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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is encouraging more employers to adopt family-friendly policies by hosting a daylong summit Monday, even though the U.S. government doesn't always set the best example.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn't mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns, although Obama says he'd like to see that change.

"Only three countries in the world report that they don't offer paid maternity leave — three — and the United States is one of them," Obama said in his weekly address. "It's time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need."

California, Rhode Island and New Jersey have a system of paid leave, but it's unclear how Obama would fund a national system. Obama has not endorsed legislation that would create one funded by a payroll tax, and he pledged in his 2008 presidential campaign not to raise taxes on families making under $250,000 a year.

Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett said in a conference call with reporters Sunday that the president is trying to start a national conversation to explore the issue.

"Cost is an issue for any federal program and we need to make sure we do this in a way where we are not raising taxes on middle-class families," she said. "But we also know what a good investment in our workforce it would be if they had paid leave, and that investment will pay great returns."

While some companies offer paid family leave to attract workers, the 1993 Family Medical Leave Act only requires that employers provide unpaid leave for medical and family reasons.

When Obama came to the White House, he instituted six weeks of paid leave for his workers when they have a child, get sick or injured or need to care for an ailing family member, using his authority to set his staff's compensation under the personnel code. He does not have the power to award paid leave to other federal workers without congressional action since they are covered under a different section of law. The White House has supported the goal of legislation introduced by lawmakers to change that, but it has yet to get through Congress.

Despite the paid leave for White House staff, the challenges of balancing parenting and working are even evident there. The president's top aides include several dads of minor children but hardly any mothers with school-age kids — National Security Adviser Susan Rice being one prominent exception.

"It is a very challenging and demanding environment" for parents, Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said at a media availability hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. "And I think part of what we have to achieve here is to make it easier — that doesn't mean it's going to be easy — it's just going to be easier. And I think that's what the private sector acknowledges."

The summit being held at Washington's Omni Hotel will highlight businesses with family-friendly benefits to hold up as best practices — Obama says child care and flexible work schedules also are vital benefits. Executives representing Gap Inc., PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Johnson and Johnson, Goldman Sachs, Shake Shack, Cisco Systems and Intel Corp. are participating in panel discussions at the summit.

It also comes in a midterm election year focused on women voters, and the White House was devoting all its star power to the event. Obama planned to speak midday and have a meeting with business leaders. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, planned to open the event, first lady Michelle Obama will deliver a closing speech and several other administration officials are participating on panels.

Obama planned to issue a presidential memorandum Monday directing federal agencies to expand flexible work arrangements when possible. Obama also planned to urge Congress to pass legislation requiring employers to accommodate pregnant employees so they can continue to perform their jobs. He also is ordering the Labor Department to create an interactive map that shows the rights of pregnant workers in each state.

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Follow Nedra Pickler at http://twitter.com/nedrapickler

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring Saturn's moon Titan for 10 years. Cornell researchers spotted some bright spots that might be the first sign of seasons on Titan's lakes.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's top court on Monday upheld a government ban forbidding non-Muslims from using "Allah" to refer to God, rejecting an appeal by the Roman Catholic Church that argued that the law failed to consider the rights of minorities in the largely Muslim nation.

Although the Malaysian constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the 4-3 decision by the Federal Court is expected to reinforce complaints from Christians, Buddhist and Hindu minorities that non-Muslims do not always get fair treatment from the government and courts — accusations the government denies.

"We are disappointed. The four judges who denied us the right to appeal did not touch on fundamental basic rights of minorities?," said Rev. Lawrence Andrew, editor of The Herald, the newspaper at the center of the controversy.

"It will confine the freedom of worship," he added. "We are a minority in this country, and when our rights are curtailed, people feel it."

Allah is the Arabic word for God and commonly used in the Malay language to refer to God. The court had ruled that Catholic Church had no grounds to appeal a lower court decision last year that kept it from using "Allah" in its Malay-language weekly publication.

The government says Allah should be reserved exclusively for Muslims — who make up nearly two-thirds of the country's 29 million people — because if other religions use it that could confuse Muslims and lead them to convert.

Christian representatives deny this, arguing that the ban is unreasonable because Christians who speak the Malay language have long used the word in their Bibles, prayers and songs before authorities sought to enforce the curb in recent years. Christians make up about 9 percent of the population, with many living in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island.

The ban appears to apply mostly to published materials, not spoken words, and newspapers using the term would lose their license. Imported Malay-language Bibles containing the term Allah, typically from Indonesia, already have been blocked. Beyond that, it wasn't clear what the punishment would be for violating the ban.

Human Rights Watch said it reflected dwindling religious tolerance in Malaysia.

"This is a sad state of affairs that shows how far and fast religious tolerance is falling in Malaysia. The Malaysian government should be working to promote freedom of religion rather politically exploiting religious wedge issues like long-standing Christian use of the word 'Allah' in Malay texts," said Phil Robertson, a spokesman for the organization.

Over the years, the controversy has provoked violence in Malaysia.

Anger over a lower court ruling against the government ban in 2009 led to a string of arson attacks and vandalism at churches and other places of worship. A 2013 judgment by the Court of Appeals reversed that decision, which the Catholic church appealed to the Federal Court.

An umbrella group of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches in Malaysia said Christians will continue to use the word Allah in their Bibles and worship, saying the court ruling was only confined to the Catholic newspaper.

"We maintain that the Christian community continues to have the right to use the word 'Allah' in our Bibles, church services and Christian gatherings," Rev. Eu Hong Seng, chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, said in a statement.

Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters he welcomed the ruling, but said he hoped no parties would politicize the matter and use it to divide races.

"This is an emotional issue that can affect the country's (racial) harmony. We must handle it with wisdom," he said. "The court has made a decision, so let's accept it."

Some experts believe the Allah issue is an attempt by Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling Malay party to strengthen its conservative Muslim voter base. Religion has become an easy tool because government policies have made Islam and Malay identity inseparable.

"This is a situation that is peculiar to Malaysia. It is tied to politics and the identity of Malays. It is a bending of the interpretation of Islam to suit Malay politics and Malay interests," said Ibrahim Suffian, who heads the Merdeka Center opinion research company.

The issue hasn't surfaced in other majority Muslim nations with sizeable Christian minorities.

In Egypt, where about 10 percent of the population is Christian, both Muslims and Christians refer to God as "Allah," and this hasn't generated any controversy or antagonism. Christians often refer to God as "al-Rab" in their liturgy, but use "Allah" more frequently in their daily life.

The same is true for Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Both groups use "Allah" — although Christians pronounce it "Al-lah" and Muslims say "Al-loh," so you can tell which religion the speaker is — but this hasn't caused friction.

"My question is, if in other countries, 'Allah' as a term for God is not made exclusive, I am surprised how come the use of the term can be limited by any religion elsewhere in the world," said Fr. Francis Lucas, president of the Catholic Media Network Corp., the broadcast arm of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

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Associated Press Writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Jim Gomez in Manila, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Amir Bibawy in New York and Malcolm Foster in Bangkok contributed to this report.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski says an organized crime group is behind the leaked secret recordings of private conversations of him and other officials that have plunged the government into a crisis.

The magazine Wprost on Sunday published a transcript of a conversation in which Sikorski allegedly says Poland's alliance with the U.S. is worthless and "even harmful because it creates a false sense of security."

Sikorski didn't deny making the remarks and didn't offer proof for his claim organized crime is behind the recordings, but said he hopes that the perpetrators will be identified and punished soon.

A week ago Wprost also released a conversation in which the central bank head appears to offer help to the governing party in winning re-election, an apparent violation of the bank's independence.