Obama wins seat in Senate

BARACK OBAMA, the son of a Kenyan father and an American mother, who shot from obscurity to political stardom, has become just the third black US senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.

His resounding victory in Illinois is the latest chapter in a rags-to-riches story for a man who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia barely knowing his father but has become a linchpin of the Democratic Party’s future.

He gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention this year, delivering a stirring speech that made him an overnight political sensation.