Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, fresh from an Iraq trip with Democrat Barack Obama, said the presidential candidates should focus on the war's future and stop arguing over the success of last year's troop surge. Hagel...

THE RACE: The presidential race nationally ___ THE NUMBERS: Democrat Barack Obama, 40 percent Republican John McCain, 37 percent ___ OF INTEREST: Independents are basically split between the candidates _ 32...

Cheered by an enormous international crowd, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Thursday summoned Europeans and Americans together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it" as...

Banks step up Fed borrowing over past week; Wall Street firms take a pass. ...

Sen. Barack Obama scrapped plans to visit wounded members of the armed forces in Germany as part of his overseas trip, a decision his spokesman said was made because the Democratic presidential candidate thought it...

Church members watching the steeple being raised on their new building looked on in horror Thursday as a crane holding the structure toppled, crushing a car and killing a 79-year-old man who had been watching from...

The National Park Service wanted to close a section of Yellowstone Park in the wintertime because of the risk of avalanche. No way, protested businesses in Cody, Wyo., that wanted to promote more tourism. The spat did...

Residents across south Texas slogged through knee-deep muddy waters, tiptoed around downed power lines and dug through debris Thursday, but were thankful that Hurricane Dolly didn't pack the wallop they had feared. ...

More letters, cards, bill payments and other first-class mail items are getting to their destinations on time than ever before, the Postal Service said Thursday. National on-time performance scores for the delivery of...

A federal judge in Boise says convicted child-killer Joseph Edward Duncan III is mentally competent to face a death penalty hearing. Duncan faces the death penalty on three of 10 federal charges related to the 2005...

Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began. The announcement...

In a July 23 story about Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's trip to Darfur, The Associated Press erroneously reported that it was his first visit to the western Sudanese region in more than three years. Al-Bashir has...

Cheered by an enormous international crowd, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Thursday summoned Europeans and Americans together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it" as...

France's military will slash its ranks by 54,000 personnel and close dozens of air, army and other bases in an overhaul meant to slim forces at home while making it easier and faster to deploy troops abroad, the prime...

An Argentine court has sentenced a former army chief to life in prison for the 1977 kidnapping, torture and killing of four activists. Luciano Benjamin Menendez was commander of the Third Army Corps in Cordoba for five...

Tribune Co. is inviting at least three potential buyers who each submitted bids for the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field near or above $1 billion to participate in a second round of proposals, according to a person...

Copper prices tumbled to a five-week low Thursday on expectations that falling demand from China and a slowdown in the U.S. housing market will lead to a surplus of the metal. Other commodities traded mixed, with crude...

Agriculture futures traded mostly higher Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade. Wheat for September delivery rose 4.5 cents to $7.8775 a bushel; December corn added 1.5 cents to $5.92 a bushel; December oats gained...

Wall Street abruptly ended an earnings-driven rally and closed sharply lower Thursday after a steeper-than-expected decline in existing home sales and worries about the financial sector chilled the market's recent...

Dow Chemical Co. said Thursday that despite record sales and two double-digit price increases unveiled in the second quarter, its profit for the period fell 27 percent, in large part because of sharply higher costs for...

DMX rapped for reporters outside a Phoenix courtroom after pleading not guilty to felony charges of theft and identity theft. Then he plugged his new album. Authorities allege the 37-year-old rapper gave the name "Troy...

"Wallace & Gromit" are going on a new adventure. Telltale Games is creating an episodic video game based on Aardman Animations' Oscar-winning animated film series titled "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures."...

Sheryl Crow is putting the "Rumours" to rest: She's not making a record with or joining Fleetwood Mac _ not anytime soon at least. "No, that was those 'Rumours' _ to quote the album," she joked Wednesday, referring to...

With Alison Krauss touring this summer with Robert Plant, the guys in her band, Union Station, had some time to kill, like enough to read biographies of all 43 presidents and maybe paint their houses and their...

Capsule reviews of films opening this week: "American Teen" _ Nanette Burstein's documentary doesn't tell you anything you didn't already know about high school. It can be a rough time, even if you're pretty and...

Carlos Delgado hit a tiebreaking, two-run double in the eighth inning and Oliver Perez stifled the Philadelphia Phillies again, helping the New York Mets earn a 3-1 win Thursday that gave them sole possession of first...

Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Ryan Tucker said playing in an exhibition game is a reachable goal after undergoing surgery to repair a broken hip. Tucker, a former tackle who started the final eight games last...

Just two weeks before the start of the Olympics, Iraq was told Thursday it's not welcome in Beijing because of a political feud in Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that arrived to a roaring...

The New England Patriots signed first-round draft pick Jerod Mayo on Thursday, bringing their last unsigned selection into the fold as the defending AFC champions opened training camp and began their quest to put last...

Super Bowl hero David Tyree was placed on the physically unable to perform list by the New York Giants on Thursday because of lingering problems recovering from surgery on his right knee. Tyree, whose one-handed catch...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (BP)--Wind and heavy rain continued from what remained of Hurricane Dolly Thursday in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas while churches from the Gulf Coast westward toward McAllen, 70 miles inland,...

GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP)--John Lilley, president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has been terminated by the school's board of regents after less than three years in the position.Lilley was the focus of controversy in...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Listen to an audio version of this column here.RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Pop quiz: If you don't really believe Jesus Christ is the one and only way to salvation, would you ...-- pray for the lost at home and...

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--In the first column in this series I said that we can come to terms with Jesus' claims to being the only way by answering three rudimentary questions. In yesterday's column we looked at the first...

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Elaine Lambach, 49, a missionary serving in Brazil through the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, died after a brief illness July 14. Lambach, a mother of five, was serving in church and...

After three surgeries, Judy Sherer still had chronic pain in her left shoulder. She'd lost faith in her doctors, and in despair tried a new health benefit offered by her employer. The service, Health Advocate, is a...

More than 1,000 people died over two years from an illegal version of the painkiller fentanyl, the government reported Thursday in its first national tally of those deaths. The spike of overdoses seems to have ended,...

Scientists will have to take "enormous intellectual leaps" to develop an AIDS vaccine in the coming years, say researchers clearly frustrated by the failure of a once-promising shot. The researchers, including a top...

Scientists will have to take "enormous intellectual leaps" to develop an AIDS vaccine in the coming years, say researchers clearly frustrated by the failure of a once-promising shot. The researchers, including a top...

It was a hot lead for detectives on a cold case. People suddenly were getting salmonella at a Minnesota restaurant more than 1,000 miles from the center of the nation's outbreak. Not my tomatoes, protested the manager....

Scientists have exposed some of the mystery behind the northern lights. On Thursday, NASA released findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora...

An influential shareholder advisory firm endorsed the re-election of Yahoo Inc.'s entire board Thursday, reducing the chances that the Internet company's directors will be ousted for spurning Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5...

T-R-O-U-B-L-E could loom for a Scrabble knockoff that has become one of the most popular activities on Facebook. Hasbro Inc., the company that owns the word game's North American rights, sued the creators of the...

Embarq Corp. has revealed more details about its exploration of a program that tracked Internet subscribers' Web-surfing habits for advertising purposes, telling Congress that it performed the test on 26,000 customers...

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co.'s second-quarter earnings tumbled 44 percent as ad revenue continued to shrink in its key markets. McClatchy, whose papers include the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, said Thursday...

The remnants of Hurricane Dolly were dumping heavy rain over southern Texas on Thursday, a day after making landfall, then weakening to a tropical storm. Flooding concerns persisted as Dolly crept across the state. A...

Hurricane Dolly was expected to make landfall Wednesday near the Texas-Mexico border, bringing up to 15 inches of rain to southern Texas. Flooding was anticipated, especially along the coast, because of the heavy rain...

A cold front hovering over the Ohio Valley early Tuesday was expected to trigger showers and thunderstorms from the Central Plains to New England, while Tropical Storm Dolly threatened Texas. Scattered showers, strong...

Tropical storms Dolly and Cristobal were to continue spinning away in the Atlantic Basin on Monday. Cristobal was to pull away from the North Carolina coastline in the morning, but showers and gusty winds were to last...

Tropical Storm Cristobal was expected to continue to move northeastward along the eastern seaboard on Sunday, possibly making landfall over the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In any case, it was to produce much-needed...