephone to Sisi, as the United States resumed its uncomfortable balancing act between retaining influence with Egypt, a key regional power, despite discomfort with a political regime that conflicts with its own values.

U.S. President Barack Obama has stressed the importance of the Baabda Declaration as a “significant heritage for next generations” in a cable he sent to former President Michel Suleiman.

The Baabda Declaration, which stipulates separating Lebanon from regional conflicts, is an asset for your leadership, the cable said according to a statement released by Suleiman on Tuesday.

Russia and Ukraine appeared to have made a long-awaited breakthrough in efforts to resolve a damaging crisis in their relations after conciliatory talks on the sidelines of Friday's D-Day anniversary ceremonies.

Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko embraced the spirit of the day that signaled the end of World War II by announcing they would jointly seek a ceasefire in the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in southeastern Ukraine.

Japan could be the first foreign destination for new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese media reported Friday, suggesting the trip could happen as early as this month.

Coming top of Modi's travel itinerary would mark a diplomatic coup for Japan, whose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to boost his country's influence on the global stage and shore up regional alliances to counter the growing strength of China.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told Vladimir Putin to end Moscow's military meddling in Ukraine as he became the first western leader to meet the Russian president since Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

Putin, who has been cold-shouldered by the United States and its allies since the March seizure of the peninsula, met Cameron in Paris on Thursday ahead of talks later with French President Francois Hollande.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said he would make absolutely "no apologies" for doing a deal with the Taliban over U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, which sparked a political storm in Washington.

"We saw an opportunity and we seized it and I make no apologies for it," Obama said at a news conference at a G7 summit in Brussels.

D-Day veterans marched back to Normandy's beaches and villages on Thursday, in an emotional return marking 70 years since the launch of the biggest amphibious invasion in military history.

Royals, top brass and no fewer than 20 world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Russia's Vladimir Putin, will attend the main D-Day ceremony on Friday, amid ongoing diplomatic wrangling over the Ukraine crisis.

President Barack Obama's decision to swap five detained Taliban operatives for an American soldier captured in Afghanistan has baffled lawmakers, with many questioning the military and political merits of the controversial exchange.

Some warned that the president, already burdened by a series of crises, has sunk deeper into political quicksand by negotiating with terrorists, keeping Congress in the dark or manufacturing a military success story in order to mask other scandals.

Germany's federal prosecutor said Wednesday he had opened an investigation over alleged snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

"I informed parliament's legal affairs committee that I have started a preliminary investigation over tapping of a mobile phone of the chancellor," Harald Range said.

Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that years of "troublemaking" by arch-foe the United States had not broken the Islamic republic, which must face head-on its challenges at home and abroad.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not refer to ongoing nuclear talks with a group of world powers that includes the U.S. whose leaders repeatedly say all options, including military action, remain on the table if diplomacy fails to curb Iran's nuclear drive.