Paris - When French historian Pap Ndiaye was asked recently what Barack Obama's election as US president would mean to him personally, his voice grew soft: "I will be very moved. The most powerful man in the world will be a black man. This is incredible."

But Ndiaye - the author most recently of The Black Condition: An Essay on a French Minority - was quick to add that he also expected Obama's election to bring about certain changes in French society.

New Delhi, Oct 31 : UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will meet Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh here today.

He is expected to hold talks on the current global financial crisis and climate change with Indian leaders.

Issues like the situation in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal will also be considered during the meeting between the two sides.

The Secretary General is also scheduled to meet President Pratibha Patil, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition LK Advani.

New Delhi, Oct 31 : The Home Secretary-level talks between India and Nepal will be held here today.

The Indian delegation will be led by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Nepalese delegation by their Home Secretary Govinda Prasad Kusum.

The two sides will discuss a broad range of issues relating, inter-alia, to security, border management, and training and capacity-building of officials or police in Nepal.

Effective cooperation for combating terrorist activities and trans-border crimes will be high on the agenda.

The two sides will also review the progress in implementing the decisions arrived at the last Secretary-level talks held on September 25 in Kathmandu.

Winchester, Virginia - A Barack Obama supporter stopped by the campaign's headquarters in historic Winchester in western Virginia, just ahead of the election, looking for a yard sign to trumpet her support, but walked away disappointed.

The campaign had run out of signs, which dot yards and roads across the United States with candidates' names ahead of elections. The McCain headquarters in the traditionally conservative city, population 25,000, had also given out all its signs.

Berlin - Berlin's fabled Tempelhof Airport ceased 85 years of operations on Thursday, with its last scheduled flight taking to the skies after the city's mayor declared time was up for the site.

The airport, which is surrounded by multi-storey apartment blocks, was once the entry point for 2.3 million tons of airborne relief during the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift. Future use of the historic site has not been decided.

Washington - Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama continued their last-ditch attempts to appeal to wavering voters in swing states on Thursday as the US economy took another step toward recession.

Obama planned stops in Florida, Virginia and Missouri and jumped on new government figures that showed the economy contracted 0.3 per cent in the third quarter as proof that a change in approach was needed.