The most powerful man in the world is getting frustrated he can't get big things done.

President Barack Obama is speaking with introspection about constraints on his power at home and abroad, as mid-term election inertia stifles Washington and his hopes of major legislative wins this year.

Myanmar on Friday shrugged off U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to renew some sanctions against the country in order to spur continued reform, in a move that highlighted fears over continued rights abuses.

Obama said sanctions restricting certain investments should be renewed because the former junta-run nation still poses "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" in a letter to Congress on Thursday.

Barack Obama's administration rebuked Norway after he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, saying it was an awkward honor for an as-yet untested leader, a Norwegian diplomat revealed on Thursday.

"My most embarrassing day at the U.N., at the time when I was Norway's ambassador there, was when Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was announced. Nobody was talking about it," said Morten Wetland, who served at the U.N. from 2008 to 2012.

President Barack Obama met Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba Tuesday in a show of support for moderate, embattled foes of President Bashar Assad.

Both sides said the meeting was productive and marked an important step in the evolving relationship between the United States and the opposition.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday imposed sanctions against the former Central African Republic leaders Francois Bozize and Michel Djotodia and three other officials, the White House said.

The move comes on the heels of U.N. sanctions announced Friday by the Security Council -- against three of the same five men.

India's triumphant right-wing opposition said Tuesday it was headed for a decisive majority in the world's biggest election after exit polls showed its hardline leader Narendra Modi closing in on victory.

Stock markets surged to record highs on hopes of a business-friendly government under Modi after a decade of rule by a left-leaning coalition, while U.S. President Barack Obama said he looked forward to working with the new administration in New Delhi.

Uruguay's President Jose Mujica warned U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday of the mass "murder" of smokers across the world, highlighting his nation's legal battle to preserve tough anti-tobacco laws.

Mujica met Obama in the Oval Office for talks focusing on wider U.S.-Uruguayan relations and issues including education, trade and economic issues.

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday denounced as an "unconscionable act" the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Islamic militants as a mobilized international community helped with the search effort.

For the first time standing in for President Barack Obama on his weekly Saturday morning address, she said they were both "outraged and heartbroken" over the mass abduction from a school dormitory in a remote corner of northern Nigeria last month.

The United States has condemned "ugly and disrespectful" racist comments directed at Barack Obama by North Korea's official KCNA news agency comparing U.S. President Barack Obama to a black "monkey" in a zoo.

North Korean propaganda is known for vitriolic personal attacks on foreign leaders, but the KCNA dispatch published last Friday -- not long after Obama's visit to South Korea -- stood out for its use of highly inflammatory and abusive racist language.

U.S. President Barack Obama has no plans to meet one-on-one with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in June when both attend the D-Day anniversary in France, the White House said Thursday.

Russia's intervention in the political crisis in Ukraine has triggered the worst chill in relations between Washington and the Moscow since the end of the Cold War.