Rockville, Maryland - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama barely bothered to campaign in Maryland, a traditional Democratic stronghold.

On Tuesday, voters came out in droves to wait hours outdoors in mild autumn temperatures to participate in the historic election that could produce the first African American president in US history.

Cairo - Palestinian negotiators have not had their proposals for amendments to a draft reconciliation plan rejected out of hand in the run up to inter-Palestinian peace talks, senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said Tuesday.

"It is not true that the amendments were rejected ... we have already overcome many obstacles," al-Zahar told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

Washington - As Republican presidential candidate John McCain arrived at the Albright United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona Tuesday to vote, scores of supporters cheered: "Go, John, go."

McCain was with his wife Cindy. In a break from tradition, he planned two final rallies on voting day - at an airplane hangar in Grand Junction, Colorado and later in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Both states went with President George W Bush in 2004, but polls have indicated that they are now leaning toward Obama.

Manassas, Virginia - Virginia has rarely seen such excitement in a presidential election, but this usually reliably Republican state has become a key battleground in 
2008 that could decide who gets into the White House.

As tens of thousands of voters turned out across the country Tuesday to choose between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, Virginia residents were particularly aware of their place in this historic election as they waited in line at polling stations.

Munich - Boris Becker and his girlfriend have split up after being engaged for three months, the former tennis star told the online edition of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper Tuesday.

"We split up over the weekend," Bild. de quoted the 40-year-old as saying.

Becker became engaged to designer Alessandra Meyer-Woelden, 25, in a ceremony on August 10 at Porto Cervo on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Meyer-Woelden is the daughter of the late Axel Meyer-Woelden, Becker's former manager.

Brussels - The European Commission on Tuesday approved a Spanish plan aimed at stabilizing its financial markets by providing liquidity to lenders in need.

The approval follows lengthy discussions between Madrid and Brussels over the exact scope of the plan.