IN THE HEADLINES Officials: Obama picks Jim Johnson to oversee top-secret vice presidential search ... McCain, Obama face tough choices and hard politics in Iraq ... Drug, medical device companies making more donations...

Likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama has begun a top-secret search for a running mate, fresh signs that the general election campaign is well under way and the primary race against Hillary Rodham Clinton is basically...

The Cuban American National Foundation, once the foremost voice representing the Cuban exile cause in Washington, is hosting a speech Friday by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a bold move to recapture...

Hard-core advocates for and against the Iraq war are losing leverage as John McCain and Barack Obama, having virtually secured their nominations, appeal to centrist voters who will decide the fall presidential election....

The Internal Revenue Service says the United Church of Christ did not violate rules when it hosted Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at its convention in Hartford last year. The IRS says Obama's appearance...

Highlights of a Senate bill passed Thursday to pay for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring. Key provisions would: _Provide $165 billion for military operations in Iraq and...

Hundreds of students at an Atlanta-area middle school have been evacuated because of a gas leak. There are no reports of injuries. DeKalb County schools spokesman Dale Davis says 800 to 900 students at McNair Middle...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband are stepping up warnings to Iran to come clean about its nuclear programs soon _ or face new sanctions. The two top diplomats said...

Democrats moved forward with plans to override President Bush's veto of a $290 billion farm bill Thursday despite a printing error that has turned a triumphant political victory into a vexing embarrassment. It seems...

A Marine accused of killing of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah, Iraq, is in jail because he refused to testify against a comrade. The detention of Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson has forced his arraignment to be postponed. ...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon surveyed devastated sections of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Thursday and said he was very upset by the conditions of cyclone survivors. Ban went on a four-hour helicopter trip that...

A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with tons of explosives early Thursday in an attempt to ram a crucial crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, militants said. There were no casualties besides...

Senate passes Iraq funding bill by a 70-26 vote. ...

Hundreds of terrified immigrants fled South Africa on Thursday from a wave of anti-foreigner violence that has killed at least 42 people and shredded the nation's reputation for economic and political stability. Even...

A U.S. helicopter strike north of Baghdad killed eight civilians, including several children, an Iraqi police official said Thursday. The U.S. military said the assault targeted al-Qaida fighters but acknowledged that...

Americans getting an early start on the Memorial Day weekend found that gasoline prices again sprinted to a new record high overnight, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon. Some analysts predict gas will...

A leading global energy monitor said Thursday it is worried that demand for oil will outstrip world supply and is preparing a landmark revision of its closely watched forecasts. The International Energy Agency is...

Wall Street rebounded modestly Thursday after two sessions of steep declines brought by the surging price of oil. Oil prices set another trading record overnight _ moving above $135 per barrel for the first time _ then...

A home-price index considered to be the most comprehensive reading of the U.S. market posted the sharpest quarterly decline in its 17-year history, and analysts say housing has yet to bottom out. Rapidly falling home...

Stocks that are moving substantially or trading heavily Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE Media General Inc., up $1.21 at $16.02 To reduce operating costs, the newspaper...

The duel between two Davids brought an estimated 30.6 million viewers to the Fox finale of "American Idol," Nielsen Media Research reported Thursday. That preliminary estimate is virtually identical to last season's...

Did Simon Cowell know David Cook would win? Or was he _ gasp! _ just being nice? Right before host Ryan Seacrest announced Cook as the next "American Idol," Cowell issued an uncharacteristic apology to the sincere...

On a night when "American Idol" viewers were focused on two young singers named David _ Cook and Archuleta _ the Fox singing competition's seventh-season conclusion had plenty of appearances from a few older idols. ...

David Cook is no professional athlete, but he celebrated like one after winning "American Idol" on Wednesday night. Cook, the season seven "Idol" champ after beating teen crooner David Archuleta, took a moment to shout...

For fans of Utah crooner David Archuleta, the seventh season of "American Idol" was a fairy-tale ride without the fairy-tale ending. The roughly 3,000 people who gathered to watch a live feed of the results show at the...

Olympic gold-medal sprinter Antonio Pettigrew on Thursday for the first time admitted taking performance-enhancing substances during a long, successful track career in which he passed all drugs tests. The admission...

World-record holder Paula Radcliffe expects to run the marathon at the Beijing Olympics despite an injury to her left leg. An MRI scan Thursday revealed a low-grade stress fracture of her left femur. The injury also...

Tony Granato returned as coach of the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, four years after he was demoted from the job. Granato will take over from Joel Quenneville, who parted ways with the Avalanche two weeks ago by...

Alcohol was a factor in the death of a 25-year-old man who fell down a stairwell at Turner Field during the game between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. Justin Hayes of Cumming, Ga., suffered head injuries...

The Celtics and Pistons play Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals this evening in Boston. The home team won Tuesday's opener in Beantown, 88-79. Detroit is hoping to get a better game from Chauncey Billups. The...

A coalition of conservative evangelical leaders wants to enlist 1 million Christians to sign a statement questioning whether human-caused global warming is a real threat and arguing that restrictive environmental...

!!-- pobj:NY388-0507081212 -->!!-- pobj:NY387-0507081213 -->For the first time in its 196-year history, one of the nation's oldest Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminaries will be led by a black pastor, a triumph for...

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...

Federal health officials are getting new authority to mine prescription drug usage by millions of participants in the Medicare drug program to look for safety problems with medicines and medical devices after they hit...

A common virus traditionally viewed as mild killed at least five U.S. infants last year, government health officials said Thursday. The five deaths mark the first time an infection was found to be fatal, according to...

Bangladesh's Health Ministry says the nation's first human case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected. The Directorate General of Health Services statement says a child was infected by the virus in January. ...

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...

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...

European Union regulators said Thursday they will consider Microsoft Corp.'s promise to make its Office productivity programs work more seamlessly with competing software. Microsoft said Wednesday it would update...

NASA's final visit to the Hubble Space Telescope is now set for Oct. 8. Atlantis and a crew of seven were supposed to fly to Hubble at the end of August, but the mission was delayed because of extra time needed to...

British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless PLC said it was considering splitting its business units after it posted a 5.7 percent drop in annual profit on Thursday. Cable & Wireless reported a profit...

Lenovo Group, the world's fourth largest PC maker, said Thursday that earnings for its latest quarter rose 133 percent as strong sales in China and Europe offset slower growth in the United States. Profit totaled $140...

Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug. Now, Lifelock customers in...

Powerful gusts and heavy rain was on tap for parts of the West early Thursday, while the Northeast dries out and storms threaten the Plains. Cool rain and even some high elevation snow will fall from the Intermountain...

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...