John McCain visited a gun shop Friday _ but bought just a fishing scale _ during the first stop in a day of courtship of the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment devotees. The Republican presidential...

Democrats accused Sen. John McCain Friday of hypocrisy on the question of whether the United States should negotiate with terrorists and dictators, saying the certain Republican nominee had previously been willing to...

IN THE HEADLINES Democrats say McCain was willing to negotiate with Hamas ... After GOP stumbles in the South, Obama warns Republicans about critical ads ... Democratic Party panel members show little interest in...

Michigan and Florida alone can't save Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states' banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady's...

In a May 14 story about the upcoming Kentucky primary election, The Associated Press incorrectly reported the level of trade between Kentucky and China. It is more than $300 million a year, not $300 billion, according...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that financial markets are "considerably calmer" now than they were two months ago. He predicted the economy will be rebounding by the second half of this year. In a speech...

Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices. During Bush's second...

The United States said Friday it has reached a deal with North Korea to provide 500,000 metric tons of food aid over the coming year to the closed-off communist nation. The Bush administration says the aid is unrelated...

A United Nations translator was sentenced to a year in prison for using U.N. stationery and fraudulent documents to smuggle people into the United States from Uzbekistan. Vyacheslav Manokhin, a Russian national who had...

The Chinese Embassy is encouraging Americans and others to send cash and supplies to victims of this week's powerful earthquake. But the embassy says it doesn't currently need any U.S. disaster relief teams. Embassy...

The cyclone's official death toll has nearly doubled to almost 78,000 and another 56,000 people remain missing two weeks after the devastating storm, state television reported Friday. The United Nations, meanwhile,...

President Leonel Fernandez was favored to win a third term on Friday, despite concerns over long-serving politicians in this Caribbean nation with a painful history of rule by strongmen. The former New Yorker is...

Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Friday who had been buried for four days as a strong aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week's powerful earthquake. The first foreign rescue workers since...

A look at some of the deadliest natural disasters around the world in the past 40 years: _ May 2008: Earthquake (magnitude 7.9) hits Sichuan province in central China. More than 22,000 are killed, and an additional...

Cracked dams and buckled roads, collapsed buildings and toppled factories _ China has begun to tally its losses from an earthquake this week that killed thousands and left thousands more missing, with estimates ranging...

Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. said Friday that its first-quarter earnings rose 3 percent from a year ago on stronger sales. Abercrombie said it earned $62.1 million, or 69 cents per share, in the three...

Fannie Mae is doing away with higher minimum down-payment requirements for borrowers in parts of the country where home prices are dropping. The government-sponsored mortgage finance company said Friday it will require...

Wall Street pulled back Friday as enthusiasm over a surprise uptick in home construction gave way to renewed concerns about how consumers will fare as oil pushes to fresh highs. The Dow Jones industrial average at times...

Oil prices surged more than $3 Friday, shattering a previous record in a spike near $128 a barrel, as prices at the pump pushed to new highs of their own. The gains come 10 days before the Memorial Day holiday, the...

Construction of new homes posted the biggest increase in more than two years in April. While it was a rare spot of good news for the housing market, analysts said it's far too soon to declare an end to the prolonged...

Indiana Jones doesn't give up his secrets lightly, and neither does the man pulling his strings. Director Steven Spielberg has tried to keep chapter four of the archaeologist's big-screen adventures, "Indiana Jones and...

A judge has denied a motion from news organizations seeking immediate access to sealed court records and transcripts in the R. Kelly child pornography trial. Judge Vincent Gaughan (GAWN) also refused to lift a gag...

Whether it's David Archuleta or David Cook who wins "American Idol" next week, both singers will be part of the show's annual concert tour. Tickets for this summer's "American Idols Live! Tour," which features the TV...

Prosecutors say they have charged former NBA star Dennis Rodman with domestic violence for allegedly hitting his girlfriend at a hotel last month. Los Angeles City Attorney spokesman Nick Velasquez says Rodman was...

John Phillip Law, the strikingly handsome 1960s movie actor who portrayed an angel in the futuristic "Barbarella" and a lovesick Russian seaman in "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming," has died. He was 70....

Jacques Martin has reached an agreement to remain with the Florida Panthers as general manager through the 2011-12 season, the team said Friday. Martin was stripped of his duties as head coach last month but said he...

A new IRS filing shows Chicago's Olympic organizing committee raised more than $32 million during its successful effort to be selected the American bidder for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Chicago 2016 Exploratory...

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal Friday and can compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the 21-year-old South African is eligible to race against...

Serena Williams withdrew from her quarterfinal match at the Italian Open on Friday due to a back problem. Williams' back froze suddenly while she was warming up on a practice court for her match with French qualifier...

The Colorado Rockies must be tired of seeing Brandon Webb by now. That probably goes for the rest of the National League, too. Backed by Stephen Drew's career-high four hits, Webb became the major leagues' first...

!!-- pobj:NY435-0508081542 -->!!-- pobj:NY436-0508081543 -->When residents of this poor, Cambodian village need something built, they call on the Lightmans. The Jewish-American family's latest gift: a mosque. "We...

DALLAS (BP)--A recent Newsweek cover story, "The Divorce Generation Grows Up," chronicled the history of divorce by spotlighting a middle class suburban community. A generation ago, learning that someone was divorced...

BRANDON, Fla. (BP)--Services for Forrest Pollock, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church, and his son Preston are scheduled for Saturday, May 17, in Brandon, Fla.Pollock, 44, and Preston, 13, were killed in a plane crash...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Hugh T. McElrath, longtime music professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, died May 8 at his winter home in Penney Farms, Fla.McElrath, 86, retired from Southern in 1992 as the V.V. Cooke...

WASHINGTON (BP)--NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the nation's leading abortion rights groups, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president May 14 and pledged to work to defeat Republican John McCain, who the...

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...

A growing number of women with early stage breast cancer seem to be choosing to have the whole breast removed instead of just the cancerous lump, doctors are reporting. Mastectomies were standard treatment until 1990,...

Children who survive cancer face a much greater risk of heart problems later in life than their brothers and sisters who did not have cancer, new research shows. Doctors have long known that certain chemotherapy drugs...

Evidence is growing that vitamin D, which the skin makes from sunshine, is linked to lower risk of breast cancer and other cancers. But that doesn't mean it's good to get a golden tan _ and certainly not a sunburn. ...

French wireless operator Orange said Friday it has signed a deal with Apple Inc. to sell its iPhone in the Middle East, Africa and several European countries. France Telecom's Orange said in a one-sentence statement...

The One Laptop Per Child project is about to find out whether Microsoft Corp., a rival the nonprofit group once derided, is the solution to its problems in spreading inexpensive portable computers to schoolchildren. ...

Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang spent months fending off Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid. Now he may only have a few weeks to persuade the software maker to revive its last offer of $47.5 billion, or...

A Missouri woman was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide. Lori Drew, 49, of suburban St. Louis, who...

Americans spent $1.23 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in April, up 47 percent from a year earlier, even as the price of more essential items like food and gasoline soared. Nintendo Co. again took the...

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...