Washington  - George W Bush leaves office with job approval ratings at historic lows of below 30 per cent, still high compared to his popularity in most other countries.

With unfinished wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, terrorist leader Osama bin Laden still on the loose more than seven years after 9/11, and the US economy in its worst tailspin in decades, critics at home and abroad have often wondered how he could have been elected twice.

Washington, Dec. 16 : The outgoing Bush administration has one final gift for federal employees - a paid holiday on December 26, which will cost the national treasury
450 million dollars in holiday pay and salary for lost productivity.

The National Taxpayers Union, a watchdog on working practices in government and allied fields, was quoted by Fox News as saying that President Bush issued an executive order on Friday, declaring the day after Christmas a holiday and excusing all, but essential executive branch employees from work, with pay.

Baghdad, Dec. 16 : The Iraqi television journalist who hurled his shoes at visiting US President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday, is being feted around the Arab world for having the courage to showcase the rage in the region over a war that is still regarded as unpopular.

President Bush, on a surprise trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, got a taste of dissent at a Baghdad press event Sunday when an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at him, forcing him to duck.

Washington, Dec 15 : George W Bush, who advocated war throughout his presidential rein, has started showing his sensitive side at the fag end of his term at the White House and has started speaking about "love".

It seems that for President Bush love is in the air, the Washington Post reported.

Kabul/Washington  - US President George W Bush arrived in Afghanistan early Monday on a surprise farewell visit, committing the United States to establishing a stable democracy there as violence is on the rise and he prepares to leave office in five weeks.

Bush was to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US troops on his visit, the details of which were shrouded in secrecy as the country and its foreign allies battle a Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgency.

Kabul, Dec. 15 : Two days after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown''s visit to Afghanistan, US President George W Bush arrived in Kabul on a surprise visit to address American troops at the Bagram Air Force base and for talks with his Afghan counterpart, President Hamid Karzai.

Bush flew into Afghanistan from Iraq, where a news conference was disrupted when an Iraqi TV journalist threw his shoes and shouted insults at him.