WASHINGTON - BARACK Obama heads to the White House for his first postelection meeting with President George W. Bush this week, as Americans await signals of how their new leader will confront the overwhelming array of challenges facing the United States.

While the president-elect vowed on Friday to make a second economic stimulus package his first order of business after he takes office in January, unemployment climbed to the highest level in more than a decade.

LONDON - SEVERAL thousand Islamist extremists may be operating in Britain, more than previously thought, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

It said it had seen a leaked government intelligence report that said 'some thousands of extremists' were active in the United Kingdom, mainly concentrated in London, Birmingham and southeast England.

DOHA - OSAMA bin Laden's son Omar arrived in Qatar after being deported from Egypt on Sunday following his return from a failed bid to secure political asylum in Spain, his English-born wife said.

'We're OK. We're in,' Ms Zaina Alsabah bin Laden said in a phone call shortly after their flight from Cairo landed in Doha. She did not provide further details on their status in Qatar.