As the number of suspected attacks grows, U.S. officials said intelligence agencies are seeing signs that Syrian opposition forces may be distancing themselves from the al-Qaida-linked group there — chipping away at one of the key arguments against giving lethal aid to the rebels. Yet, at the same time, the fighters associated with the extremist group are among the most effective against the regime. Assad displayed new confidence, going on the offensive in the hopes of taking advantage of ill will against the extremist group.

Officials insisted Wednesday that no decisions have been made but said arming the rebels is seen as more likely and preferable than any other military option. One U.S. official described a new "reconsideration" within the administration of the military options. The officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss publicly the options under consideration, said most U.S. leaders prefer that the Syrians determine their own fate, so arming the opposition is more palatable than direct U.S. intervention.

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The information, which has been known to the administration and some members of Congress for weeks, isn't solid enough to warrant quick U.S. involvement in the 2-year-old conflict, the White House said. Officials said the assessments were made with "varying degrees of confidence" given the difficulty of information gathering in Syria, though there appeared to be little question within the intelligence community.

As recently as Tuesday, when an Israeli general added to the growing chorus that Assad had used chemical weapons, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was continuing to monitor and investigate but had "not come to the conclusion that there has been that use."

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Kicking off four days of talks in an East Asia beset by increasing North Korean threats, Kerry told reporters in Seoul that Pyongyang and its enigmatic young leader would only increase their isolation if they launched the missile that American officials believe has a range of some 2,500 miles — or enough to reach the U.S. territory of Guam.

"If Kim Jong Un decides to launch a missile, whether it's across the Sea of Japan or some other direction, he will be choosing willfully to ignore the entire international community," Kerry told reporters. "And it will be a provocation and unwanted act that will raise people's temperatures."

Kerry said the test would be a "huge mistake" for Kim.

"It will further isolate his country and further isolate his people who are desperate for food and not missile launches," he warned. "They are desperate for opportunity and not for a leader to flex his muscles."

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In prepared remarks for a speech at the University of Virginia, Kerry cites the adage that "we can't be strong in the world unless we are strong at home." He calls the budget impasse a threat.

The State Department has said automatic spending cuts would jeopardize $2.6 billion in aid, security assistance and other international programs.

Kerry says legislators need to avoid "senseless cuts."

Otherwise, he says his credibility as a diplomat might be damaged.

Kerry says, "Think about it: It is hard to tell the leadership of any number of countries that they must resolve their economic issues if we don't resolve our own."

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State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said a lot of questions remained "about whether the monkey that they reportedly sent up into space and reportedly came down was actually the same monkey, whether he survived."

"The Iranians said they sent a monkey, but the monkey that they showed later seemed to have different facial features," Nuland told reporters. "He was missing a little wart."

Tehran blames the confusion on Iranian media for initially using a photo of a backup monkey. It says the monkey orbited and returned safely, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added Monday that he would consider being Iran's first astronaut in space.

Nuland described Ahmadinejad's proclamation as an "interesting choice," but was more diplomatic than Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who joked about Ahmadinejad's ruminations earlier Monday.

"Wasn't he just there last week?" McCain said in a tweet and linked to a story about the space-orbiting monkey.

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The al-Qaida-linked group is responsible for several high-profile attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. It is blamed for a rocket-propelled grenade assault on the U.S. Embassy and NATO compound in Kabul in September.

But the decision is a complicated one as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan and pushes for a reconciliation pact to end more than a decade of warfare.

Congress has ordered Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to deliver her verdict by Sunday.

Administration officials say they're divided on what course of action to take.

The Haqqanis are playing a leading role in Afghanistan's insurgency. They also have links to Pakistan's intelligence service.

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Col. Hassan Hammadeh’s defection is the first by an air force pilot with his plane in the 16-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland and Pentagon spokesman George Little say the U.S. has long called for members of the Syrian military to refuse orders that might endanger civilians. She says there have been “hundreds” of defections so far, mainly lower and middle-ranking officials.

Nuland called Hammadeh “very courageous” for leaving on a plane worth some $25 million. Both called for more defections.

The air force had been considered fiercely loyal to Assad’s regime. The defection suggests some allegiances may be fraying.

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The U.S. intelligence community has in the past disagreed about the extent of direct links between the Iranian government and al-Qaida. Thursday's allegations went further than what most analysts had previously said was a murky relationship with limited cooperation.

David S. Cohen, Treasury's point man for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Iran entered a "secret deal with al-Qaida allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory." He didn't provide any details of that agreement, but said the sanctions seek to disrupt al-Qaida's work in Iraq and deny the terrorist group's leadership much-needed support.

"Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world today," Cohen said in a statement. "We are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran's unmatched support for terrorism."

Treasury said the exposure of the clandestine agreement would disrupt al-Qaida operations by shedding light on Iran's role as a "critical transit point" for money and extremists reaching Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday's trip to the abandoned town of Jisr al-Shughour allowed Ambassador Robert Ford to "see for himself the results of the Syrian government's brutality."

Yet it was unclear how Ford would have gathered such evidence on the government-sponsored tour.

Nuland said journalists and foreign diplomats saw an "empty town with significant damage." But she said no residents were around to offer an opposing view from the one presented by Syrian government officials.

Nuland insisted it was a "valuable" trip. It was sponsored by Syria's foreign ministry and military.

