The United States has asked Turkey to extradite Osama bin Laden's son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith after his detention in Ankara last week, a Turkish newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Abu Gaith, the former spokesman of the al-Qaida terror network, was seized last week at a luxury hotel in Ankara after a tip-off from CIA, and is being held there by police, the Hurriyet newspaper said.

The Palestinian presidency hopes U.S. President Barack Obama's forthcoming visit will mark the beginning of a new U.S. policy in the region, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

"President Mahmoud Abbas welcomes the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Palestine," Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency told Agence France Presse.

Sri Lanka said Tuesday it had rejected a U.S. request to send troops to Afghanistan but retracted the claim within hours, triggering angry responses on social media about the government's credibility.

"President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected a call by U.S. to send Lankan troops to Afghanistan," the government's information department said in an SMS news alert which was immediately rebroadcast by almost all local media outlets.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday he saw positive signs the United States was rethinking its approach to Tehran in the protracted dispute over the Islamic republic's nuclear drive.

"As I have said yesterday, I am optimistic," he told a foreign policy think tank in Berlin.

Vietnam on Monday sentenced 22 activists to lengthy jail terms ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment, a defense lawyer said, after one of the country's largest subversion trials for years.

The harsh punishments are part of an escalating crackdown on dissent by the communist regime, which has triggered growing international concern.

A defense ministry spokesman confirmed the three-day drill -- condemned as a "warmongering" exercise by North Korea -- was underway in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) off the southeastern South Korean port of Pohang.

Although South Korean military officials stressed the drill was scheduled before the North threatened to detonate its third nuclear device, the presence of the submarine has been seen as a warning to Pyongyang.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Paris Sunday for talks with President Francois Hollande on issues that will include France's military intervention in Mali, the Syria conflict, and Iran's alleged bid to build a nuclear bomb.

Biden, who made no comment to reporters as he arrived, was to have lunch with Hollande on Monday before leaving for talks in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz on Sunday started a five-day visit to Washington, the army said, with the Syrian conflict and Iran's controversial nuclear program on his agenda.

"During the course of the visit, the chief of the general staff and his (U.S.) counterpart, General (Martin) Dempsey, will conduct a series of work meetings together, as well as meetings with other American officials," the military said.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday he wants to keep in regular contact with Syria's opposition after holding his first direct talks with the coalition's leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, Russian news agencies reported.

"I reminded Khatib that after the creation of the coalition and the appointment of their leader, we immediately demonstrated our interest in maintaining regular contact," Lavrov said after the meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

The suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the U.S. embassy in Ankara was an ex-prisoner who suffered from a brain disorder triggered by going on hunger strike, local media and officials said Saturday.

Officials identified the bomber as Ecevit Sanli, 40, suspected to be a militant from an outlawed leftwing group that has recently faced a crackdown by the Turkish authorities.