AP - John McCain squinted in the midday sunshine as he crossed the meandering Alabama River aboard the Gee's Bend ferry, smiling at a dozen elderly black women who clasped his hands and crooned gospel hymns.

AP - John McCain met Sunday with evangelist Billy Graham and his son, Franklin, at the family's mountaintop retreat.

Reuters - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is heading for a landslide victory in a one-candidate election boycotted by the opposition and is expected to be sworn in on Sunday, government sources said.

AP - Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama on Saturday vied for the support of Hispanics, beginning a four-month courtship of a pivotal voting constituency by vowing to revamp immigration policy.

AFP - Group of Eight foreign ministers warned Friday that they would not recognise Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government as he went ahead with a widely condemned election.

AP - Lawmakers budgeted just $100 million for damages when they reopened the government's discrimination settlement with black farmers. They probably should have handed over a blank check.

AP - Barack Obama's political success might claim an unintended victim: affirmative action, a much-debated policy he supports.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama plans to visit the Middle East and Europe this summer, taking time off from campaigning in the United States in an effort to boost his foreign policy credentials.

AP - Barack Obama stopped by Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday to visit wounded war veterans, a group that he has said endures substandard care under the Bush administration.

AP - Appearing together in solidarity, Republican John McCain and Iraq's president said Saturday that the war-ravaged country is making significant but fragile progress.

AP - Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama on Saturday sought the love of Hispanics, beginning a four-month courtship with a pivotal swing-voting constituency.