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Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has pledged a nationwide overhaul of public transportation, improved funding for schools and a crackdown on corruption in response to sometimes violent anti-government protests that have roiled the country for the past week.

In a 10-minute address broadcast on Friday, Rousseff broke her silence on the protests, saying she would spend more money on public transportation and divert some of the country's oil revenues to pay for education, The Associated Press reported. She also addressed widespread anger over government corruption.

"I want institutions that are more transparent, more resistant to wrongdoing," Rousseff said. "It's citizenship and not economic power that must be heard first."

But she also denounced attacks by protesters on government buildings and acknowledged concern about security ahead of a visit by Pope Francis in late July. She threatened to put the army on the streets if the violence continued.

"I assure you, we will maintain order," Ms. Rousseff said.

In an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said the rising expectations of the country's emerging middle class were in part the cause of the protests.

"I think there is a widespread view that they reflect aspirations by citizens who have benefitted from rising living standards for [further] improvements in their lives," Patriota said.

Although the demonstrations began as a protest against a hike in the public bus fare, The New York Times reports:

"In So Paulo, the nation's largest city, protesters [Friday] blocked roads leading to the airport and thousands rallied at a downtown plaza to protest a measure backed by conservative legislators, known as the gay cure, that would allow psychologists to treat homosexuality as a form of mental illness.

The protests continued even though one of the main groups that had been behind the original demonstrations here said that it would not call for any more marches in So Paulo. The group indicated that it had won the concessions on bus fares it had demanded and that it was concerned that some members of allied groups, like left-wing political parties or social movements, had been singled out and beaten up at the demonstrations.

'We won the fight, so we are going to take time to think about what to do next," said Rafael Siqueira, a member of the group, Passe Livre, which had pushed for the rollback of a bus fare increase.'"

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and representatives of ten other countries are meeting in Qatar to coordinate military support to Syrian rebels vying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

The group, dubbed "Friends of Syria", is meeing in the Qatari capital, Doha, and includes European powers and regional Sunni Muslim-dominated countries. It could provide Syrian insurgents with the anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons they say they need to defeat Assad's military.

Reuters, quoting two Gulf sources reports that Saudi Arabia has stepped up its lead role in arming the rebels.

"In the past week there have been more arrivals of ... advanced weapons. They are getting them more frequently," the source was quoted by Reuters as saying. Another source told Reuters that the latest supplies had the potential to top the balance in the rebels' favor even as Syrian government forces have been making significant gains on the battlefield.

The White House announced last week that it would provide direct military support to Syria's rebels after it said Assad's forces had used chemical weapons against the insurgents.

On Friday, the U.S. said it would base another 700 combat-ready military personnel in Syria's neighbor, Jordan, after already saying it would leave F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles there following the conclusion of a joint-U.S.-Jordan military exercise.

NPR's Deborah Amos, reporting from Amman, says Jordan, on the front line of the conflict in Syria, and has more than a half-million Syrian refugees.

She says that "rebels have confirmed to NPR that Jordan hosts a covert military training program overseen by western intelligence agencies."

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned the West against arming the rebels, saying their ranks included "terrorist" elements. The U.S. has said that one of the groups fighting Assad, al-Nusra, is a terrorist organization.

Putin, speaking on a panel in St. Petersburg, Russia, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel said if the U.S. already recognized al-Nusra as a terrorist group, "how can one deliver arms to those opposition members? ... Where will they end up? What role will they play?"

Between his trip to Europe last week and his travels to Africa next week, President Obama is doing a lot of gift exchanges with foreign leaders.

In the past, he has gotten mixed reviews. Four years ago, he was panned for giving the queen of England an iPod. Other presents have gone over better. But the president does not personally select these gifts — a staffer does.

And there's a well-kept secret at the White House: When Obama wants to choose a gift himself for someone in his inner circle, he sets a very high bar.

Last November, Valerie Jarrett, one of the president's closest friends and advisers, had a birthday. The president's gift to her? Two historic documents that now hang in a large frame on the wall in her West Wing office — situated almost exactly above the Oval Office.

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Booker T. Jones — leader of the soul band Booker T. & the M.G.'s — made it big in 1962 with the song "Green Onions." But since "Green Onions" sounds suspiciously natural for the United States, we've decided to quiz him on Funyuns instead: three questions about the crunchy, onion-flavored snack food.