The murder trial of a U.S. Marine accused of killing a transgender woman in the Philippines began on Monday, after the victim's family angrily rejected his plea bargain offer.

Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton appeared in court dressed in a black suit and dark tie for the start of the trial, five months after he allegedly murdered Jennifer Laude in a red-light district hotel.

Ecuador has denied that leftist president Rafael Correa had accused the United States of trying to destabilize his government by infiltrating it with spies, according to an official statement. 

Correa had said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was trying to "wear down the government" and accused it of helping to organize opposition protests.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani holds his first White House summit with President Barack Obama on Tuesday, capping a four-day visit that the United States hopes will herald a less fraught chapter in relations.

For most of the past 14 years, while U.S. blood has spilled in the craggy mountain passes of Helmand and Wardak, Washington has been fighting a parallel battle with Afghanistan's leaders.

Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, one of the towering figures of post-colonial Asian politics, died Monday after a long illness, plunging the city-state he steered to prosperity into mourning.

Lee's son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in a statement that he was "deeply grieved" to announce the passing of his 91-year-old father at the Singapore General Hospital.

Afghanistan and the United States have common interests at stake in the fight against extremism, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in comments broadcast Sunday.

"While tragedy brought us together, there are common interests that now can be articulated very clearly," Ghani told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

U.S. consular services in Saudi Arabia resumed on Sunday following a week-long closure over unspecified "heightened security concerns."

The American embassy in Riyadh and consular offices in Jeddah and Dhahran have resumed operations, an embassy spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

The U.S. Marine Corps on Sunday urged "vigilance" after a group claiming to be Islamic State hackers published what they said were the names and addresses of 100 military personnel and urged supporters to kill them.

The warning came after a group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division posted information about members of the air force, army and navy, including photos and ranks, on the Internet, according to monitoring group SITE Intelligence.

Hundreds of people on Sunday attended the burial of an Afghan woman who was beaten to death and set on fire by a mob for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran.

The body of Farkhunda, 27, who was lynched on Thursday by an angry crowd in central Kabul, was carried to the graveyard by women amid crowds of men, an Agence France Presse reporter said, a rare act of protest in a male-dominated society. 

Israel's elections, which saw Benjamin Netanyahu clinch a third term, will not greatly affect Barack Obama's defense of any deal reached with Iran, the U.S. president said.

"I don't think it will have a significant impact," Obama told The Huffington Post in an interview Friday published in full on Saturday.

United States Senator and Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz is expected Monday to confirm plans to run for president in 2016, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday. 

The Texas Republican will announce his presidential bid -- as opposed to forming a preliminary exploratory committee -- at a convocation ceremony at Liberty University in Virginia, according to senior advisors speaking to the newspaper.