Sen. Barack Obama pulled within shouting distance of the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, though he still needs help from superdelegates to claim the prize. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won more of the...

The Memorial Day weekend guest list at Sen. John McCain's Arizona retreat runs to at least three Republicans mentioned as potential vice presidential running mates, but a top aide said Wednesday that vetting possible...

Barack Obama criticized likely general election rival John McCain on Wednesday where it could hurt most _ the Arizona senator's reputation as a champion of ethics. Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, raised the...

IN THE HEADLINES Two candidates, two weeks: Obama, Clinton plot endgame to marathon campaign ... Obama criticizes McCain for hiring lobbyists ... McCain to host possible running mate candidates at Arizona home ......

Two weeks before the final primary in their marathon battle, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning hard Wednesday. Both were in Florida, but their goals could hardly have been more different _ or said...

New Hampshire's governor is considering a bill that would outlaw dissolving human remains as an alternative to cremation but provide for studies to allow it again eventually. The state Senate voted Wednesday to send...

The House quickly rejected George W. Bush's veto Wednesday of a $290 billion farm bill and the Senate was poised to follow suit, a stark rebuke of a president overridden only once in his two terms. Only hours before...

Senate Democrats are offering to drop billions of dollars in domestic programs from President Bush's war-funding bill in hopes of avoiding a veto. But they're insisting on adding a big expansion of education benefits...

!!-- pobj:NY130-0521080841 -->!!-- pobj:NY129-0521080841 -->Transportation officials' concerns that fixing or replacing a Minneapolis bridge would be a "budget buster" may have led to bad maintenance decisions before...

A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that a proposed treaty banning cluster bombs would hurt world security and endanger U.S. military cooperation on humanitarian work with countries that sign the accord. Stephen...

Too many kangaroos, too few Tasmanian devils. Two of the country's beloved icons are challenging Australians' thinking on wildlife management. Researchers are trying to battle a cancer epidemic among Tasmanian devils,...

An exit poll said President Mikhail Saakashvili's ruling party held a strong majority in Georgia's parliamentary elections Wednesday, a result his opponents immediately challenged. A dispute over results could set the...

Mexico's drug violence has claimed another top police official: the second-in-command in the central state of Morelos. The body of Victor Enrique Payan was found with a second, unidentified Morelos state police officer...

Israel and Syria unexpectedly announced Wednesday the resumption of peace talks after an eight-year break, saying they have been speaking indirectly through Turkish mediators "in order to achieve the goal of...

Guatemala's attorney general said Wednesday he has annulled 15 pending adoptions to U.S. couples after finding evidence of fraud or other irregularities. Attorney General Baudilio Portillo suspended all of Guatemala's...

American Airlines will start charging $15 for the first checked bag, cut domestic flights and lay off workers _ probably in the thousands _ as the nation's largest carrier grapples with record-high fuel prices. ...

Runaway oil prices blew past $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday and kept going, while gasoline prices persisted in their own relentless climb, rising above $3.80 a gallon. Supply worries, rising demand and a...

The following recalls have been announced: _ About 12,000 fireplace gas valves, manufactured in Taiwan by American Flame Inc., because the gas can flow into the pilot area even after the switch has been turned off....

Treasury prices fell Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting and another spike in oil prices touched off renewed concern about rising prices. The minutes revealed that the central bank has...

Wall Street pitched lower for the second straight session Wednesday as record-high oil prices and a bleak economic assessment from the Federal Reserve deepened investors' worry about rising costs and a shaky employment...

David Archuleta and David Cook are no professional athletes, but one of them will be celebrating like one on tonight's "American Idol" finale. The next "Idol" champ will shout "I'm going to Disney World!" during the...

Olympic skater Kristi Yamaguchi is used to winning with a lot of people watching, and Tuesday's "Dancing With the Stars" finale was no exception. The conclusion to ABC's competition was seen by 20.1 million viewers,...

It's a far cry from the glamour of Cannes: No celebrities strutting their stuff; an all-male audience drinking coffee and juice rather than champagne; and if any female spectators showed up _ well, no one knew. They...

A childhood friend of the alleged victim in the R. Kelly child pornography case testified Wednesday that she recognizes her longtime friend as the one in the explicit video at the center of the trial. The R&B...

Wesley Snipes must surrender to prison authorities June 3 if he isn't granted bail to appeal three federal tax convictions, defense lawyers said in a court filing. Snipes' attorneys plan to argue before the 11th U.S....

Pedro Martinez returned to the Dominican Republic to be with his sick father on Wednesday, delaying plans to test his ailing hamstring. Martinez had planned to rejoin the New York Mets for a bullpen session Wednesday....

An admitted steroids dealer testified Wednesday that he set up Marion Jones with a three-drug cocktail of banned substances to boost her bid to win five medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Angel "Memo" Heredia...

Derek Jeter was in the New York Yankees' lineup Wednesday against Baltimore, one night after getting hit on the left hand by a pitch. "I'm fine," the star shortstop said. "Everything's good." In other injury news,...

The Tigers recalled pitcher Dontrelle Willis shortly before their game against Seattle on Wednesday night and placed reliever Clay Rapada on the 15-day disabled list with biceps tendinitis. Manager Jim Leyland said...

Manchester United beat Chelsea 6-5 in a rain-soaked penalty shootout to win the European Champions League title Wednesday night following a 1-1 tie. In the first final between two English teams, Edwin van der Sar...

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...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP)--Democrat Barack Obama moved a step closer to the presidential nomination May 20 with an easy victory in Oregon, although a blowout loss to Hillary Clinton in Kentucky -- and Clinton's continued...

RALEIGH, N.C. (BP)--A church is "foolish" not to conduct background checks on employees and children's workers, an investigator and former police officer says.Roger Self, 53, who has been in church for 30 years and in...

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...

Merck & Co. has halted a study of an experimental drug it had touted as key to energizing its sagging cholesterol franchise, barely three weeks after U.S. regulators refused to allow sales of the drug. The...

Complications from donating blood are rare but happen more often in teens than in older donors, including dizziness, fainting and falls, a study found. The findings come as blood agencies increasingly rely on young...

They're the cold cases of medicine, patients with diseases so rare and mysterious that they've eluded diagnosis for years. The National Institutes of Health is seeking those patients _ and ones who qualify could get...

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...

More music fans signed up for Napster Inc.'s digital music offerings in the first three months of this year, boosting revenue and helping the online music retailer cut its fiscal fourth quarter loss by nearly half. The...

Scientists say they have found dinosaur tracks on the Arabian Peninsula, a discovery they say may shed more light on where dinosaurs lived, their migration patterns and how they evolved they way they did. The discovery...

The "Big One," as earthquake scientists imagine it in a detailed, first-of-its-kind script, unzips California's mighty San Andreas Fault north of the Mexican border. In less than two minutes, Los Angeles and its...

In a stroke of cosmic luck, astronomers for the first time witnessed the start of one of the universe's most fiery events: the end of a star's life as it exploded into a supernova. On Jan. 9, astronomers used a NASA...

Destruction of the Amazon is again on the upswing despite a recent crackdown on illegal logging, Brazil's new environment minister said Wednesday. Carlos Minc said official calculations of how much rain forest has been...

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...

Showers and thunderstorms were expected in Florida and parts of the Southeast Coast on Saturday. Showers were also expected in the coastal areas of New England, while scattered showers were predicted for the Great...