Washington, Mar 21: Ex-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has criticised President Barack Obama for the Special Olympics joke he made on a US chat show.

"I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics," Us magazine quoted Palin, whose son Trig was born with Down syndrome last year, as saying.

"This was a degrading remark about our world''s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world,” she said.

Washington, Mar. 21: The National Journal has in a non-partisan analysis found that 30 of the 267 senior Obama administration officials have served as lobbyists in the preceding five years.

According to the Washington Times, Obama once promised that if he was elected president "lobbyists won''t find a job in my White House."

Government watchdogs questioned this promise when William Lynn was brought on to serve as the Deputy Secretary of Defense, a former lobbyist for Raytheon. The White House insisted Lynn was "uniquely qualified for the position."

Washington, Mar. 21: Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, a mother to a child with Down''s Syndrome, has expressed her shock over President Obama’s comment about the Special Olympics on "The Tonight Show."

Obama joked his last bowling score was so low "it was like the Special Olympics, or something."

"I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics," Governor Palin said in statement released Friday.

Los Angeles  - US President Barack Obama has offered a "moving, sincere" apology for a wisecrack in which he compared his notoriously bad bowling skills to those of handicapped participants at the Special Olympics, the chairman of the US Special Olympics board said Friday.

Tim Shriver told Good Morning America that the president called to apologize even before his taped remarks on the Jay Leno show were broadcast Thursday night.

Washington, Mar. 20 : U. S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have brought the era of the cocktail party back to the White House.

Only eight weeks into the Obama administration, and the president and his wife have already hosted their fair share of social events.

White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers has announced that the Obama administration plans to make Wednesday night social events a tradition.

“It’s not so much a cocktail party necessarily,” Katie McCormick Lelyveld, press secretary to Michelle Obama, told FOX News.

Moscow - Russia hopes talks between President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama next month will set a concrete agenda to replace a key nuclear control treaty set to expire in December, the foreign ministry said Friday.

"We hope that the London talks will lead to concrete instructions on what parameters and what tempo negotiations will proceed," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists.