Obama's autographed pictures with former US presidents may go for 6000 dollars
Washington, Jan 20 (ANI): Barack Obama's autographed pictures with former US Presidents, which will bw an collector's item, may go for 6000 dollars.
Obama, along with presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, agreed to sign 250 prints of a staff photograph.
Each president will eventually receive 50 copies that have been signed by all five of them, according to a White House official and an Obama transition aide, Politico.com reported.
Early estimates value the signed pictures at more than 6,000 dollars apiece, based on the rarity of such a meeting and how few copies of the photograph will be circulated. That value could push higher when collectors factor in Obama's popularity and historical significance as the first African-American president.
"You're going to see these valued and collected and sought after in a similar fashion as the previous ones, and when you're talking about a president that's very popular at the moment, that has to help," said Steven Hoskin, president of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association.
This curious practice dates back to 1981 when all four living presidents gathered at the White House before Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat's funeral and later autographed copies of the photo.
But it turned into a more coordinated effort, with a pre-set limit on the number of copies, when the presidential club gathered in 1991 for the dedication of Ronald Reagan's library in Simi Valley, California, the website said.
Obama will be the last of the five presidents to sign the photographs. His aides expect him to receive them some time over the next few weeks. (ANI)
|China to modernize military while pursuing peaceful development|World[Beijing{Beijing, Jan.20 (ANI): China on Tuesday issued a White Paper on national defense, pledging to be committed to the peaceful development and advance its military modernization.
The paper for the first time unveiled China's ambition to "basically accomplishing mechanization (of the military) and making major progress in informationization by 2020" and "realizing modernization by the mid-21st century."
The white paper on "China's National Defense in 2008" was issued by the Information Office of the State Council, Xinhua reported.
Vowing to strengthen the military by means of science and technology, the paper said China was working to "develop new and high-tech weaponry and equipment, conduct military training in conditions of informationization and build a modern logistics system in an all-round way."
On China's military strategic guideline of active defense, the paper said this guideline "aimed at winning local wars in conditions of informationization."
On the current effort to streamline the armed forces, the paper said China is aimed at developing a complete set of "scientific modes" of organization, institutions and ways of operation by 2020.
The paper for the first time specified in detail China's long-standing policy of "no first use of nuclear weapons."
"In peacetime, the nuclear missile weapons of the Second Artillery Force are not aimed at any country," the paper said while reaffirming the country's will to implement "a self-defensive nuclear strategy." (ANI)