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.
Washington - President George W Bush will welcome president- elect Barack Obama to the White House on Monday to discuss the transition phase over the coming months, the two announced Thursday.
Bush and his wife Laura will greet Obama and his wife Michelle before the two leaders retreat to a private meeting Monday afternoon.
Obama said the talks would help ensure a "smooth, effective transition" between now and January 20.
"I thank (Bush) for reaching out in the spirit of bipartisanship that will be required to meet the many challenges we face as a nation," Obama said.
Los Angeles - Barack Obama's historic victory in the presidential election was followed by a record 70 million viewers on live US television, according to figures released Thursday.
This was a dramatic increase from the 60 million viewers who watched the results of the 2004 election.
Millions more Americans also followed the results online, with the most popular news sites - Yahoo, MSNBC and CNN - all getting about 12 million unique visitors each, according to Nielsen Online.
Tehran - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday, in a rare move, congratulated the US president-elect Barack Obama on his success in the recent US presidential race.
"Mr Barack Obama, the president-elect of the United States of America, I congratulate you for being able to attract the majority of votes in the elections," said Ahmadinejad at the start of the message address to to the next president of the country which happens to be Iran's arch-foe.
Wiesbaden, Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing conservatives in the German state of Hesse called Thursday for fresh elections, three days after the failure of a bid to topple them.
The state's Christian Democrat (CDU) leadership said it would present a resolution at the next sitting of the regional legislature, calling for the dissolution of the assembly and new elections on January 18.
Washington - President George W Bush said Thursday he would ensure an orderly transition over the next two months and will welcome president-elect Barack Obama to the White House next week.
Facing the first wartime handover of power since Vietnam, Bush said his staff would immediately begin briefing Obama's advisors on policy decisions.
"We all share a steadfast devotion to the United States," Bush said in a statement at the White House. "All of us must ensure that the next president and his team can hit the ground running."
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.
Washington - President George W Bush will welcome president- elect Barack Obama to the White House on Monday to discuss the transition phase over the coming months, the two announced Thursday.
Los Angeles - Barack Obama's historic victory in the presidential election was followed by a record 70 million viewers on live US television, according to figures released Thursday.
Tehran - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday, in a rare move, congratulated the US president-elect Barack Obama on his success in the recent US presidential race.
Wiesbaden, Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing conservatives in the German state of Hesse called Thursday for fresh elections, three days after the failure of a bid to topple them.
Washington - President George W Bush said Thursday he would ensure an orderly transition over the next two months and will welcome president-elect Barack Obama to the White House next week.
