President Elect Barack Obama

Finnish mediator Martti Ahtisaari accepted this year's Nobel Peace Prize with a plea to President-elect Barack Obama to press for Middle East peace. Receiving the coveted award in Oslo, the former Finnish president, 71, rejected the notion that "the Middle East knot can never be untied." "Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal," he said.

A Roman Catholic priest should not have told parishioners who voted for President-elect Barack Obama to refrain from taking Holy Communion because of his stance in support of abortion, the church's senior officer in the state said. Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin said in a statement posted on the diocese's website that the church should not be drawn into "the partisan political arena." Earlier this week, Father Jay Scott Newman said in a letter to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion without first doing penance for voting for the Democrat.

President-elect Barack Obama should put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign, domestic and security policy to undo "the enormous damage" of the Bush years, Human Rights Watch said in its survey of conditions in more than 90 countries. The group said the Bush administration decided to combat terrorism "without regard to such basic rights as not to be subjected to torture, enforced disappearance or detention without trial." State Department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected the criticism.

President-elect Barack Obama's administration needs to monitor war spending much more closely than the current White House has, according to a study that criticizes President Bush's approach to funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the cost of which is projected to approach nearly $1 trillion next year. The direct price tag of the two wars could grow to $1.7 trillion by 2018, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments reported last week.

President-elect Barack Obama helped "60 Minutes" draw its biggest viewership in nearly a decade on Sunday. Correspondent Steve Kroft's interview with the incoming president and future first lady, Michelle Obama, drew a 17.4 rating in the top 56 local markets measured by Nielsen Media Research. That's the highest rating the venerable CBS program has scored since January 1999. (Final national ratings will be released today.) Last week, "60 Minutes" was the most-watched program on television, attracting its biggest audience in a year when Kroft interviewed four of Obama's top campaign advisers.

Re "Obama clears himself and staff," Dec. 16 The election is over and everybody knows that President-elect Barack Obama is working very hard to address a number of serious problems. It's nothing short of outrageous, therefore, that congressional Republicans and commentators are trying to make political hay by speculating about contacts Obama's staff may have had with Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's office.

On his ninth day of vacation, President-elect Barack Obama enjoyed a scenic drive along the Kamehameha Highway with his family and friends from Chicago. Barack and Michelle Obama, their two daughters and Chicago friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt were among a group that later gathered at the home of Bobby Titcomb, a longtime friend who like Obama attended the private Punahou High School in Honolulu. Earlier, Obama went for his daily workout at Marine Corps Base Hawaii and visited with troops and others afterward.

Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra said Tuesday he will stay in Congress rather than pursue a job in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Becerra, who has spent 16 years in the House and is a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee and is incoming vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, had been "in discussions" with Obama's transition team about a possible nomination to serve as U.S. trade representative. "I have invested 16 rewarding years serving the people of Los Angeles and my country," Becerra said in a written statement announcing his decision to stay put. "I am grateful for that privilege and now see a rare opportunity to push across the goal line much of the unfinished business of America: investing in our infrastructure and our workers, universal healthcare, comprehensive immigration reform, and scrubbing a tax code that's out of shape and behind the times."