San Salvador, El Salvador  - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday called El Salvador's president-elect Mauricio Funes to congratulate him on his win.

Funes, a leftist who got 51 per cent of the vote in Sunday's election, put an end to a 20-year rule by right-wing party ARENA.

"The call was to congratulate me on the triumph obtained on March 15, to wish me success in my public management effort over the coming five years," Funes said.

Washington  - The US Congress tapped into growing public ire over bailed-out insurance giant AIG's payment of bonuses as legislators Wednesday explored ways to reclaim the 165 million dollars.

At the centre of the storm was American International Group (AIG), the world's largest insurance firm whose near failure in September 2008 over insuring questionable financial instruments helped push a teetering US financial system into rapid descent.

New York  - US stocks rallied Wednesday, posting their sixth gain in seven days after the Federal Reserve announced a new series of aggressive moves to shore up the US financial sector.

The Fed said it would buy 300 billion dollars in long-term government bonds, an unprecedented effort to help drive investors back into the private sector, and will purchase another 750 billion dollars in troubled mortgage-backed securities at the heart of the financial crisis.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama has appointed a former general to serve as his special envoy for Sudan's Darfur region, pledging to keep up the pressure on Khartoum to end the conflict.

Retired major general J Scott Gration has agreed to accept the post as international focus on Darfur intensifies following Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's expulsion of humanitarian organizations from the country.

San Salvador, El Salvador  - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday called El Salvador's president-elect Mauricio Funes to congratulate him on his win.

Funes, a leftist who got 51 per cent of the vote in Sunday's election, put an end to a 20-year rule by right-wing party ARENA.

"The call was to congratulate me on the triumph obtained on March 15, to wish me success in my public management effort over the coming five years," Funes said.

Washington - Astronauts were steering a new solar panel into place using robotic arms on Wednesday ahead of a spacewalk to install the segment aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The panel is part of a truss segment that will complete the backbone of the station and boost its energy capacity, allowing the crew size to double to six astronauts.