Washington, Nov 20 : Prof John Esposito, a leading US expert on Islam, has reportedly said that the US President-elect Barack Obama has been welcomed worldover as an ‘internationalist President’, contrary to George W Bush who, according to him, is often regarded as a ‘swaggering Texas cowboy’.

Esposito said that Obama’s foreign policy will be expected to be all the things that many in the Muslim world saw as lacking in the Bush administration, which was viewed as “neo-colonial, unilateral, arrogant, militant and interventionist”.

London, Nov 20 : American actress Gillian Anderson is considering moving back to her home in the US now that President-elect Barack Obama has won.

The actress, who recently gave birth to her third child, revealed to pals that she intended to move out of London, where she is currently based with her British partner Mark Griffiths, and go back to her native America.

“Gillian has enjoyed living in London in recent years but made it clear she’d consider moving back to the US if Obama won,” the Daily Express quoted a friend of hers as revealing.

Washington, Nov. 20 : Senator Joe Lieberman, and Independent and a close friend of John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, has said that the time is right for America to reconcile with its myriad problems and rebuild under the Obama administration.

In an interview with Kate Couric of CBS, Lieberman said: “I think it''s so clear now that America''s house is being threatened by fire that all of just got together and help to put out that fire and rebuild the house.”

London, Nov 20 : France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has said that her country is delighted that Barack Obama has won the U. S. presidential election.

Bruni-Sarkozy, who is in the US to promote her album “Comme Si de Rien N''Etait”, was on the “Late Show With David Letterman” on November 18 when she spoke about the presidential choice.

“France is thrilled, delighted,” the Telegraph quoted her as having said on the show.

“I think the whole world is delighted,” she added.

She was even asked whether her husband, who met U. S. President George W. Bush last weekend at a crisis summit of world leaders, got along well with his American counterpart.

“They have to. No choice,” she said.

Washington, Nov. 20 : Though they have not launched direct attacks on Barack Obama''s leading choice to lead the Justice Department, Eric Holder Junior, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is not hesitating to highlight the latter’s role in controversial 2001 pardons.

Republican congressional aides said no information had emerged that would disqualify Holder, a former D. C. Superior Court judge and U. S. attorney in the District, from serving as the nation''s top law enforcement officer.

Washington, Nov. 20: Some women’s groups are hoping that U. S. President-elect Barack Obama will ensure gender balance at the Pentagon.

Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody broke through it last week, becoming the military’s first female four-star general. But groups representing women in national security roles want the obstacle to shatter completely.

“Gen. Dunwoody’s promotion is the major advance we’ve been waiting for 10 years,” Politico quoted Lory Manning, director of the Women’s Research and Education Institute’s Women in the Military Project, as saying.