As head of the deep-pocketed Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commission, New York Sen. Charles Schumer hand-picked his party's nominee to take on Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, the last Republican standing on the West Coast....

Being dead since 1940 hasn't kept Idaho U.S. Sen. William Borah from being inserted squarely into 2008 presidential politics after Democratic candidate Barack Obama took issue with President Bush's borrowing of a quote...

IN THE HEADLINES Clinton tells Oregonians she won't give up, unveils 3 new ads ... McCain asks staff to disclose lobbying connections ... Huckabee quips about gun aimed at Obama in speech to NRA, later issues apology...

!!-- AUDIO:235,218,217 -->Barack Obama laid into John McCain on Friday for advancing a tough-guy foreign policy that he called "naive and irresponsible," serving notice that he's ready to launch a full-throttle...

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she wasn't ceding Oregon _ or the nomination _ to opponent Barack Obama, who is heavily favored to collect another victory here next week as he comes closer to winning the...

Robert Mondavi, the vintner who built his career and helped an iconic Northern California industry blossom by insisting that Napa Valley wines can compete with the best in the world, died in the valley Friday. He was...

The NAACP board of directors has chosen Ben Jealous, a former news executive and lifelong activist, as the organization's next president and the youngest in its 99-year history. The 64-member board met and voted in...

Russia's new president has promised the kind of democratic change that Washington advocated during predecessor Vladimir Putin's tenure. At the same time, all the candidates to succeed President Bush have promised a...

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: ___ ABC's "This Week" _ Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio. ___ CBS' "Face the Nation" _ Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla.; Republican strategist Ed Rollins;...

Olympian Tim Montgomery had everything he ever wanted. Once known as the "world's fastest man," Montgomery won a silver medal in the 400 relay at the 1996 Olympics and gold in the same event in 2000. In 2002, he set a...

A Chinese government spokesman says the confirmed death toll in this week's massive earthquake has risen to almost 29,000. Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin gave the figure Saturday at a news conference. The government has...

A German tourist and a 52-year-old man were rescued Saturday _ nearly five days after being buried by a powerful earthquake that ravaged China's Sichuan province, state media reported. The news comes as authorities...

North Korea welcomed on Saturday a U.S. offer of food aid, saying the assistance would help alleviate shortages and improve relations between the two countries. The U.S. State Department said Friday it would provide...

Thousands of earthquake victims are fleeing a Chinese village near the epicenter of the earthquake due to worries of potential flooding. Witnesses say there were conflicting reports on whether a dam had burst near...

The popular hero of China's earthquake rescue effort isn't a strapping firefighter or a seasoned cop _ it's the country's bespectacled premier who's been clambering over piles of rubble to rally victims in the...

After nine months of turmoil that started with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, Wall Street appears to be at a turning point of sorts. The data of the past few weeks have given investors some hope that the...

About 3,600 workers at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. will find out soon whether a new contract was worth 80 days without a company paycheck. Bargainers for the United Auto Workers reached a tentative...

News that Saudi Arabia had boosted its oil output by 300,000 barrels a day was greeted as a non-event on oil markets _ the move wasn't anywhere near the kind of production increase needed to bring prices down on Friday....

Federal health authorities are directing a Pasadena, Texas, company to shut down and recall all its dried smoked catfish steaks and other smoked seafood produced since June 2007 because it failed to develop safety...

A striking United Auto Workers local at a key General Motors Corp. factory ratified a new contract with the company Friday afternoon and will resume production on Monday. UAW Local 602 said on its Web site its members...

Though Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are keeping a tight lid on their nuptuals, it's looking like a wedding is imminent. Aerial photos posted Friday at several celebrity Web sites, credited to the Insight News &...

!!-- pobj:ASIANYET163-0513081825 -->For an illness shared by so many, clinical depression should be better understood and more openly addressed. Even so, a social stigma and shame is still linked to this disorder on...

Eva Longoria Parker gets to play dress-up at the Cannes Film Festival _ and she doesn't even have to pack her own suitcase. "My bag is packed when I come because my stylist thinks about every event we have, every...

Daytime's "The View" will rerun one of its shows in two weeks from an entirely different view that lets fans know a little about what goes on backstage. Producers will attempt the experiment with the Memorial Day...

