In his first negative ad of the general election campaign, Democrat Barack Obama said John McCain is "part of the problem" of high gas prices and tried to parry Republican criticism of his own energy policy. The...

Barack Obama says John McCain's plan to balance the budget doesn't add up. Easy for him to say: It's not a goal he's even trying to reach. Not only does Obama say he won't eliminate the deficit in his first term, as...

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Tuesday that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain would carry out the Bush administration's missile defense plans in Poland if he were elected. But Sikorski...

Barack Obama called on Tuesday for changing federal bankruptcy laws to help military families, seniors and victims of natural disasters, and accused John McCain of repeatedly siding with the banking industry when...

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama pitched competing economic plans to Hispanics on Tuesday, the second time in as many weeks the presidential candidates directly appealed to this critical constituency. ...

!!-- AUDIO:213,212,211 -->The National Transportation Safety Board put heavy blame on the Georgia Department of Transportation Tuesday for an Atlanta bus crash last year that killed five college baseball players,...

Federal officials say a bird did not cause a large dent in the nose of a Northwest Airlines plane that landed in Tampa. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says Tuesday that the aircraft's...

The United States and leaders of the Czech Republic agreed Tuesday to place a radar system in this former Soviet satellite that would warn of long-range missiles coming to Europe from the Middle East. But Secretary of...

U.S. aid for Iraq's army and police units will be needed for the foreseeable future, although the security forces are becoming increasingly independent, a senior military general will tell Congress on Wednesday. In...

Drug safety officials Tuesday imposed the government's most urgent safety warning on Cipro and similar antibiotics, citing evidence that they may lead to tendon ruptures, a serious injury that can leave patients...

Israeli troops stormed the shopping mall in this West Bank city Tuesday and ordered it to close, saying the popular facility is linked to the militant Islamic Hamas. The overnight move was the latest in a widening...

World leaders embraced for the first time on Tuesday an ambitious but nonbinding goal of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions in half by midcentury to stave off global warming. Unimpressed environmentalists called the...

Pakistan's new government was accused Tuesday of lacking the resolve to stem militant activity after a spate of bombings in the country's capital and its main commercial city. Police continued to probe seven small...

The ex-head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy agency said Tuesday she opposes Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plans for tougher new anti-terrorism laws. Making her first speech to the House of Lords since being appointed to...

A British woman assaulted by a serial rapist has won the right to sue the attacker who became a millionaire by winning the lottery while in prison. A judge ruled Tuesday that the 78-year-old victim, known only as Mrs....

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. said its second-quarter earnings fell nearly 24 percent as higher prices failed to offset raw material and facility outage costs. The Pittsburgh-based company earned $546 million, or 66...

Treasurys edged higher Tuesday as investors had little economic data to trade on and instead focused their attention on movements in the stock market. Investors have increasingly been taking cues from how stocks...

Wall Street finished sharply higher Tuesday as oil prices dropped for the second straight day and investors were encouraged by the possibility of more help for the ailing financial system. The Dow Jones industrials...

Anheuser-Busch claims that Belgian brewer InBev's unsolicited takeover bid isn't just bad for the bottom line, but is an "illegal scheme" that threatens to defraud Anheuser-Busch shareholders if a federal judge doesn't...

The Chicago Tribune is eliminating about 80 editorial positions _ roughly 14 percent of its newsroom staff _ amid parent Tribune Company's campaign to cut costs as revenues decline. Employees were informed of the...

Christie Brinkley should get custody of her two youngest children _ but she and her narcissistic husband both need therapy, a court-appointed psychiatrist said Tuesday at their divorce trial. Dr. Stephen Herman,...

Prosecutors have filed felony charges against Nate Dogg, who authorities suspect threatened and stalked his wife. The rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, was charged Monday. He was arrested last month by...

Sobriety won't change some things about Steve-O _ the daredevil prankster says he could still perform many of the radical stunts that made him famous. "I can do what I've done in the past," the 34-year-old said after...

The effects of an annual music festival in Grand Junction, Colo., may appear months after the last act plays _ nine months, to be precise. A health official says her agency sees far more pregnant women in the weeks...

