Washington, Aug 31: If Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama wins the November poll, he will approach the heads of EU leaders to win support for British and American forces fighting the Taliban, revealed his campaign spokesman Senator Jack Reed.

New York, Aug. 30 : The New York Times has said that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has made significant progress in terms of molding his party and his image ahead of the November 4 presidential poll

In an editorial, the paper claims that the Democratic Party of 2008 is different from the one that lost the last two presidential elections.

“It is bigger, younger and less visibly linked to traditional Democratic interest groups,” it adds.

New York, Aug. 30 : A consultant with the Republican Party has said that the forthcoming November 4 presidential poll has all the makings of a political cracker of a contest, a contest that’s Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s to lose, a contest in which his Republican rival, John McCain is going into with too much baggage to overcome.

Denver, Aug. 29 : The New York Times said on Friday said the Democratic National Convention has finally given nominee Barack Obama the boost he needed to surpass John McCain in national surveys this week.

Quoting from the latest Gallup Poll, the paper said that it showed Obama leading McCain by 48 to 42 percent.

Washington, Aug. 29 : Responding to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, the Republicans described it as a “misleading” one, given his "meagre" record.

Republican presidential aspirant John McCain, who had earlier congratulated Obama on his historic achievement of becoming the first African American US presidential nominee of a major party, said the Democrat was still not ready to be president.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meagre record of Barack Obama.”

London, Aug 29 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s opponents have tried to smear him with the claim that he attended a madrassah in Indonesia, but his childhood friends have denied that he was a Muslim.

Obama as a six-year-old boy moved to Jakarta with his white American mother Ann in 1967 and was known as Barry Soetoro, taking his surname from his new Indonesian stepfather.

“We liked to make fun of Barry and tease him,” said Harmon Askiar, a 54-year-old contractor who still lives in the house where young Obama came to play.