Barack Obama celebrated "active faith" as an obligation of religious Americans and a chief agent of societal change while speaking Saturday to a nearly all-black roomful of churchgoers, but hoping to reach far beyond...

John McCain calls himself an underdog. That may be an understatement. The GOP presidential candidate trails Democrat Barack Obama in polls, organization and money while trying to succeed a deeply unpopular fellow...

Malia Obama told her parents that spending her 10th birthday helping her father campaign for the presidency far from home and "rocking out" with her family after takeout in a modest hotel room was the best she has ever...

Republican John McCain, who has made support for President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, is getting from help from a veterans group that's launching a national TV ad campaign...

Now that they're allies, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will help each other raise money in a series of fundraisers in New York next week. Obama campaign spokesman Jen Psaki said the Democratic...

!!-- pobj:ORJB107-0705081318 -->Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert...

A wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Southern California spread slowly through scenic canyonlands Saturday, straining resources as crews struggled to contain hundreds of other blazes around the state. "The...

A popular Long Island beach has been evacuated on a holiday weekend because unexploded fireworks washed up on shore. About 2,000 visitors were ordered to leave Jones Beach after the leftover shells were found around...

A Wisconsin man who posted a video online showing him and his father shocking each other with a stolen stun gun has been sent to prison. Paul Crowell pleaded guilty to possession of an electric weapon and was sentenced...

Jesse Helms forever changed North Carolina politics and the conservative movement. The former senator did it without ever changing much about himself. There is perhaps no better example of Helms' unwavering commitment...

Military intelligence agents posing as aid workers and a film crew flew to the jungle aboard a white helicopter, staging a mock humanitarian mission that rebels were told would ferry their hostages to another camp for...

As of Saturday, July 5, 2008, at least 4,113 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

Lawmakers pledged Sunday to study the movements of planes and ships traveling to the remote British outpost Diego Garcia amid persistent suspicion it is used by U.S. authorities to detain or transfer terrorism suspects....

The Colombian fiancee of freed U.S. hostage Keith Stansell has traveled to meet him in Texas along with their 5-year-old twin boys, who will see their father for the first time. Patricia Medina told Colombia's RCN...

President Alvaro Uribe was master of ceremonies the night Colombian military intelligence agents disguised as humanitarian workers airlifted Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages to freedom. Elated former captives of...

Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide. No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support...

Nine people, including a prominent executive who fled to France in an attempt to elude justice, were convicted Friday of criminal charges in a major Austrian bank fraud case linked to the 2005 collapse of New York-based...

BCE Inc, Canada's largest telecommunications company, said Friday it has agreed on terms of a $35 billion sale to a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in the biggest leveraged buyout ever. The deal is...

France's central bank announced Friday that it has fined Societe Generale $6.3 million for "serious shortcomings" in its internal controls that led to nearly $7.8 billion in trading losses announced earlier this year. ...

Even as Wall Street skids lower almost by the day, and the major indexes have touched the levels of a bear market, some analysts are actually finding some signs in the performance of small-company stocks that might be...

Soul diva Amy Winehouse sipped from a glass of red wine and looked a bit unsteady on her feet as she appeared in front of a large audience at the Rock in Rio music festival southeast of Madrid on Friday. Then, as tens...

Gospel singer Timothy Wright was critically injured in a crash in central Pennsylvania that killed his wife and a wrong-way driver who hit their vehicle, police said. Wright, 61, was injured Friday night along with his...

The Emmy-winning daughter of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin is getting her own doll. The 10-inch Bindi Irwin doll sports khakis, puffy pigtails and hiking boots, and comes with binoculars, a camera and other...

Lost scenes from the sci-fi classic "Metropolis," recently discovered in the archives of a Buenos Aires museum, were shown to journalists for the first time in decades on Thursday. A long-lost original cut of the 1927...

Michael Turner, a comic book artist who drew covers for major titles such as "Superman/Batman," "The Flash" and "Civil War,'" has died. He was 37. Turner died June 27 at a Santa Monica hospital of complications related...

