Obama back in the spotlight, vows to help future leaders

Former US President Barack Obama today made his first major appearance since leaving office, having chosen Chicago, the city where his political career started, to emerge from a three-month hiatus from the public eye. In a panel discussion at the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught constitutional law, the 44th president told the audience that he had been spending a lot of time thinking about what's next for him. "The single most important thing I can do is to help in anyway I can prepare the next generation to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world," he said. Since leaving office, Obama has kept a relatively low public profile, taking vacations in Palm Springs, California and the British Virgin Islands, where he indulged in the sport of kite-boarding while vacationing with British billionaire Sir Richard Branson. Together with his wife, who grew up on Chicago's South Side, the former president recently struck a two-book, $65 million memoir deal. He is expected to travel to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next month.