AFP - Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe has said opposition claims of violence ahead of next week's presidential run-off election are aimed at tarring the crunch vote, state media reported Saturday.

Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday that could shield phone companies from billions of dollars in lawsuits for their participation in the warrantless surveillance program begun by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks.

Reuters - The United States has obtained new intelligence that raises new questions about whether North Korea pursued an alternative route to producing a nuclear weapon, The Washington Post reported in Saturday editions.

Reuters - President George W. Bush did not know about a White House effort to leak the identity of a CIA agent but tried to protect staffers who were involved in one of the biggest scandals of his administration, former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told Congress on Friday.

Reuters - Iran is pressing on with nuclear enrichment "non-stop," its envoy to the U.N. nuclear agency was quoted as saying on Saturday, despite a world powers' offer of economic incentives if it halts such work.

Reuters - Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of restive Tibet used the passing of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Lhasa on Saturday to defend their control and denounce the exiled Dalai Lama.

Reuters - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has opened up a double-digit lead over Republican John McCain two weeks after he clinched the nomination, a new poll published on Friday showed.

Reuters - The crest of the swollen Mississippi River moved relentlessly downstream on Saturday as volunteers manned sandbagged levees, nursed hopes and coped with the costs of the worst Midwest flooding in 15 years.

AP - A bomb killed four troops from the U.S.-led coalition in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, one of the deadliest attacks on foreign forces this year.

AP - A South Carolina man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents 14 years ago was executed in the state's electric chair Friday night after a last-ditch effort to halt the sentence was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

AP - Steven Stamkos can't wait to play alongside the Tampa Bay Lightning's other No. 1 draft pick, Vincent Lecavalier.

AP - Ellen DeGeneres has no plans to stop with her fourth consecutive Daytime Emmy for talk show host.

AP - Pakistan's new ambassador to the United States is urging patience for those in Washington frustrated with his government's pursuit of peace deals with tribes along the lawless Pakistani-Afghan border.