President Barack Obama picked Jack Lew as his new Treasury secretary Thursday and called on the Senate to confirm him as quickly as possible, so he can press on with the work of reviving the economy.

Lew, Obama's current chief of staff, is slated to take over from Tim Geithner, who stood by Obama's side at the darkest moments of the crisis that was hammering American jobs and prosperity when he took office in 2009.

It took patience and nerves of steel, but investors in U.S. markets who held their positions through rocky December got their reward in the new year's opening week.

A long-awaited political deal to head of the fiscal cliff finalized on the Tuesday New Year's Day holiday sparked a huge rally that delivered the S&P 500 to its highest level in five years with a near 4.6 percent gain for the week.

Russia on Friday blasted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for an overhaul of the Syrian opposition and accused Washington of trying to solve the conflict on its own terms.

The Russian foreign ministry said Clinton's comments on the Syrian National Council (SNC) no longer representing the entire anti-regime movement clashed with the agreements world powers reached on the conflict in Geneva in June.

The new U.S. envoy to Tripoli vowed on Monday to follow the line of murdered ambassador Chris Stevens and support Libya as the two states work to bring the militants behind the September 11 attack to justice.

Veteran diplomat and Arabic speaker Laurence Pope, the new charge d'affaires at the embassy, had his first meeting with Libya's acting foreign minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz.

The United States Monday welcomed new European Union financial and trade sanctions slapped on Iran over its nuclear program, saying they deepened the Islamic republic's isolation.

The package targets EU dealings with Iran's banks, shipping, and gas imports, and bolsters the most stringent U.S., European and international sanctions ever imposed on the Iranian government, which have badly damaged its economy.

The White House congratulated the Venezuelan people on a peaceful election on Monday, while admitting that the United States has "differences" with re-elected President Hugo Chavez.

"We have our differences with President Chavez," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "But we congratulate the Venezuelan people," he added, on an election process that was "peaceful."

Global food prices soared 10 percent in July, increasing the threat to millions of the world's poor especially in Africa and the Middle East, the World Bank said Thursday.

Drought and soaring temperatures in the United States and Eastern Europe have savaged some of the key grain crops that feed much of the world, with prices for corn (maize) and soybeans hitting records.

The United States expressed deep skepticism Tuesday about suggestions by Syria's deputy prime minister that the regime was open to discussing Syrian President Bashar Assad's resignation.

"We saw the reports of the press conference that the deputy prime minister gave. Frankly, we didn't see anything terribly new there," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut on Friday again warned its citizens of “an increased possibility of attacks” against them in Lebanon and announced the suspension of the Fulbright and English Language Fellow programs.

“The U.S. Embassy 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 statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Saturday that Syria must not become a haven for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels battling Turkey.

"We share Turkey's determination that Syria must not become a haven for PKK terrorists whether now or after the departure of the Assad regime," Clinton told a joint news conference in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.