WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama wants federal aid programs expanded to include help for the troubled auto industry to aid for homeowners fighting foreclosure.

Mr Obama said in an interview that while there's only one administration in power right now, there are some changes in bailout programs that he'd like to see. He made the remarks in an interview with CBS '60 Minutes' airing on Sunday.

SYDNEY - RUPERT Murdoch on Sunday dismissed the suggestion that newspapers are a dying breed, but the global medial mogul said the ideas of some editors and journalists were obsolete in the digital age.

The Australian-born Murdoch, whose News Corp empire includes The Times in Britain and the Wall Street Journal, said media companies, like other businesses, faced new competition from the Internet.

WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT George W. Bush said on Saturday he vowed to leaders of the world's biggest economies that the United States would enjoy a 'seamless' transition to the new team of president-elect Barack Obama.

'I told the leaders this: that president-elect Obama's transition team has been fully briefed on what we intended to do here at this meeting,' Mr Bush told reporters after an economic crisis summit of the Group of 20 nations.