John McCain and Barack Obama outlined steps to counter the faltering economy and plummeting stock market on Friday, fresh evidence of the dominant role of pocketbook issues in their race for the White House. McCain,...

Who is running for president? In an upstate New York county, hundreds of voters have been sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for "Barack Osama." The absentee ballots sent to voters in Rensselaer County...

President Bush worked to allay fears about the financial crisis on Friday then left the White House and headed south to raise nearly $2 million for the Republican Party in South Carolina and the battleground state of...

Alaska lawmakers met behind closed doors Friday to discuss a politically charged ethics report into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her state public safety commissioner. The Republican vice presidential nominee has been...

A half sister of Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, has died of Alzheimer's disease, the family announced. Dixie Lea Burd, 74, died Tuesday in Phoenix. She had been in a nursing home...

For a Kansas City man, 2008 has been a great year when it comes to playing the Missouri Lottery. Arthur Watkins, 53, has won slightly more than $400,000 in two Powerball drawings within a four-month period. Missouri...

The tough economy could make it easier to sign up soldiers. Fewer civilian jobs mean less competition for military recruiters. "We do benefit when things look less positive in civil society," David Chu, the Pentagon's...

Ever wonder what happens after you yank the chain on the old commode? Rhode Island is offering tours of several wastewater treatment facilities during what its dubbed the first annual "Rhode Island Water Infrastructure...

Authorities say a woman has been arrested in west Florida after pouring scalding hot water on her husband's groin. Manatee County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested a 52-year-old woman on Wednesday on a charge of...

Fargo police said two men were arrested for drunken driving in the same vehicle. Police Lt. Pat Claus said an officer pulled over a 23-year-old man early Thursday morning. Claus said while that man was taking a sobriety...

The head of an Israeli hospital where an Iranian boy is being treated for a brain tumor said Friday he hoped the gesture will help improve understanding between the bitterly divided countries. The 12-year-old boy _ who...

North Korea's reportedly ailing Kim Jong Il skipped a celebration of the 63rd anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party on Friday, but hours later state-run media described an energetic visit to a military unit. The...

China's State Council tightened quality control regulations for the dairy industry Friday, as authorities in Macau and Hong Kong reported several children had kidney stones blamed on Chinese tainted milk. Contaminated...

Iraq's prime minister said Friday that the country's most influential Shiite cleric will leave the decision on the future of U.S. troops to the government and parliament _ a step that could remove a major obstacle to a...

Shining Path rebels ambushed a column of military trucks in Peru's southeastern mountains with a bomb and gunfire, the military high command said Friday, killing 12 soldiers and seven civilians in the deadliest rebel...

Oil prices plunged in another violent sell-off Friday, briefly tumbling below $78 a barrel as investors grow more pessimistic about the prospects for resolving a mushrooming global economic crisis. A barrel of oil...

Wall Street seesawed but still extended its devastating decline Friday as investors, seeing no resolution to the credit crisis, propelled the Dow Jones industrials to their eighth straight day of losses and worst week...

Sellers of insurance on bonds issued by bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are now likely to face demands that they pay out more than 91 cents on the dollar to buyers of those insurance contracts. That's the upshot...

The standard-setting board for corporate accounting adopted new guidance on Friday for how banks value assets in the distressed market, a move that could boost their balance sheets. The five-member Financial Accounting...

Governments around the world have slashed interest rates and ramped up their lending to unprecendented levels, but banks are still charging each other extremely high borrowing rates _ a bad sign for the credit markets...

A woman accused of stalking John Cusack has accepted a plea deal that will let her avoid state prison. Emily Leatherman pleaded no contest Friday in Los Angeles to a felony count of stalking Cusack. A judge immediately...

Eileen Herlie, a stage and TV actress who appeared on "All My Children" for more than three decades as the motherly Myrtle Fargate, has died at 90. Herlie died Wednesday of pneumonia, said Julie Hanan Carruthers, the...