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Saleh is receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for burns covering some 40 percent of his body, three U.S. officials said. Yemen's leader also is suffering from bleeding inside his skull, the officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

One current and one former U.S. official also said Saleh had additional, significant injuries to his upper body. Those officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said U.S. officials think the injuries were caused by a bomb planted inside his compound in the Yemeni capital, not a rocket attack from outside the compound walls. That conflicts with initial reports of the attack.

Also Tuesday, The Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. military has ceased its training of Yemeni forces.

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The president told America's pro-Israel lobby that "we cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace."

After a contentious couple of days, Obama said Sunday his endorsement of the Jewish state's 1967 boundaries as the basis for a Palestinian state reflected the urgent need for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

He says his call for a future Palestine based on the 1967 borders with agreed land swaps was a public expression of what has long been acknowledged privately.

Obama said he brought the terms out in the open because delay will undermine Israel's security and peace prospects. He repeated his remarks from Thursday on Israeli-Palestinian borders and security verbatim.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

President Barack Obama is trying to assuage some of America's fiercest supporters of Israel after he endorsed the Jewish nation's 1967 boundaries as the basis for a Palestinian state and clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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The IMF's executive board released a letter from the French executive Wednesday in which he denied the allegations lodged against him but said that with "sadness" he felt he must resign. He said he was thinking of his family and he wanted to protect the IMF.

"It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the executive board my resignation from my post of managing director of the IMF," the five-paragraph letter said. "I think at this time first of my wife -- whom I love more than anything -- of my children, of my family, of my friends. I think also of my colleagues at the Fund. Together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more.

"To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me. I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially -- especially -- I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence."

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The caution from top officials such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton represented a careful balancing act for the administration. The U.S. doesn't want to add pressure on Saleh, who has proven himself a key partner in the fight against al-Qaida, even as American officials have become increasingly perturbed by the harshness of his government's crackdown on peaceful protesters.

In Cairo for meetings, Gates said that while things are unsettled in Yemen it was too early to know the outcome. He stressed that the U.S. had a good relationship with Saleh, whose offer to step down at year-end after more than three decades in power has been rejected by the opposition. And, Gates said, the administration hadn't formulated an approach to the country for when the aged president leaves office.

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But the president also stressed the United States "is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya."

In a brief appearance at the White House, Obama said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would travel to Paris on Saturday to join allies in discussing next steps in Libya, where Gadhafi has pressed a brutal crackdown against rebels trying to end his 42-year reign.

Stressing that the United States was acting in concert with European allies and Arab nations, the president said, "Our goal is focused, our cause is just and our coalition is strong."

Obama's remarks came less than 24 hours after the United Nations Security Council voted to authorize military action -- including a "no-fly zone" over Libya -- to prevent the killing of civilians by Gadhafi's forces.

The president spoke with congressional leaders before his public statement, but an official said no request was made for formal congressional action.

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"Moammar Gadhafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave," Obama declared at a White House news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Obama offered his most extensive remarks on the Libya crisis on a day when rebels strengthened their hold on the strategic oil installation at Brega after repelling an attempt by Gadhafi loyalists to retake it.

Pledging to hold Gadhafi and his loyalists accountable, Obama said the U.S. and the entire world were outraged by violence against the rebels. And he lauded U.N. sanctions meant to put international pressure on Gadhafi to give up power.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The Obama administration is tempering its tough talk on Libya with a dose of reality, explaining that even a no-fly zone over the country would require a military attack on Moammar Gadhafi's regime. Two leading senators on defense matters responded Thursday by urging a strong U.S. stance aiding Gadhafi's opposition.

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Gadhafi's legitimacy has been "reduced to zero," the White House said as it announced the steps.

The sharper U.S. tone and pledges of tough action came after American diplomatic personnel were evacuated from the capital of Tripoli aboard a chartered ferry and a chartered airplane, escorting them away from the violence to Malta and Turkey. As they left, fighting raged on in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya as Gadhafi vowed to crush the rebellion that now controls large parts of the country.

With U.S. diplomats and others out of harm's way, the administration moved swiftly. Shortly after the chartered plane left Libyan airspace, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. had been constrained in moving against Gadhafi and his loyalists due to concerns over the safety of Americans but was now ready to bring more pressure on the government to halt its attacks on opponents.

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will help coordinate the larger international strategy to stop the violence in Libya she attends a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva next week, the officials said.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the administration backs a European proposal for the 47-nation council to recommend Libya's expulsion. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss administration planning, also said the U.S. would support efforts to establish a U.N.-led probe into "gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Libyan authorities."

Council members were debating the resolution Thursday in Geneva, ahead of an emergency session Friday. Kicking out Libya would require two-thirds approval of all the 192 countries in the United Nations.

Hundreds are believed to have been killed in Libya in recent days and Gadhafi's regime appears to have lost control of large parts of the country.

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A day after President Barack Obama pressed Mubarak to loosen his grip on power immediately, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. "deplores and condemns the violence that is taking place in Egypt."

"We are deeply concerned about attacks on the media and peaceful demonstrators," he added in a statement. "We repeat our strong call for restraint."

His comments came after the protests in Egypt's capital took a dangerous turn when several thousand Mubarak supporters, including some riding horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters. In scenes of uncontrolled violence, some of the assailants were dragged to the ground by demonstrators and beaten bloody while the two sides rained stones and bottles down on each other.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley also urged calm.

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