Asked if his band's performance in an hour's time will include any theatrics, Nick Urata warns: "There will be some death-defying feats of glory." He laughs and then adds: "Seriously. Not by me." When Urata's band...

Jayson Werth surprised even himself with his power surge. Werth connected for three home runs and had eight RBIs to match a Philadelphia Phillies record in a 10-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night. ...

!!-- hobj:08165296 -->The Cleveland Cavaliers packed for a weekend stay in Beantown _ not a few weeks on Cape Cod. They've got at least one more game left, and in the NBA, it's as big as they ever get. Game 7. On...

!!-- hobj:08165321 -->Kobe Bryant scored 34 points and Los Angeles held off a furious rally by the Utah Jazz for a 108-105 victory Friday night, putting the Lakers in the Western Conference finals for the first time in...

After two straight top-10 finishes at the AT&T Classic, Jonathan Byrd is poised to win the suburban Atlanta tournament. He had his first premonition of an AT&T victory after missing the cut in his first start...

Rick Dutrow Jr. is nearly as confident that undefeated Big Brown will win the Preakness on Saturday as he was before the colt's dominating win in the Kentucky Derby. The muscular horse named for delivery giant UPS was...

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--"The California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (BP)--It's here. The second film in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, "Prince Caspian" (PG) hits theaters this weekend. It's bigger, and some say better, than the first installment. But with the...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP)--Arkansas Baptist disaster relief teams have had their hands full lately, with massive flooding that damaged hundreds of homes, then multiple tornadoes on Feb. 5, April 3, May 2 and May 10 that...

BRYAN, Texas (BP)--A minister from Prestonwood Baptist Church has been arrested in a sting operation for soliciting sex with a minor.Joe Barron, 52, a minister to married adults at the Dallas-area church, was arrested...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- known far better for terminating motherhood than for promoting it -- nonetheless found a way to turn Mother's Day into an excuse for fundraising.The country's...

A hepatitis C outbreak was caused by workers improperly reusing syringes and medicine vials at a Las Vegas clinic, federal health officials said Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was contacted by...

A nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a Turkish hospital destroyed by an earthquake in 1992. A newborn was rescued after more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City's 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers are...

Health regulators warned again Friday that Roche and Novartis drugs prescribed to organ transplant patients can cause miscarriages and birth defects when used by pregnant women. The Food and Drug Administration last...

Breast cancer patients with low levels of vitamin D were much more likely to die of the disease or have it spread than patients getting enough of the nutrient, a study found _ adding to evidence the "sunshine vitamin"...

A combination of two new-generation cancer drugs modestly delayed the time it took for cancer to worsen in a study of 300 women with very advanced disease who had stopped responding to other treatments. It was the...

Think twice before you sign up for an online service using a fake name or e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime. Federal prosecutors turned to a novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict...

Cable TV, phone and Internet service provider Charter Communications drew concern Friday from two congressmen and a privacy advocate over its plan to experiment with tracking its customers' Web use in collaboration with...

Yahoo Inc. is seeking to conceal large portions of a shareholder lawsuit alleging the Internet company's board improperly thwarted Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover offer, raising shareholder questions over the...

Classified ad Web site Craigslist is denying online auctioneer eBay's allegation that it unfairly diluted eBay's stake in it and says its board was acting to protect the company. Craigslist, based in San Francisco,...

A Russian supply ship docked to the international space station on Friday, delivering more than 2 tons of food, water, equipment and scientific experiments. The three men aboard the space station monitored everything...

Wet weather was expected Friday from New England all the way south to the Gulf Coast. Severe thunderstorms were anticipated along the coastline of the Southeast, with damaging winds and a few weak tornadoes forecast in...

A storm was expected to move across the Mississippi Valley and along the Appalachian Mountains on Thursday, bringing rain and thunderstorms through the Southeast and lower half of the Mississippi Valley. There was a...

A line of storms stretched from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi Valley early Wednesday, while both coasts warmed up beneath clear skies. A large portion of the Southern Plains eastward into the Lower Mississippi...

An arc of stormy weather stretched from the upper Midwest to portions of the Four Corners early Tuesday, with thunderstorms possible in the South and rain for the Pacific Northwest. The storm system in the upper...

Rain was forecast for much of the Northeast. Storms were expected to cause significant and extended flooding along the Delaware river. Coastal flooding also was likely from Delaware through Long Island, with the worst...