Vienna - Eastern European leaders lapped up Barack Obama's pledge of a "new dawn" of US leadership and heaped praise on the president-elect, although some questioned his toughness toward Russia.

From the Baltics to Bulgaria, the ex-communist area that provided some of President George W Bush's most loyal European allies looked for even closer ties under Obama - minus the us-against-them tension of the last eight years.

"Barack Obama now faces immense tasks, and I place hopes on his youthful energy," Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Wednesday.

Mexico City - The number of dead in an airplane accident late Tuesday in Mexico City rose to 13, while 10 people were taken to hospital for treatment of their injuries, the authorities said Wednesday.

Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino - one of President Felipe Calderon's closest advisors - and four other officials were among the dead. However, Mexican authorities stressed Wednesday that they have so far found no evidence that the crash was not an accident.

Kabul - A US-led coalition airstrike killed 40 civilians Monday, reported Afghan authorities on Wednesday as President Hamid Karzai condemned the action.

The airstrike took place in the Shah Walikot district of southern Kandahar province on late Monday after a group of militants attacked US-led troops in the area, Rahmatuallah Raoufi, the provincial governor said.

Amman - King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday congratulated US president-elect Barak Obama and expressed readiness to cooperate with him to push forward peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a royal court statement.

Madrid - Spanish champions Real Madrid announced Wednesday afternoon that defender Pepe would miss that night's Champions League home game with Juventus.

The Portuguese defender failed a late fitness test after pulling the quadriceps muscle in his left thigh in Sunday's 1-1 draw in an away game with Almeria. He has still not properly recovered.

Real coach Bernd Schuster will now have to decide whether to bring

in German central defender Christoph Metzelder, as he did against Almeria, or play Gabriel Heinze in the centre alongside Fabio Cannavaro. He would then put Marcelo at left-back instead of Heinze.

Berlin - A Russian forward deployment of short-range Iskander missiles is "the wrong signal," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin Wednesday.

Moscow said earlier in the day the weapons would be moved to its Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, close to Poland.

Speaking after meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, Steinmeier rejected what he called the "new mentality of blocs."