Chicago, February 24: U. S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle hosted their first formal White House dinner on Sunday night.

According to reports, the glittery black-tie evening for the Governors was organised in the State Dining Room.

"Even Axelrod has cleaned up pretty well," the Chicago Sun-Times quoted Obama as saying, referring to senior adviser David Axelrod.

Kuala Lumpur  - Zookeepers in Malaysia's southern Johor state have named two new African lion cubs after US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a news report said Tuesday.

Obama and Hillary, along with another female cub yet to be named, were born in captivity at the Johor Zoo on January 16, zookeeper Mohamad Sham Mahdon Said said.

"Obama the president and Obama the lion cub can both trace their ancestry back to Africa, so there is a definite connection there," Mohamad Sham was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama on Monday promised to halve the country's ballooning federal budget deficit by the end of his four-year term in office, despite a deepening recession that has forced his administration to spend record amounts of money.

Obama, who took office in January, inherited a 2008 budget deficit of 1.3 trillion dollars. That figure could top 2 trillion dollars - more than 10 per cent of US gross domestic product - in 2009 in an effort to halt the country's disastrous economic slide.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama on Monday promised to cut the federal budget deficit more than half by the end of his four- year term in office, despite a deepening recession that has forced the government to spend record amounts of money.

Obama, who took office in January, inherited a 2008 budget deficit of 1.3 trillion dollars. That figure is expected to top 2 trillion dollars - more than 10 per cent of US gross domestic product - in 2009 as the country confronts a massive economic crisis.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama is urging states to spend the government's money wisely despite a deepening recession, ahead of his annual address to Congress Tuesday that will outline the long-term budget priorities for his administration.

Addressing a meeting of the country's governors Monday in Washington, Obama said he was relying on states to quickly implement the 787-billion-dollar stimulus package that became law last week and is aimed at halting the country's disastrous economic slide.

Washington, Feb 23 : A study has revealed that Barack Obama played a big role in changing the way the whites thought about African-Americans, even before he was elected US President.

The researcher carried out by Florida State University Psychology Professor E. Ashby Plant and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Patricia Devine recorded a decrease in racial prejudice.

The decline was seen during the Fall 2008 period between the Democratic Party's nomination of Obama and the November 4 election, and they have called it as the `Obama Effect'.