5 Most Powerful People in World

(AP) - Complete with new gray hairs and two bodyguards, a wax version of President Barack Obama took a trip to the Eiffel Tower today. The hot summer sun threatened to melt the fake president's face, prompting helpers to shade him with an umbrella. The statue then traveled to Paris' Musée Grevin wax museum, where it will stand as part of a heads-of-state display alongside renditions of Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, and Vladimir Putin. More»

US needs China's help as never before

(NEWSER) - President Obama's starkly different tone in his visit to China—more congratulatory than confrontational—is less a shift in policy from his predecessors than a change in the two country's roles, write Andrew Higgins and Anne Kornblut in the Washington Post . When President Clinton visited in 1998, the US was the world's only superpower and American owed more money to Spain than to China. More»

Superpowers work to find common ground on nukes, climate, economy

(AP) - President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao emerged from intense talks today determined to marshal their combined clout on crucial issues, but still showing divisions over economic, security, and human rights issues that have long bedeviled the two powers. "The relationship between our two nations goes far beyond any single issue," Obama said after 2 1/2 hours of closed-door conversations. The two described US-Chinese relations as "positive, cooperative, and comprehensive." More»

President-elect digs Star Trek and comics ... though he does play sports, and is married

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama may be America’s first geek-in-chief—or at least that’s what Star Trek and comic book fans are hoping. The president-elect embraces technology, flashes “Live Long and Prosper” signs, and jokes about being from Krypton—all characteristics of his repressed inner geek. The title is more compliment than insult, and suggests “smart can be in,” a psychologist tells the AP. More»

(NEWSER) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the "positive signals" coming from Barack Obama's camp could lead to warmer relations between the two countries, Reuters reports. “If these are not just words, if they get transformed into a practical policy, then of course our reaction will be adequate and our American partners will feel this at once,” said Putin, in a marked contrast to heated rhetoric during the Georgia crisis. More»