Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama met Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a man Obama has chided for not doing enough to rebuild his war-torn country. Obama and Karzai held talks and lunched...

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...

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. ...

IN THE HEADLINES Obama has Sunday breakfast with troops in Afghanistan ... McCain raises more than $21 million in June, spends more than he raises as part of strategy ... Pentecostal minister planning Democratic...

Barack Obama had breakfast Sunday with U.S. troops in Kabul as part of his visit to Afghanistan. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Johnson said Obama went to an American base in the Afghan capital to dine with soldiers...

Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood. Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy $25 fines against anyone showing three inches or more of their underwear in public. ...

Tropical Storm Cristobal, the first tropical storm to menace the Southeast seaboard this hurricane season, continued to move along the North Carolina coast early Sunday, and was expected to dump several inches in some...

Responding to Americans' anger over gas prices and the housing bust, President Bush is stepping up pressure on Congress to open up offshore oil exploration and work to restore confidence in the housing finance industry....

Far from the combat zones, the strains and separations of no-end-in-sight wars are taking an ever-growing toll on military families despite the armed services' earnest efforts to help. Divorce lawyers see it in the...

The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere. Despite calls from the...

Iranian state radio is quoting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ah-muh-DEE'-neh-zhahd) as saying the latest round of talks between Iran and world powers are "a step ahead." The Sunday report also quotes the Iranian...

Police say three people are suspected of spraying swastikas and Nazi slogans on buildings and road signs in southern Austria. Police said Sunday that the suspected vandals acted overnight in the small town of Bad St....

Iraq opened a new airport in the southern city of Najaf on Sunday in what the prime minister said was a key step in the reconstruction of a country devastated by war. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, mostly Iranians,...

Gordon Brown, in Israel on his first official visit as Britain's prime minister, said Sunday that economic development was key to bringing peace to the Middle East. Brown's two-day Mideast visit has been overshadowed...

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the world and he challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of their time to create a new age of hope for humankind. Speaking at a...

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...

Brenda Walsh is all grown-up and returning to Beverly Hills, 90210, this fall. But cast members of the new CW spin-off, "90210," are speculating whether Shannen Doherty will be equally mature when she reprises her role...

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...

Katie Douglas and the Indiana Fever stole the spotlight _ under the moonlight _ from the New York Liberty in the WNBA's first outdoor game. On a basketball court laid on top of the tennis court at Arthur Ashe Stadium,...

Tour de France riders approached the Alps focused more on racing and less on the fallout of three scandals over drug use. Three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain closed in on the sprint title by winning...

Jose Molina was hit by Lenny DiNardo's pitch with the bases loaded in the 12th inning, and the New York Yankees outlasted the Oakland Athletics for a 4-3 victory Saturday. Robinson Cano had four hits and David...

Lou Piniella is beginning to worry about the Cubs' sputtering offense. Wandy Rodriguez struck out seven, and the Houston Astros again stifled Chicago's bats in a 4-1 victory on Saturday night. Rodriguez (5-3) allowed...

The scrappy Los Angeles Angels are showing they've got what it takes to beat the Boston Red Sox. Pinch hitter Erick Aybar hit a bases-clearing triple to highlight a four-run seventh, and the Angels rallied for a 4-2...

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...

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...

Customers at big fast-food chains in New York City are finally facing the facts about their meal choices. And for some, the truth may be hard to swallow _ like 1,130 calories for a Big Mac, medium fries and a medium...

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. ...

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...

Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday. More than 400 penguins, most of them...

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...

Archaeologists and scholars will excavate hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian wooden boat entombed in an underground chamber next to Giza's Great pyramid. They will then try to reassemble the craft. The...

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...

Tropical Storm Cristobal was expected to continue to move northeastward along the eastern seaboard on Sunday, possibly making landfall over the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In any case, it was to produce much-needed...

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...