San Francisco (US), Feb. 17 : Attempts by a novelty shop in the Noe Valley neighbourhood to sell greeting cards and candles featuring the halo-adorned head of President Barack Obama, has led Reverend Tony La Torre of the St. Philip the Apostle Church to call for a boycott of these items.

The 15-dollar candles feature the president''s halo-adorned head plastered onto the crucifix-clutching body of St. Martin de Porres, the Peruvian-born friar regarded as one of the first black saints in the Americas.

Chicago, Feb. 17: President Barack Obama will be in Phoenix this week, and has been given an invitation by the Phoenix White Sox, his favorite baseball team, to visit the team facility in Glendale, Arizona.

The new state-of-the art facility that is Camelback Ranch, according to vice-president of communications Scott Reifert, has left players in awe.

Since Obama burst on the national scene, the White Sox have been put into the spotlight by their most powerful fan.

Chicago, Feb. 16: There is some truth to the oft-repeated saying that there is no place like home. Such is the case, it seems , with the First Family of the United States - the Obamas.

Kabul  - US President Barack Obama has accepted and endorsed a proposal from Afghanistan to participate in an inter-agency review of US policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a top US envoy said on Sunday.

In a joint press conference along with Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Karzai said that he had asked Obama to include an Afghan team to have a role in the US review that will look at both military and civilian aspects of the US and NATO war against the resurgent Taliban.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle had a quiet Valentine's Day dinner at an upscale restaurant in Chicago Saturday night.

The first couple dined at Table Fifty-Two, near the north side of their home city. The restaurant is owned by talk show host Oprah Winfrey's personal chef, Art Smith, and serves traditional Southern cuisine.

The Obamas are spending a long weekend in Chicago, the first break for the president since he took office January 20.

Washington  - Illinois Senator Roland Burris, who filled Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat last month, acknowledged in documents made public Saturday that the state's governor's brother sought donations from him.

Burris, 71, claimed that he didn't respond to the request, which came in the months before his appointment as senator. He said in an affidavit that he refused the request as it "could be viewed as an attempt to curry favour with him (governor) regarding his decision to appoint a successor" to Obama.