Standing in the rain wasn't going to dampen Donovan's spirits. He had come to a field in this Catskills arts colony to be photographed, looking every bit the '60s troubadour of "Mellow Yellow" fame with a calf-length,...

If you're wondering what was going through Britney Spears' head during her erratic era, you are not alone _ so does she. "I sit there and I look back and I'm like, 'I'm a smart person. What the hell was I thinking?'"...

A publicist for Meat Loaf says the 57-year-old rocker was hospitalized in London for three days following an awards ceremony earlier this week. Publicist Kirt Webster says Meat Loaf was admitted to a private hospital...

EDITOR'S NOTE: An audio version of this column is available here.RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Stock markets are tanking. Banks are struggling to survive. Credit has all but dried up. A worldwide recession looms as overseas...

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--He'll be knee-deep in weeds at the Interstate 10 underpass at Franklin Avenue in New Orleans or setting sod at a neighborhood home, but one thing is certain: Robert Claverie, 64, won't be in one place...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--It's a unique partnership between two institutions of higher education -- one tasked with theological education and the other offering a master's degree in business administration, with both...

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Historical and contemporary Baptist views on the doctrine of the church were examined during Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's fourth annual Baptist Distinctive Series at the Fort...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Southern Baptist Theological Seminary student Michael Diaz recently faced the most arduous day of his seminary career.But it wasn't difficult because of tests, papers or staying up late to parse...

One in four teen girls have rolled up their sleeves for the relatively new vaccine against cervical cancer, federal health officials said Thursday. The figures represent the government's first substantial study of...

A German farmer who received the world's first complete double arm transplant said Wednesday that incredulity gave way to joy when he woke from surgery to discover he had arms again. Karl Merk, who lost his arms in a...

Cells taken from men's testicles seem as versatile as the stem cells derived from embryos, researchers reported Wednesday in what may be yet another new approach in a burgeoning scientific field. The new type of stem...

Don't give over-the-counter cold remedies to kids under 4, drug companies said Tuesday. What sniffling little ones need, doctors said, are plenty of fluids and lots of tender, loving care. "The best thing a parent can...

Get moving: New exercise guidelines released Tuesday set a minimum sweat allotment for good health. For most adults, that's 2 1/2 hours a week. How much physical activity you need depends largely on age and level of...

Now that Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG have broken off their troubled relationship, known as Sony BMG, the Japanese company hopes to harmonize its consumer electronics and its music, a duo that was badly out of sync. ...

!!-- pobj:NYMG201-0813081216 -->!!-- pobj:NYMG204-0813081316 -->!!-- pobj:NYMG205-0813081309 -->On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor...

Here's a look at the top record labels, their artists and their U.S. market share as of Oct. 9: _ UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP: 35.12 percent market share in U.S. Labels include: Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group,...

If you can't stand global warming, get out of the tropics. While the most significant harm from climate change so far has been in the polar regions, tropical plants and animals may face an even greater threat, say...

IBM Corp. sold $3.9 billion in bonds on Thursday, a sign that the stalwarts of the corporate world are still finding lenders. "The markets were open to us at this time, so we decided to enter," said IBM spokesman Doug...

A mixture of snow and rain was expected to continue falling over regions of the West on Friday as a strong trough of low pressure dips across the Central Great Basin and the Central Rockies. Measurable amounts of snow...

Strong storms buffeted the Southeast on Thursday, downing power lines and trees, pelting towns in Georgia and Florida with quarter-sized hail and spawning a tornado near Fargo, Georgia. Up north, cold fronts settled...

Gusty winds, rain and early season snow were forecast Thursday for parts of Washington, Oregon and Northern California as a strong storm system moves into the Northwest. Snow was expected only in the higher elevations...

A cold front was to trek across the Mississippi Valley Wednesday morning before making its way across the Ohio Valley, the Northeast and the Southeast by the afternoon. The Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley were to see...

Severe weather was to continue sweeping across the Plains on Tuesday, while thunderstorms slipped over the Mississippi Valley and high pressure kept the interior West clear. A cold front was to extend from the Upper...