Dhaka, Nov 7: Former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed last evening returned home to lead her party in December parliamentary elections. She spent the past five months in the US getting medical treatment.

Police said more than two lakh supporters packed the route to the airport to greet their leader after the emergency government this week lifted all curbs on political rallies ahead of the first polls in seven years.

Washington - Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency with a groundswell of support from youth, women, suburbanites and minorities, according to exit polls analyzed by various media organizations since Tuesday's vote.

Both Obama and McCain got 28 per cent of their support from independents, however.

Obama also benefited from what is expected to have been an unprecedented turnout projected at 133.3 million, or 62.5 per cent of eligible voters, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Washington - In an ironic twist, the US will be celebrating the 200th birthday of president Abe Lincoln - the US leader who ended slavery - just weeks after the inauguration of its first black president, Barack Obama.

Thus, it's hardly surprising that the theme of Obama's January 20 historic inauguration will be dominated by Lincoln, a president who also took office as the nation faced huge challenges.

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama made his first White House appointment on Thursday - picking Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, and will meet with President George W Bush to discuss the transition phase on Monday.

Emanuel, a close friend of Obama's, served as a senior advisor in former president Bill Clinton's White House in the 1990s and oversaw the successful Democratic effort to regain control of the House in 2006.

Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday attended the funeral of some of the victims of Tuesday's airplane crash that killed 14 people, and promised a thorough investigation into the accident.

Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, 37, died in the crash, along with 13 others.

Calderon - a close friend of Mourino's - and his entire cabinet attended the burial ceremony in the Campo Marte military facility in Mexico City, not far from the site where the Lear Jet 45 crashed.

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama has made his first White House appointment - picking Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, and will meet with President George W Bush to discuss the transition phase on Monday.

Emanuel, a close friend of Obama's who served as a senior advisor in former president Bill Clinton's White House in the 1990s, accepted the job on Thursday, a Democratic Party aide confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.