Washington, January 3: U. S. President-elect Barack Obama's two daughters are apparently not less than any celebrity, for a Des Moines diner has seen its cookie sales skyrocket since the little girls took a liking to them last year.

Baby Boomers Cafe owners Tom Magnani and Rodney Maxfield have revealed that their chocolate-chunk cookies were popular with the Obama family, including daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, during the campaign season.

Washington, Jan 2 : President-elect Barack Obama is planning an inaugural ball exclusively for members of the military, and his Presidential Inauguration Committee is working with the Defence Department to have the bash broadcast around the world.

The worldwide broadcast would be a first. The new president and his wife, Michelle, are likely to drop by the event for a dance and brief remarks, Politico. com reported.

Washington, January 2: Having marked a step change in U. S. politics, Barack Obama's historic victory in the 2008 election now seems set to upend the way a president is covered by the media.

Experts say that the kind of attention Obama has gained from non-political publications thus far, such as being on the cover of some top magazines, indicates that several new storylines may be brought to the fore when he is covered as 44th U. S. President.

Obama's star power has already prompted some to predict that he will be "the Britney Spears of 2009", and the entertainment press's fixation with the president-elect seems to be helping him as he prepares to take office.

Washington  - US election euphoria, the financial crisis and the Middle East crisis have upstaged the issue of Iran's nuclear activities which are viewed as a growing threat in 2009 to world security.

Concern about the threat prompted a coalition of top think tanks - the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution - to warn in December that Iran poses the biggest challenge for president- elect Barack Obama when he takes office January 20.

Washington - Step by step into the White House: After returning later Thursday to Chicago from vacationing in Hawaii, president-elect Barack Obama and his family are moving this weekend to Washington.

With school opening Monday for daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, the Obamas are to take up temporary residence at the prestigious Hay Adams Hotel, NBC broadcaster reported.

The luxury 19th-century hotel faces the White House from the other end of Lafayette Square, and is named after two of its most famous residents: John Hay, the one-time private assistant to president Abraham Lincoln, and Henry Adams, author and descendant of two of the country's early 19th century presidents - John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

Washington - US president-elect Barack Obama is to start consulting Monday with Congress on an estimated 775-billion-dollar emergency economic stimulus programme he hopes to sign into law upon his inauguration January 20.

With the country in recession for a year and US stock indices shedding 34 to 40 per cent of their value in 2008, the economy tops Obama's agenda. He plans to meet Monday with the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Democrat, the Washington Post reported.