London, January 9 : Amidst the gloomy global meltdown, the US merchandising industry is cheerfully making a mint by selling Barack Obama-branded articles, whose demand has surged in the run-up to the President-elect's January 20 inauguration.

The looming inauguration of Obama is said to have spawned an industry estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in clothing and collectibles.

Washington, Jan 9 : The tallying of the votes for the 2008 US presidential election took place on January 8, and President-elect Barack Obama was officially declared the winner.

The counting of the Electoral College votes, during a joint session of Congress, showed that Obama and Joe Biden received 365 electoral votes, while John McCain and Sarah Palin got 173, reports Politico. com.

New York, January 9: American military and law enforcement officials have decided to add more soldiers and cops than previously planned to safeguard President-elect Barack Obama''s Inauguration Day.

Sources have revealed that an additional 3,000 troops and 2,000 cops will be deployed to safeguard Obama's swearing-in on January 20.

The addition of extra force will bring the tally to 7,000 soldiers and 10,000 police, they reveal.

Melbourne, January 9: Barack Obama is being featured along with superhero Spiderman in a new children's book by Marvel Comics, after learning that the U. S. President-elect was an avid Spidey collector as a kid.

"When we read that we thought, ''Oh my God the future Commander-in-chief is actually the future nerd-in-chief,''" the New York Daily News quoted Joe Quesada, Marvel''s top editor, as saying.

"With a geek in the White House, we just had to give him a shout back. It''s just the coolest thing ever," Quesada added.

Washington - US president-elect Barack Obama named four former Clinton officials to posts in the Pentagon, including William Lynn as deputy secretary of defence.

Lynn, now a top executive at defence firm Raytheon, served as the Pentagon chief budget official from 1997 to 2001. If confirmed by the Senate, he would become the second-highest ranking civilian in the Pentagon under Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

Washington  - The US Congress confirmed Thursday that Barack Obama won the presidential election, clearing the final hurdle to certify the election before Obama is sworn in on January 20.

In a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, Congress declared that Obama defeated Republican Senator John McCain in the Electoral College by a
365-to-173 tally, and that Joe Biden will become the next vice president.