The United States could let Iran partially enrich uranium in return for strict measures to curb its ability to build a nuclear bomb, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

In what would be a major concession, Washington could agree to allow Tehran to enrich uranium up to five percent purity if the Islamic Republic agrees to unrestricted inspections of its nuclear sites and other conditions, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials.

Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan, said he opposes the sale of F-16 warplanes to Iraq while Nouri al-Maliki is premier, as he fears they would be used against the region.

The United States has agreed to sell 36 F-16 jets to Baghdad in a multi-billion-dollar deal aimed at increasing the capabilities of Iraq's fledgling air force, a weak point in its national defenses.

A suspected U.S. drone strike in Yemen's southeastern Shabwa province has killed five Al-Qaida-affiliated militants, a local government official said on Tuesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said a "U.S. drone" targeted the five men late on Monday in Shabwa, a mostly lawless region of Yemen where the extremist group has expanded its presence.

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has shown no sign so far that his government is sticking by a peace plan to end the fighting in Syria just hours before a U.N. deadline, the White House said Monday.

"We certainly have seen no sign yet of the Assad regime abiding by its commitments," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

First Lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday that Google is opening doors to the White House on the Internet by letting users pay virtual visits to all the public rooms.

The US president's home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is part of a Google Art Project that lets online visitors step into museums, galleries and other famous spaces and look around as though they were there.

North Korea on Saturday criticized the U.S. suspension of food aid over its planned rocket launch as an "overreaction,” saying it would render a U.S.-North Korean deal reached last month null and void.

"The U.S. overreaction to DPRK (North Korea's) plan... has gone beyond the limit," a foreign ministry spokesman said, according to the North's official news agency.

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is likely to be formally charged in the shooting deaths of 16 Afghan villagers within days, a U.S. Army official told Agence France Presse Monday.

He faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Israel's intelligence service Mossad agrees with U.S. assessments of Iran's nuclear ambitions, even though Israeli leaders have talked about Tehran's plans to acquire nuclear weapons, The New York Times reported late Saturday.

"Their people ask very hard questions, but Mossad does not disagree with the U.S. on the weapons program," the newspaper quoted an unnamed former senior U.S. intelligence official as saying.

The U.S. Treasury on Friday slapped sanctions on a man they said was a top bomb-maker of the Taliban, aiming to further cut off his and the Afghan insurgency's access to financial support.

The Treasury said Abdul Samad Achekzai has a central role in Taliban operations building improvised explosive devices in western and southern Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama on Thursday called U.S. support for Israel "sacrosanct," and said he wanted the country to maintain its "military superiority" as he prepares to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two leaders are expected to make discussions about Iran's nuclear development program a priority during their planned meeting Monday at the White House.