Fresh sanctions slapped by the United States are meant to "expose and disrupt" links between Iran, Hizbullah movement and Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday.

She said the "number one goal" of Washington and Ankara was to hasten the end of Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus and stop the bloodshed, while warning that Syria must not become a haven for Kurdish rebels battling Turkey.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney has chosen Congressman Paul Ryan, known for advocating deep cuts in federal spending, as his running mate, his campaign announced Saturday.

The selection was first made public in a brief email message sent by the campaign to reporters saying that Ryan was Romney's pick for vice president.

Mosques and Islamic centers across the United States came together Friday to condemn Syria's brutal crackdown on dissent and raise funds for civilians trapped in the conflict.

With the holy month of Ramadan heading towards its final week, imams used Friday prayers to denounce Syrian President Bashar Assad as a tyrant and to encourage American Muslims to speak out against ongoing atrocities.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Friday that it has “received reports of an increased possibility of attacks against U.S. citizens in Lebanon.”

“Possible threats include kidnapping, the potential for an upsurge in violence, the escalation of family or neighborhood disputes, as well as U.S. citizens being the target of terrorist attacks in Lebanon,” the embassy said in a warning for U.S. citizens published on its website.

A Muslim U.S. soldier turned conscientious objector was jailed for life on Friday after being convicted of plotting to kill troops and their families from a military base.

The court had heard that Naser Jason Abdo, 22, planned to attack soldiers and their families from Fort Hood, a sprawling army installation northwest of the Texas state capital, Austin.

The United States fears Hizbullah may be planning imminent attacks in Europe and around the world, a senior security official in Washington said Friday.

"Our assessment is that Hizbullah and Iran will both continue to maintain a heightened level of terrorist activity and operations in the near future," said Daniel Benjamin, the U.S. State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator.

The United States plans new sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and its supporters in a bid to put further pressure on Damascus, a U.S. State Department official said Friday.

"...One of the key forms of pressure is economic sanctions, which in the coming days or very shortly we will be tightening further with additional sanctions (on) both Syrian entities and those who are supporting the efforts of the Syrian government to oppress its own people," the official said.

The American Task Force for Lebanon lashed out at New York-based United against Nuclear Iran (UANI) for accusing the Lebanese banking sector of laundering money for the benefit of Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, describing them as false accusations.

The ATFL argues that the campaign launched by UANI encouraged private-equity firms to unload their Lebanese holdings, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

Three American soldiers were killed Friday when a man in an Afghan uniform turned his weapon against them, the U.S. military said, in the third so-called green-on-blue attack in less than a week.

A spokeswoman said "an individual in an Afghan uniform fired on U.S. Forces Afghanistan services members in Sangin district of Helmand province. There were three U.S. Forces Afghanistan fatalities.

The U.S. and Israeli evaluation of Iran's nuclear program are closer than ever following a secret U.S. intelligence report, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday.

"It seems there really is a report by U.S. intelligence agencies. I don't know if it's by the National Intelligence Estimate or a different agency circulating between senior chambers," he told public radio, asked about the report which Israeli daily Haaretz ran on its front page.