Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama and his former opponent, Senator John McCain, met on Monday for the first time since the election, pledging to work together to meet the country's challenges.

Obama hosted McCain at his transition team headquarters in Chicago to have a "good conversation about how we can work together to fix up the country," the president-elect said.

Dhaka  - The leader of one of Bangladesh's major parties warned Monday that groups might boycott national elections scheduled for December unless her party's demands to improve the elections are met within 48 hours.

Bangkok - Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is in Dubai, from where he will address his supporters on December 10, a colleague of his said Monday.

The host of the Truth Today talk show, Jaturporn Promphan, who is also a member of parliament in what is considered Thaksin's proxy political party, said the former premier will phone into the show on that date to explain what political direction he will next take.

Now it’s a direct challenge to Orissa govt.

Thousands of Hindus have warned that they would observe Orissa bandh on coming Christmas Day if the state government failed to arrest the killers of the VHP leader by December 15.

Despite a heavy downpour on Saturday morning, more than 50 thousands of Hindus from across Orissa gathered in Bhubaneswar for a rally called by Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati Shradhanjali Samiti.

Former Union minister P Shiv Shankar on Saturday joined the Praja Rajyam Party of Chiranjeevi.

Soon after his joining, Shiv Shankar was made the head of Praja Rajyam's legal cell as well as the election manifesto committee.

"It's a matter of privilege for us to have a leader of Shiv Shanker's stature with us. He brings in enormous political experience which will guide us in the right direction," Chiranjeevi said while welcoming Shiv Shanker into the party.

Shiv Shanker had served as Governor of Kerala.

He was a close associate of Indira Gandhi and served as a minister in her cabinet. He also was a member of the cabinets under Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao.