Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping for improved US-German relations under the Obama presidency, she said in a television interview on Tuesday.

"I hope that our cooperation is shaped by listening to one another, and making decisions on the basis that one country alone cannot solve the world's problems," Merkel said Tuesday on German state broadcaster ARD.

"This is the spirit in which I will encounter him," the chancellor added.

Washington, Jan 20 : The Lincoln Bible to be used by Barack Obama to take oath as the 44th President of the United States, may not belong to the Lincoln family.

"They call it the Lincoln Bible. It is in tolerably good condition. While it is in good condition, it's not really the Lincoln family Bible," claimed Clark Evans of the Library of Congress.

With the Civil War about to erupt and an assassination threat in Baltimore, Lincoln arrived in Washington in the middle of the night. His belongings and his Bible were still en route, CBS News reports.

Paris - Former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal said US president-elect Barack Obama was inspired by her campaign and copied it, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday.

"Yes, I inspired Obama and his teams copied us," Royal said in Washington, where she was to be the only French politician of note to take part in Obama's inauguration later on Tuesday.

Royal said Obama's campaign aides took away several of her ideas, such as her "win-win" slogan or the idea of the "citizen expert."

Washington, Jan 20 : As the world continues to drown in recession, a surprising new finding has come to surface - the Barack Obama industry is reportedly worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars.

A CBS News business correspondent has reported that the business of Obama is booming.

"We even sell an Obama dollar bill now that has his picture on it for 10 dollars. So even his money''s more valuable," said Jim Warlick, owner of the Washington, D. C., store Political Americana.

Washington, Jan. 20 : Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President-elect Joe Biden, has suggested that her husband Joe was offered his choice of either the V. P. slot or the job of Secretary of State in the Obama administration.

The soon-to-be-veep shushed his wife immediately after she made the statement on the Oprah Winfrey show, prompting laughter from the audience.

Obama''s one time rival Hillary Clinton was eventually offered the job.

Washington, Jan. 20 : Boxing legend Muhammad Ali, celebrating his 67th birthday, was the guest of honor Monday night at a Kentucky Blue Grass ball for 1,400 that included other celebrities, lawmakers and native Kentuckians.

Steve Buttleman, official bugler of the Churchill Downs racetrack, said it was appropriate to be saluting Obama and Ali at the same time.

He said Obama was the leader of the greatest nation on Earth and Muhammad Ali was the greatest boxer of all time.