Barack Obama, Nov. 4th acceptance Speech:

[To] all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world - our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, congratulated Obama on his US election victory, saying it took the world into a "new era".

However, Karzai said Obama should aim to prevent civilians in Afghanistan from being killed and injured by the US military.

"Our demand is that there will be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes," Karzai said.

"This is my first demand of the new