Peshawar, Feb. 11 : US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, visited the Mohmand tribal agency in north west Pakistan on Wednesday.

"He went to the headquarters of the Mohmand Rifles and was given a briefing about military operations," the Dawn quoted a government official in the region, as saying.

Holbrooke travelled to Mohmand, one of seven of Pakistan''s ethnic Pashtun tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, by helicopter.

Fort Myers (Florida, US), Feb. 11 : Three weeks after being sworn in, President Barack Obama has acknowledged in plain terms that his prospects for winning a second term will depend on whether he can revive the US economy.

"I'm not going to make any excuses. If stuff hasn't worked, if people don't feel like I've led the country in the right direction then you'll have a new president," Obama told a town hall meeting here on Tuesday.

Washington, Feb. 11 : President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are unleashing a bipartisan charm offensive and exploiting every square inch of their new home to make friends and influence rivals.

According to Politico, since moving into their new digs, the first couple has hosted a half-dozen gatherings - from bipartisan cocktail receptions to a public open house to the more intimate Super Bowl party two Sundays ago - ending many of their days past midnight.

Moscow - Russia on Wednesday hailed US President Barack Obama's "fresh" approach on Iran, in the latest sign of a thaw in US- Russian ties.

"We are paying particular attention to the declared intention of the new (US) administration to begin a direct dialogue with Iran," Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying at a press conference with EU officials.

The United States and many western European countries suspect Tehran's civilian nuclear energy programme of serving as cover for ambitions to build atomic weapons.

Washington, Feb. 10: President Obama covered a wide range of issues in his first primetime press conference.

Among them was the state of the American economy.

Obama said: "If you delay acting on an economy of this severity, then you potentially create a negative spiral that becomes much more difficult for us to get out of. We saw this happen in Japan in the 1990s where they did not act boldly and swiftly enough, and as a consequence, they suffered."

Washington, Feb. 10: The United States, President barrack Obama has said is ready to explore every opportunity to engage with the Iranian leadership, and not see it as a rogue state with whom business cannot be done.