Barack Obama visited Saturday with U.S. troops and Afghan officials in this war-weary nation, which is the focal point of his proposed strategy for dealing with threats to the U.S. if elected president. While...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says U.S. troops should leave Iraq "as soon as possible," according to a magazine report, and he called presidential candidate Barack Obama's suggestion of 16 months "the right...

Last year it was about the candidates. This year it's the climate. Former Vice President Al Gore made a surprise appearance Saturday at the Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of nearly 2,000 left-leaning bloggers...

The request befuddled Leah Daughtry. The experienced political hand in charge of planning next month's Democratic National Convention _ a self-described "black chick from Brooklyn" and ordained Pentecostal minister who...

Faced with a spending cap for his fall campaign, Republican presidential candidate John McCain is aggressively spending more money than he is raising during summer months and methodically reducing his cash reserves. ...

Tropical Storm Cristobal, the first tropical storm to menace the Southeast seaboard this hurricane season, sent outer bands of intermittent rain lashing the eastern Carolinas late Saturday as forecasters predicted it...

Federal investigators on Saturday began trying to figure out why one of the world's largest mobile cranes toppled over, killing four contract workers and injuring seven others. Officials said it could take time before...

Diamonds in the rough? Try a $20,000 pair of the glinting gems in a reeking truckload of trash. A Staten Island jeweler has gotten her 3-carat diamond earrings back after she, her husband and city sanitation employees...

Where's the pork? Authorities in western Iowa are looking for a thief with a very big payload _ 120 market hogs. The Palo Alto County Sheriff's Office says that someone swiped the swine from a hog confinement in...

For years, they were the picture of solidarity: the four children of Martin Luther King Jr. carrying on the legacy of the civil rights icon. But a lawsuit over how their father's estate is being run has left a rift in...

Some pre-negotiation jabbing turned into a potentially damaging diplomatic incident Saturday when Brazil's foreign minister said rich countries' deception in trade talks reminded him of tactics used by Nazi propaganda...

As of Saturday, July 19, 2008, at least 4,124 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...

A Shiite militia that has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of five Britons in Iraq more than a year ago said one of the hostages committed suicide, a British newspaper reported. The Sunday Times of London...

For years, Mohammed Ali has been hearing relatives and friends tell how government-backed militiamen torched villages in his native Darfur, raped women and shot fleeing civilians. The painful past and present have...

One of five feet that have mysteriously washed up on the shores of British Columbia over the past year has been linked to a depressed man who disappeared a year ago, police said Saturday. Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre said DNA...

The 6,000 acres of tomatoes grown on Virginia's sea-swept Eastern Shore were never implicated in the national salmonella outbreak _ they were still on the vine weeks after people starting getting sick. Still, that...

The former president of a major Chinese stock brokerage has gone on trial on insider-trading charges in connection with the company's 2006 stock market debut, a state news agency reported Saturday. Dong Zhengqing,...

Sometimes, I guess, timing is everything. When DaimlerChrysler AG announced in 2006 that it planned to bring the Smart fortwo micro car to the United States after nearly a decade in Europe, gas prices had reached about...

!!-- AUDIO:241,242 -->The price of oil recorded its biggest weekly drop ever, and a gallon of gas finally pulled back from its record high. So is it time to declare the energy bubble popped? Experts won't go that far...

Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain is making a pitch to Wall Street: Buy the brokerage's shares while they're still cheap. But investors don't seem ready to listen. In spite of a nearly 400-point surge...

Batman's joust with the Joker has set another box office record. Stoked by fan fever over the manic performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, "The Dark Knight" set a one-day box office record with $66.4 million...

Brenda Walsh is coming back to "Beverly Hills 90210," and she's arriving in style. Shannen Doherty will reprise her role as Walsh in CW's new version of the 1990-2000 series, with her character now a famous director...

Angelina Jolie has left the building. Oh, and so have the twins. Before dawn Saturday, the Hollywood superstar and her newborn twins left the French Riviera hospital where she gave birth a week ago, the hospital said in...

Billy Joel bade a stirring farewell to Shea Stadium on Friday during an electrifying, sold-out final show at the same ballpark where the Beatles famously ushered in a new era in rock 'n' roll four decades ago. He was...

Actor Verne Troyer has settled a lawsuit he filed against a porn broker after the defendant agreed not distribute a sex tape depicting Troyer and a former girlfriend, court documents filed Friday show. Troyer filed a...

