San Francisco  - US President Barack Obama is to get an ultra-secure smartphone so that he can keep up with emails on the go, according to a report Thursday in Atlantic magazine.

Obama has been an avid user of a Blackberry RIM for years, but security concerns meant that he could not keep a standard smartphone as president for fear that his communications would be hacked or his whereabouts revealed.

Vienna  - After Austrian legislators on Thursday found their seats drenched by a leak in the parliament's roof, representatives criticized delaying the renovation of the plenary hall because of the

Helsinki  - Nobel Peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari said Thursday he has been contacted by the United Nations in connection with a possible international probe into violence in Gaza.

The Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council recently said it wanted to appoint an international commission to probe the recent Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

Ahtisaari was quoted as telling Finnish news agency STT that the parties - Israel and the Palestinians - have to prove they are willing to cooperate fully before any mission could commence.

Tallinn  - Estonian social affairs minister Maert Maripuu announced her intention to resign Thursday, minutes after she saw off a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

The no-confidence motion accused the minister of delaying reforms, misinforming the public and general incompetence but MPs backed her by 51 votes to 35.

Copenhagen  - European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde debated the benefits of the joint European currency, the euro, at a Danish parliamentary hearing on Thursday.

While a long-standing member of the European Union, Denmark has not introduced the euro though the government and main opposition parties are discussing a possible referendum. The hearing was part of that overall process.

Kabul  - Afghan and Indian foreign ministers vowed on Thursday to cooperate in the fight against terrorism in the region and said they had discussed ways of sharing intelligence and acting on it.

Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told a news conference in Kabul that he and his Afghan counterpart, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, and other Afghan officials had looked at ways "to strengthen our intelligence mechanism and to share information and intelligence and to act on it."