Republican John McCain said Thursday that Democrat Barack Obama had no right to criticize McCain's position on military scholarships because the Illinois senator did not serve in uniform. "And I will not accept from...

After more than a decade as the ultimate Democratic Party insider, Hillary Rodham Clinton finds herself in a strange place: on the outside looking in, beseeching party leaders to help keep her White House bid alive. In...

State Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller is suing his national party over the decision to strip Florida of its presidential delegates. The lawsuit filed Thursday argues that the Democratic National Committee didn't...

Likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama has begun a top-secret search for a running mate, fresh signs that the general election campaign is well under way and the primary race against Hillary Rodham Clinton is basically...

Barack Obama's willingness to meet Iranian, Cuban and other hostile leaders who would not get face time from John McCain stands as a distinctive element of his foreign policy. Distinctive, yes, but clearly defined? Not...

A Texas appeals court said Thursday that the state had no right to take more than 400 children from a polygamist sect's ranch, a ruling that could unravel one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history. The...

A large tornado tore through several northern Colorado towns on Thursday, flipping over tractor-trailers, ripping roofs off buildings and killing at least one person. The Weld County coroner's office confirmed one...

Portions of a maximum-security South Carolina prison were on lockdown Thursday as officials investigated an inmate disturbance that led guards to use tear gas, then seal off and abandon a wing of the prison for more...

Hello, London! ... Jolly good show, New York! New Yorkers could see their English cousins across the pond Thursday without benefit of cable TV or video conferencing, courtesy of an unusual live optical hookup created...

Barack Obama has agreed to deliver the commencement address at Wesleyan University in place of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who pulled out Thursday after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Kennedy, 76, had planned to speak at...

Two men arrested after an explosives scare at a Swedish nuclear plant were released Thursday and police said they were no longer considered a threat to the power station. The two maintenance workers were arrested...

A Palestinian detonated a powerful truck bomb at the main pedestrian crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, causing extensive damage that dealt a serious blow to Gazans' hopes of opening up their...

Heavy equipment began toppling the few buildings left standing in this quake-stricken town once home to 30,000 people, and workers in white protective suits sprayed disinfectant Thursday in the silent streets amid...

Two men attacked the ancient monument of Stonehenge with a hammer and chipped off a piece of stone the size of a large coin, a conservation group said Thursday. Two men hacked the piece from the Heel Stone, the central...

Seven Bahai leaders arrested and accused of endangering national security are being persecuted by Iran's government for their religious beliefs, leaders of the minority faith said Thursday. Iran raided the homes of top...

Wall Street has steadied itself, with a pullback in oil prices helping stocks rebound from two sessions of steep declines. But investors remain quite concerned about the high price of oil and its effect on the average...

Agriculture futures traded lower Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade. Wheat for July delivery fell 33 cents to $7.45 a bushel; July corn lost 11.5 cents to $5.9575 a bushel; July oats fell 8 cents to $3.885 a...

Fast-rising gas prices claimed their latest victim Thursday: Ford Motor Co., which dropped its goal of becoming profitable by 2009 and said it will cut production of trucks and sport utility vehicles through the rest of...

Americans getting an early start on the Memorial Day weekend found that gasoline prices again sprinted to a new record high overnight, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon. Some analysts predict gas will...

A leading global energy monitor fears there may not be enough oil to slake the world's thirst _ and is preparing a landmark forecast that could reverberate through the global economy even as major companies announce...

The duel between Davids brought an estimated 31.7 million viewers to the Fox finale of "American Idol," a million more viewers that last year's showdown between Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis, Nielsen Media Research...

Amy Winehouse has won a prestigious songwriting award for "Love Is a Losing Game" from her "Back to Black" album. The song won the Ivor Novello award for best song musically and lyrically at a ceremony in London on...

Unless it is one of his "Ocean's Eleven" casino romps, Steven Soderbergh never makes things easy for an audience. With his epic film biography of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, which premiered at the Cannes...

Did Simon Cowell know David Cook would win? Or was he _ gasp! _ just being nice? Right before host Ryan Seacrest announced Cook as the next "American Idol," Cowell issued an uncharacteristic apology to the sincere...

On a night when "American Idol" viewers were focused on two young singers named David _ Cook and Archuleta _ the Fox singing competition's seventh-season conclusion had plenty of appearances from a few older idols. ...

