US President Barack Obama on Wednesday named Susan Rice as his new national security advisor, defying Republican fury over her role in the Benghazi affair and calling her an "exemplary public servant." Rice, 48, currently US ambassador to the United Nations, will take over from Tom Donilon in July. Obama nominated Irish-born genocide expert and Pulitzer prize-winning author Samantha Power, 42, as the next envoy to the world body.

The White House praised Turkey's government Tuesday for apologizing for the use of force against protestors in the biggest mass demonstrations of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decade in power. Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said earlier the government had "learnt its lesson" and regretted using security forces against people with "rightful demands." "We welcome the deputy prime minister's comments apologizing for excessive force, and we continue to welcome calls for these events to be investigated," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

A former Croatian defence minister on Monday pleaded not guilty to charges of mismanaging state funds in a 2004 deal to buy military trucks, in a retrial before a Zagreb court. In 2010 Berislav Roncevic was sentenced by the Zagreb county tribunal to four years in jail for abuse of power and mismanaging state funds in the deal, which prosecutors argued had cost the Croatian state around 1.4 million euros ($1.7 million) more than it should have.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday named Danny Russel, a close aide with expertise in Japan, as the top US diplomat for East Asia charged with handling relations with the vast and growing region. The Senate will need to confirm Russel as the assistant secretary of state for East Asia. Obama, announcing Russel and other nominees, praised them for their "depth of experience and tremendous dedication" to their work.