Justin Long and Drew Barrymore have ended their romance, the actor's publicist said Tuesday. "I just wanted to confirm that, yes, they did break up," Carrie Gordon told The Associated Press in a phone interview, adding...

Curlin is set for his turf debut in the first step of an ambitious attempt that could prove he's the best horse anywhere _ regardless of the surface, competition or continent. The reigning Horse of the Year will run in...

The Tampa Bay Lightning moved forward with a major roster overhaul Tuesday, signing free agent forward Mark Recchi to a one-year contract. Recchi, a seven-time All-Star who has played 19 NHL seasons, had 14 goals and...

Dontrelle Willis and the Detroit Tigers got good news Tuesday when a MRI revealed he has tendinitis in his right knee. The Tigers said the pitcher had a cortisone shot to reduce inflammation and was fitted for a brace...

North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson's traffic case has been continued for another month. The 20-year-old Lawson was scheduled to have his first appearance in court Tuesday following his June arrest for driving after...

Martin Truex's bid to make the Chase for the championship took a severe hit Tuesday when NASCAR penalized his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team 150 points for bringing an illegal car to Daytona. Truex's car failed its initial...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Archaeology is in the news again. An interesting juxtaposition of news stories concerns what might be the boyhood home of George Washington on the Rappahannock River and the claim that a collector...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--John Dever, a former professor of church and society at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, died of a heart attack July 4 at the age of 72.Dever joined the faculty of the Louisville, Ky.,...

RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)--God does not make suggestions, Henry Blackaby said. He gives commands.Every time God speaks, "it is life or death, blessing or cursing. When God has something to say to you, He assigns the Holy...

COLUMBIA, Md. (BP)--Billy Bestofall, pastor of The Church of Everyone's Dreams, announces his resignation and the congregation is devastated. They cry, have a farewell chicken dinner and start looking for a replacement....

SALISBURY, Md. (BP)--Lee Hughart was happily working as a bivocational pastor and assistant curator of a historic fort in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina swept through and wiped out his home, church and...

QUACK RESEARCH? The government wants to test chelation, a treatment for lead poisoning, on children with autism _ even though there's no evidence it leads to improvements. WHY? Proof that chelation doesn't work might...

Pressured by desperate parents, government researchers are pushing to test an unproven treatment on autistic children, a move some scientists see as an unethical experiment in voodoo medicine. The treatment removes...

A prostate cancer study that could change how doctors treat some patients found that widely used hormone-blocking drugs did not improve survival chances for older men whose disease hadn't spread. In fact, men given the...

Federal drug safety officials have imposed the government's most urgent warning on Cipro and similar antibiotics, citing risks that they can cause tendon ruptures, a serious injury that leaves some patients...

A look at a few of the major accomplishments over the past quarter-century by athletes who were past the age of 40: _Dara Torres: At age 41, the swimmer wins two events at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, the 50- and...

In the latest expansion beyond its main mission of organizing the world's information, Internet search leader Google Inc. hopes to orchestrate more virtual socializing on the Web. Google debuted a free service Tuesday...

VMware Inc. abruptly replaced co-founder Diane Greene as chief executive Tuesday and lowered its sales outlook, triggering alarms that pounded the business software maker's shares to their lowest depths since the...

Executives from major Internet players _ Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. _ are due for a grilling about online privacy in a Senate committee Wednesday, but the company likely to get the most scrutiny is a...

More than a year after they were introduced, federal rules intended to keep cell phone towers operating during natural disasters remain in limbo. A federal appeals court on Tuesday put off deciding on the wireless...

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., maker of the "Shrek" movies and "Kung Fu Panda," announced Tuesday it will switch from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. computer chips to Intel Corp.'s as it moves toward making all 3-D movies....

A cold front was moving southward over the upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes regions early Tuesday, triggering severe storms including heavy rain, strong winds, hail and possible tornadoes. Storms associated...

A cold front sagging south across the Upper Midwest and another front intensifying over the Northern Plains were to combine to spark scattered showers and thunderstorms across much of the Midwest early Monday, while the...

Showers and thunderstorms were expected Sunday from eastern Colorado through Wisconsin. There was a slight chance of severe weather from eastern Nebraska through Wisconsin. Widespread scattered showers and...

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...