ELECTION \\ US President Barack Obama returned for a second term at the White House after an initially close-run battle against Republican Mitt Romney. Heads of state broadly welcomed Obama’s election to a second term in the White House but urged him to play a leading role in issues such as boosting the economy, solving climate change and improving relations with the Arab world. Speaking at the end of the campaign, Obama looked briefly emotional as he thanked “all those who have lived and breathed the hard work of change”. Barack Obama’s master stroke was to repeat the demographic strategy of 2008: win over the Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, youth and educated women. Another Obama ace was the ‘get out and vote’ exercise, which disproved the assumption that Democratic voters would be reluctant to turn up. The outreach programme consisting of phone calls, Twitter updates, messages and door-knocking brought out the so-called unenthusiastic Democrats in the swing State of Ohio, for example, which usually decides who becomes the President of the United States.