AP - Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton sat in comfortable chairs, sipped water and spoke for an hour about the presidential campaign to come. Just the two of them, without aides. And they parted laughing.

AP - With his Democratic foe now certain, Republican John McCain is deploying dozens of staffers into battleground states, boasting of improved fundraising and expanding his advertising into some of the most competitive terrain of the general election.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton is ready to thank her supporters for hanging on during her 17-month roller coaster journey from sure thing to also ran and to urge them to rally behind Barack Obama.

AFP - France's plan to submit Turkey's bid to join the EU to a referendum is an "insult" and could spark a serious rift between Paris and Ankara, France's Europe Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet said.

AP - Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a global warming bill that would have required major reductions in greenhouse gases, pushing debate over the world's biggest environmental concern to next year for a new Congress and president.

AP - Clinton spoke to Obama without aides present, will formally back him Saturday ... McCain runs new ad about national security in battleground states ... Obama Generation: Young voters' more open racial attitudes helped push Obama over the top

AP - Just outside the Senate chamber is a gilded parlor where Hillary Rodham Clinton has passed many times during her pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination. That dream dashed, she'll be back.

Politico - The McCain campaign will release its first ad of the general election today, a spot called "Safe" that features Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) talking to the camera about his war heroism and judgment on national security.

AP - For young voters, Rosa Parks' refusal to sit at the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 is schoolbook history. Even the racially charged 1992 riots in Los Angeles are a distant memory.

AP - An island in a sea of pastel suits, alligator shoes and elaborate pocket squares, the Rev. Jeffrey Bryan stood out at a meeting of black ministers for his simple fashion choice: Denim shorts and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the face of presumed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

AP - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton met rival Barack Obama face-to-face with no one else present, hours before her campaign formally announced she would endorse him Saturday at an event in Washington.