Washington  - The 13 victims of Friday's shooting at a service center for immigrants in a New York town included two US citizens and people from seven other countries.

The largest number of victims - four - were from China, ranging in age from 22 to 54, the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin reported online Monday.

Ankara  - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday moved to heal rifts between the United States and Turkey, as well as the wider Islamic world, caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Part of his approach lay in stressing cooperation - not just the use of force - as a way to stop Islamic extremists.

Washington  - The United States will make emergency relief funds available to Italy as the death toll rose from an early morning earthquake in central Italy, a US official said Monday.

The amount of 50,000 dollars would be processed through the US embassy in Rome to help after the quake killed more than 150 people in the ancient town of L'Aquila and surrounding mountainous areas about 100 kilometres north-east of Rome.

Washington - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday laid out a major shift in the Pentagon's spending priorities, cutting a range of expensive Cold War-era weapons programmes and boosting capabilities that would aid the country's battle against terrorism.

Gates said the decisions drew heavily on lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and represented a shift away from conventional warfare, as well as futuristic military projects where the technology was not yet proven.

Washington  - The United States warned Monday of "difficult diplomacy" in finding agreement on a strong, effective international reaction to North Korea's defiant launching of a missile over the weekend.

"The issue's a bit complicated, as you know, and it's going to take time," Robert Wood, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, told reporters. "It's not something, I would suspect, that we could resolve in the next day or so. It's going to take time."

Washington  - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday announced a major shift in the Pentagon's spending priorities, cutting a range of expensive Cold War-era weapons programmes and boosting spending that would aid the country's battle against terrorism.

Gates said the decisions drew heavily on lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and represented a shift away from conventional warfare, as well as futuristic military projects where the technology was not yet proven.