The potential first lady gets the magazine’s style nod.

Vanity Fair magazine, in releasing its 2008 International Best Dressed List, has named possible first lady Michelle Obama among its fashionistas. Obama, the wife of presumptive democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, is the person the editors called “our commander-in-sheath.” The magazine mentions some of the standout ensembles she has worn throughout the year, including the Maria Pinto purple sheath, with a black Azzedine Alaïa belt, when her husband claimed the Democratic presidential nomination; and the Donna Ricco black-and-white print dress from her appearance on “The View.” Kanye West also made the list, which can be seen at th magazine’s just-released slide show.

The 90-year-old ex-president of South Africa has been unwelcome for many years

Following a national outcry which even included comments of outrage from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the United States government will finally remove former South African President Nelson Mandela’s from a U.S. terrorism watch list. The international icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner’s treatment by the U.S. government urged lawmakers to introduce a bill to take him off the list. President Bush signed the bill Tuesday. “He had no place on our government’s terror watch list, and I’m pleased to see this bill finally become law,” said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Mandela, the former head of the African National Congress, was the jailed for 24 years during the heyday of apartheid, the South African regime’s longtime system of racial separation that was brutally enforced by the White minority government for 46 years. South African dubbed the apartheid-fighting ANC a terrorist group. Thus ANC members were denied U.S. visas, without special permission. Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and, four years later, apartheid officially crumbled, but the leader’s name remained on the U.S. terrorist watch list. Under the new bill, both the State Department and Homeland Security Department have the power to dissolve the restrictions against Mandela and fellow ANC members. “What it will do is make sure that there aren’t any extra hoops for either a distinguished individual, like former President Mandela, or other members of the African National Congress to get a U.S. visa,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.