London, November 18: British singer Seal has revealed that Barack Obama’s election as the next President of the United States inspired him to record soul legend Sam Cooke’s song ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’.

The Kiss From A Rose hitmaker says that the mood of optimism across America during the historic presidential election was what influenced his new single.

London, Nov 18: Poland Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has allegedly passed racist jibes on US President-elect Barack Obama, saying that his grandfather was a cannibal, and ate a Polish missionary!

An Oxford-educated Sikorski (45) outraged colleagues when he joked that the US President-elect had Polish roots. “His grandad ate a Polish missionary,” The Mirror quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Opposition leaders in Poland are calling for him to be charged with breaking laws on racism.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama on Monday returned telephone calls to foreign leaders who had called after the November 4 elections to congratulate him for his victory.

Obama spoke with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, his transition team said.

Since the election, Obama has contacted more than a dozen leaders to thank them for congratulatory phone calls.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama and former opponent Senator John McCain pledged to "launch a new era" on Monday during their first meeting since the election.

Obama hosted McCain at his transition team headquarters in Chicago and met privately after appearing for photographs. They later issued a joint statement promising to work together on government reform and across Republican and Democratic party lines to tackle the nation's economic problems.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama and his former opponent, Senator John McCain, met on Monday for the first time since the election, pledging to work together to meet the country's challenges.

Obama hosted McCain at his transition team headquarters in Chicago to have a "good conversation about how we can work together to fix up the country," the president-elect said.

New Delhi, Nov. 17 : U. S. President elect Barack Obama''s remark suggesting Washington''s scope in facilitating a solution to decadesold Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, has generated a new optimism in Pakistan.

In an article titled "Obama for Kashmir solution" published in The Nation, former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad states Obama realises that no strategy or roadmap for durable peace in the region including in Afghanistan would be comprehensive without focusing on the underlying causes of conflict and instability.