Katie Hoff has claimed a fifth individual race in Beijing by winning the 800-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials. Hoff pulled away from world champion Kate Ziegler midway through the race to win in 8...

Watch out, online poker whizzes and leisure players with deep pockets. The pros are coming, and they want their top crown back. The World Series of Poker was once a series for those who make a career out of card...

Michael Phelps will get another chance to go after Mark Spitz's Olympic record in Beijing. Phelps locked up his eight-race schedule by winning the 100-meter butterfly at the U.S. swimming trials Saturday night,...

Volatile Kansas City outfielder Jose Guillen got into a heated clubhouse exchange with pitching coach Bob McClure prior to Saturday night's game, knocking over chairs before several Royals stepped in to separate them. ...

Margaret Hoelzer has set the ninth world record of the U.S. swimming trials, winning the 200-meter backstroke in 2 minute, 6.09 seconds. The 25-year-old got a great surge off the wall heading into her third lap, then...

As clergy involvement in politics stirs debate, Roman Catholic priests and deacons in the Denver Archdiocese are being instructed not to endorse or donate money to political candidates. The directive came from Denver...

Plans to translate the Bible into patois _ Jamaica's unofficial language _ have ignited a fiery debate that stretches beyond the shores of this island nation. Some Jamaicans object to the project because they say...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (BP)--A silly story is told about a little boy asking his father a question, "Dad, do they have the Fourth of July in England?" "Yes, oh yes, son they do have a fourth of July in England. They just...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Specialty license plates on cars can signal the driver's support of an array of topics from the environment to animals to college sports teams, but those that support belief in God have faced...

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua (BP)--When Marie Davidson heard Jim and Viola Palmer talk about their ministry among the Miskito people of Nicaragua, she was deeply moved. And when, more than a year later, she heard Hurricane...

Expect fewer slices of red, ripe tomatoes next to the grill this holiday weekend. With a salmonella scare causing many customers to shun what's normally a summertime favorite, tomato farmers nationwide have had to plow...

A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra _ but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks going all night...

Scientists have new evidence that the brain chemical best known for regulating mood also plays a role in the mystifying killer of seemingly healthy babies _ sudden infant death syndrome. Autopsied brain tissue from...

A Filipino teenager who came to New York so doctors could perform surgery to untwist her severely clubbed feet took her first unaided steps Wednesday in pink-and-white sneakers _ the first shoes she's ever worn. "I'm...

A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra _ but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long. ...

Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and...

Syria has returned a marble artifact to Iraq that was stolen from one of the country's archaeological sites. The marble block roughly 4 feet tall and 1 1/2 feet wide contains an engraving of a bearded man kneeling in...

The Phoenix lander's first chemical sniff of Martian soil did not turn up any trace of the building blocks of life. Its next whiff could be its last. Engineers said a short circuit that occurred last month in one of...

From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet. Creation of a new Earth Systems Science Agency is...

This doesn't sound good: The nonprofit agency in charge of the Internet's addresses recently lost track of its own. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, said it happened when an Internet...

Showers and thunderstorms were expected across the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday. Severe weather was not expected, but the region was forecast to receive heavy rain and strong winds. The Boston area was to remain mostly...

A wet Independence Day was forecast for much of the nation, with showers and thunderstorms projected for the Pacific Northwest, the mid-Atlantic, the Ohio Valley and the Southeast. Clear skies were expected over the...

Showers and thunderstorms were forecast Thursday for the central Plains as a cold front moves through the region. The storms could produce damaging winds, hail and possibly tornadoes. Flooding was also a threat for some...

A cold front was forecast to sweep into the northern Plains on Wednesday, triggering showers and thunderstorms from the Plains to the Great Lakes. The storms were expected to strengthen throughout the day, stretching...

The West was expected to be stormy and warm on Tuesday, with severe thunderstorms packing strong winds and hail possible in Montana and Idaho. Thunderstorms, gusty winds and lightning also were forecast for the Four...