Washington - President-elect Barack Obama will meet with none of the 20 world leaders descending on Washington this weekend for an emergency financial summit, the head of Obama's transition team said Tuesday.

Obama will remain in his hometown of Chicago for the weekend continuing preparations to enter the White House on January 20 and will host no foreign dignitaries, according to John Podesta, co- chairman of Obama's transition team.

London - Britain's Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury liner, which is to be turned into a floating hotel in Dubai, set sail for its final voyage as a cruise ship Tuesday.

The famous QE2 left its home port of Southampton, in southern Britain, to a blaze of fireworks and the cheers of thousands Tuesday evening after 40 years of service.

Hours before its departure, the vessel had to be refloated after running into a sandbank off Southampton.

Washington - The United States on Tuesday announced new measures to ease the mortgage market crisis that has threatened the wider US and global economy, offering a streamlined approach to help struggling homeowners refinance into affordable mortgages.

Mortgage holders in danger of foreclosure can take advantage of a government plan that will offer them lower interest rates, a longer term and even deferment of payments if needed.

Beirut - The leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said late Tuesday that he expects to see no change in US foreign policy with the election of Senator Barack Obama as president.

"Don't exaggerate hopes nor give people high expectations so that no one is disappointed or makes miscalculations ... the American foreign policy will not change," Nasrallah told supporters at Hezbollah's Martyrs Day in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Nairobi/Kigali, Rwanda - Rwanda on Tuesday expelled the German ambassador to Kigali and called back its own ambassador from Berlin as anger over the arrest of a Rwandan official accused of involvement in the assassination of a former Rwandan president escalated.

Rose Kabuye, chief of protocol to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was arrested on Sunday in Frankfurt on a French warrant.

She is suspected of being involved in the assassination of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana - an act that sparked the 1994 genocide of up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama will meet with none of the 20 world leaders descending on Washington this weekend for an emergency financial summit, the head of Obama's transition team said Tuesday.

Obama will remain in his home town of Chicago for the weekend continuing preparations to enter the White House on January 20 and will host no foreign dignitaries, according to John Podesta, co-chair of Obama's transition team.