After finishing Friday and Saturday in second place at the State Farm Classic, Michelle Wie was one good round away from finally living up to her deep potential. Then, minutes after tapping in her last putt of the...

Rickie Weeks hit a two-run double to cap a four-run sixth inning, Prince Fielder homered and the Milwaukee Brewers remained unbeaten against the San Francisco Giants this season with an 8-5 win on Saturday. Ryan Braun...

Rookie catcher John Baker drove in four runs Saturday and hit one of three homers for the Florida Marlins, who tightened the race in the NL East by beating the Philadelphia Phillies 9-5. Dan Uggla added a two-run...

One-time Seattle prospect Shin-Soo Choo homered and doubled in his first two at-bats, Jeremy Sowers picked up his first win of the season and the Cleveland Indians beat the Mariners 9-6 Saturday afternoon to snap a...

Albert Pujols had three hits and four RBIs, helping the St. Louis Cardinals rally from five runs down to beat the sagging San Diego Padres 6-5 on Saturday. Todd Wellemeyer (8-4) allowed one hit in his last 4 1-3...

The Texas State Board of Education gave final approval Friday to establishing Bible classes in public high schools, rejecting calls to draw specific teaching guidelines and warnings that it could lead to constitutional...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee. (BP)--Los hombres que regularmente asisten a servicios religiosos tienen más probabilidades de tener matrimonios estables y felices, más probabilidades de estar involucrados con sus hijos y menos...

EL CAJON, Calif. (BP)--As Christians, we've been given a genuine deed to heaven -- the promise of eternal life, an inheritance and a mansion that can never be foreclosed on. Our ownership in Christ is documented in the...

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--Many hot button issues will be debated in the forthcoming presidential campaign. Among the hottest topics likely will be the war against terrorism, rising energy costs and the softening American...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Members of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., will vote July 27 on an early retirement package for senior pastor Jerry Sutton.The church has been embroiled in controversy over Sutton's...

Maine officials are advising consumers to avoid eating lobster tomalley after tests revealed high levels of toxins in some lobsters. The Maine Center for Disease Control said Friday that lobster meat is perfectly safe...

The tomato scare may be over, but it has taken a toll _ it's cost the industry an estimated $100 million and left millions of people with a new wariness about the safety of everyday foods. An Associated Press-Ipsos...

Troubled by the tainted tomato scare, nearly half of Americans are concerned they may get sick from eating contaminated food and are avoiding items they normally would buy, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll has found. ...

The South tips the scales again as the nation's fattest region, according to a new government survey. More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee are considered obese. In part, experts blame...

!!-- pobj:NDFAR101-0714081148 -->!!-- pobj:NDFAR102-0714081149 -->A Minnesota family is trying to force a New Jersey drug company to give their son an experimental drug for a fatal form of muscular dystrophy, saying...

Archaeologists will excavate hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian wooden boat entombed in an underground chamber next to Giza's Great Pyramid and try to reassemble the craft, Egyptologists announced Saturday. ...

Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in...

Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in...

The pace of U.S. venture capital investments remained steady at $7.4 billion during the second quarter despite a wobbly stock market that has made it increasingly difficult for the financiers of new ideas to cash out of...

THE GOOD: The flow of money going to U.S. startups remained steady in the second quarter as venture capitalists invested $7.4 billion, unchanged from a year ago. THE BAD: The stock market has turned a cold shoulder to...

Scattered showers and possible thunderstorms were forecast for northern New England on Saturday, and the same low pressure system could trigger showers over the Great Lakes region. Severe weather was possible over the...

Thunderstorms packing high winds and heavy rain were expected to move across the Plains, and severe weather including tornadoes and hail was possible. A series of storms was to move through New England. There was a...

Heavy rain and gusty winds were forecast Thursday for the Northern and Central Plains. Cloudy skies were expected across New England and showers were possible. Mostly sunny skies were forecast for the mid-Atlantic...

Showers and storms stretched from Montana to the very northern edge of the Northeast early Wednesday, while the Midwest and Central Plains were to be calm and sunny. The most severe weather in the nation was expected...

A line of showers and thunderstorms extended across the upper Midwest and Northern Plains early Tuesday, while a wet day dawned for Florida and the Gulf Coast. The storms in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest have...