The United States confirmed Tuesday that it owned a drone found in Philippine waters, but said the craft only drifted into Filipino territory after crashing at sea four months ago.

The "unarmed target drone" was deployed from the guided missile destroyer USS Chafee in war games off the coast of Guam in September last year, the U.S. embassy in Manila said in a statement.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has said he will urge U.S. President Barack Obama to free the blind sheikh jailed for the 1993 World Trade Center attack.

Morsi told CNN in an interview aired Monday that he was hoping to travel to the United States before the end of March 2013, and he planned to raise the case of Omar Abdul Rahman, serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to begin a four-day U.S. trip Tuesday in which he will meet U.S. President Barack Obama for crucial talks on the future of the American presence in Afghanistan.

Friday's meeting at the White House will come just days after Obama put the finishing touches to his security team, having named his picks to head up the State Department, Pentagon and CIA.

Israeli commentators played down the impact on relations with the United States of Monday's nomination as Pentagon chief of Republican former senator Chuck Hagel, criticized by heavyweights in his own party for being anti-Israel.

"Barack Obama did not choose Chuck Hagel because of his views on Israel and the president will not base his Israel policy on the views of Chuck Hagel", said the commentator of Israel's Channel Two television.

Chuck Hagel, bracing for a bruising Senate confirmation as the next U.S. defense secretary, pledged Monday "total support" for Israel after lawmakers criticized his views on the Middle East.

There is "not one shred of evidence that I'm anti-Israeli, not one vote (of mine) that matters that hurt Israel," the former Republican senator told The Lincoln Journal Star, a newspaper in his home state of Nebraska.

Speaker Nabih Berri congratulated his American counterpart John Boehner on his election as speaker, hoping that he will support Lebanon, its stability and security, as well as the unity of the countries of the region.

He warned in his congratulatory cable: “Division of any country in the region will lead to sectarian and ethnic strife.”

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday announced his choice of Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary and counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, two potentially controversial picks for his second-term national security team.

Hagel has faced tough criticism from congressional Republicans who say the former Republican senator is anti-Israel and soft on Iran. Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran, withdrew from consideration for the spy agency's top job in 2008 amid questions about his connection to criticized interrogation techniques during the George W. Bush administration.

A U.S. drone believed to be used for reconnaissance was recovered on Monday in waters off the central Philippines, police and naval authorities said.

Fishermen found the 3.65 meter (12-foot) drone floating off Masbate island and dragged it to shore, said provincial police chief, Senior Superintendent Heriberto Olitoquit.

known gunmen Saturday shot dead two Pakistani charity workers involved in an education project in the northwestern city of Charsadda, 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Islamabad, police said.

Zakir Hussain, head of the education wing of the al-Khidmat Foundation in Charsadda, was attacked with his driver as they were on the way to visit one of the schools being run by the charity.

The Taliban on Saturday warned of a prolonged war in Afghanistan if any foreign troops stay after the end of 2014, as Kabul and Washington prepare to discuss the "residual" U.S. security presence.

President Barack Obama and President Hamid Karzai will hold talks in the U.S. next week on a long-term security pact between the two countries, with U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan at the top of the agenda.