Brandon Inge and Matt Joyce homered, and the Detroit Tigers continued their offensive resurgence with a 9-2 victory over Seattle on Thursday to complete their first three-game sweep of the Mariners since 1995. After...

Athletes at the Beijing Olympics will be subject to no-advance notice doping controls at any time and any place, the IOC said Thursday. The International Olympic Committee issued its anti-doping rules for the Aug. 8-24...

Speedway Motorsports Inc. has agreed to purchase Kentucky Speedway, opening the door for the northern Kentucky track to perhaps one day host a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. The deal announced Thursday by SMI chairman...

Johan Franzen is nearly back for the Detroit Red Wings. He is expected to miss Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, but Detroit coach Mike Babcock says he will return at...

Even Spurs coach Gregg Popovich knew the Lakers' Kobe Bryant was just biding his time. "Kobe, he was doing a trust-his-teammates thing in the first half," Popovich said. "He was checking it all out and seeing where his...

A coalition of conservative evangelical leaders wants to enlist 1 million Christians to sign a statement questioning whether human-caused global warming is a real threat and arguing that restrictive environmental...

!!-- pobj:NY388-0507081212 -->!!-- pobj:NY387-0507081213 -->For the first time in its 196-year history, one of the nation's oldest Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminaries will be led by a black pastor, a triumph for...

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--You know you've been to the hospital too many times when the emergency room staff knows you by name. When my boys were younger, I think we even may have qualified for customer loyalty cash back on...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Bill Henard, senior pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., will be nominated for first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a fellow Kentucky pastor announced...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put a hold on proposed clinical trials using embryonic stem cells in human beings.The news was a blow to the hopes of the Geron Corp., which had applied for FDA...

Everyone with high blood pressure _ some 72 million Americans _ should own a home monitor and do regular pressure checks, the American Heart Association and other groups urged Thursday in an unprecedented endorsement of...

Federal health officials are getting new authority to mine prescription drug usage by millions of participants in the Medicare drug program to look for safety problems with medicines and medical devices after they hit...

A common virus traditionally viewed as mild killed at least five U.S. infants last year, government health officials said Thursday. The five deaths mark the first time an infection was found to be fatal, according to...

Bangladesh's Health Ministry says the nation's first human case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected. The Directorate General of Health Services statement says a child was infected by the virus in January. ...

The urge to smoke is contagious, but quitting apparently is, too. A team of researchers who showed that obesity can spread person-to-person has found a similar pattern with smoking cessation: A smoker is more likely to...

The lack of high-speed Internet access in some areas of the U.S. has been hotly debated, even as that digital divide has narrowed. But a new, wider gap is being created by technology that will make today's broadband...

Google billionaire co-founder Larry Page said Thursday the Internet search leader opposed a Microsoft-Yahoo deal because it would monopolize the online communications market, stifle innovation and curb competition. But...

European Union regulators said Thursday they will consider Microsoft Corp.'s promise to make its Office productivity programs work more seamlessly with competing software. Microsoft said Wednesday it would update...

NASA's final visit to the Hubble Space Telescope is now set for Oct. 8. Atlantis and a crew of seven were supposed to fly to Hubble at the end of August, but the mission was delayed because of extra time needed to...

British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless PLC said it was considering splitting its business units after it posted a 5.7 percent drop in annual profit on Thursday. Cable & Wireless reported a profit...

Powerful gusts and heavy rain was on tap for parts of the West early Thursday, while the Northeast dries out and storms threaten the Plains. Cool rain and even some high elevation snow will fall from the Intermountain...

A heat wave was fading in the West on Wednesday and a cold front was forecast to move in, bringing widespread rain, scattered thunderstorms and high elevation snow from the Pacific Northwest through the Intermountain...

A low pressure system in the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys was expected to bring showers and thunderstorms as it moves east Tuesday across the Mid-Atlantic. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue over the...

Rainy, cold weather was forecast Monday for the Northeast, with the heaviest rainfall projected for northern Maine. A southbound cold front was expected to bring wet weather to the Northern Plains and parts of the...

Rain was forecast Sunday for the Ohio Valley and parts of the Northeast. Thunderstorms were possible in an area extending from Alabama to the Mid-Atlantic states as a cold front moves through the region. A lingering...