Washington, Dec. 15 (ANI): Incoming US Vice-President Joe Biden is reported to be laying out plans to significantly shrink the role of the vice presidency in Barack Obama's White House.

An official familiar with his thinking told Politico, that Biden won't sit in on Senate Democrats' weekly caucus meetings, won't have an office outside the House floor, will not begin every day with his own intelligence briefing before sitting in on the president's, will not always be the last person Obama speaks to before making a decision.

New York, December 15 : Action figures based on President-elect Barack Obama have been "flying off the shelves", according to a Manhattan toy store worker.

The Barbie-sized figure, manufactured by a New Jersey company called Jailbreak Toys, was said to have been repeatedly grabbed by kids at Scholastic Store in SoHo.

"They are literally flying off the shelves. The kids see Obama, and they just want to grab him," the New York Daily News quoted a worker as saying.

Washington, dec. 15 : The wife of a missing Pakistani has written to US President-elect Barack Obama, asking him to help find her husband Masood Janjua.

Amina Janjua, the chairperson of the Islamabad-based Defence of Human Rights, has claimed in the letter that her husband was abducted on his way to Peshawar in 2005.

According to Aasim Qureshi, a human rights lawyer in Britain, who held a news conference in Pakistan on December 4 this year, Masood is detained in Pakistan and is not being released because of the CIA''s involvement.

Chicago, Dec. 14 : US President-elect Barack Obama has been using his four minutes of weekend airtime not only to speak directly to the American people, but also to create news.

According to the Washington Post, Obama used the address to announce Shaun Donovan, New York City''s housing commissioner, as his nominee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Obama has previously outlined a series of specific proposals aimed at reversing the nation''s economic torpor, and he sketched out a plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years.

Washington, Dec 14 : He might be the most talked about person today, but on the personal front, the US President-elect Barack Obama is quite boring - at least that's what his friend says.

Michael Strautmanis, a longtime friend of the soon-to-be first couple who will serve as the chief of staff to Assistant to the President Valerie Jarrett, said he is constantly fielding questions from acquaintances on a wide range of Obama topics, reports Politico.

Washington, Dec. 14: Former US Assistant Secretary of Defence Lawrence J Korb has called on President-elect Barack Obama to broaden his engagement with countries in South Asia.

Currently associated with a major think tank with close links to Obama, Korb said that the incoming Obama administration must recognize the regional nature of the country''s challenges and support the country in stabilising its economy.

He urged the incoming administration to work with Congress and the international community to help Pakistan weaken al-Qaeda, the Taliban and affiliated militant groups so they no longer threaten stability in the region, the United States or the world and secure borders between Pakistan and its neighbours.