Moving from celebrity to senator isn't exactly an untraveled path. But that doesn't mean comedian Al Franken, who is vying for a Senate seat in Minnesota, will coast to Capitol Hill on a wide, smooth road. Franken, a...

IN THE HEADLINES Obama, family spend Fourth of July in red-state Montana, celebrate daughter's 10th birthday ... Florida Gov. Crist, possible running mate for John McCain, engaged to marry ... Obama woos Montana and...

Is Barack Obama close to being shadowed by giant flip-flops and, worse, having the image stick with people all the way to the voting booth? Four years ago, Republicans branded as a "flip-flop" even the slightest...

IN THE HEADLINES Obama and family celebrate Independence Day in red-state Montana ... Obama struggles to explain how his trip to Iraq could refine his policy on US presence there ... McCain calls campaign staff...

It was a family Fourth of July for Democrat Barack Obama as his wife, daughters, sister and other relatives helped him make an Independence Day play for this reliably conservative state. Obama paid tribute to a nation...

On a pedestal in a Texas intersection hundreds of miles from where terrorists crashed planes seven years ago, two flight attendants and two pilots, rendered in bronze, now care for a traveling child. The sculpture was...

After battling rowdy renters and out-of-control keggers for decades, this Jersey shore party town has finally decided to lighten up a little. Belmar, sometimes called "Fort Lauderdale North" for its reputation as a...

Tropical Storm Bertha continues to speed across the Atlantic Ocean. At 5 a.m. EDT Friday, Bertha was centered about 750 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. It is expected to be about halfway between the west coast of...

A vast collection of 78 rpm records _ valued at $1 million, weighing 50 tons and representing more than a half-century of American music history _ is being donated to Syracuse University by the estate of a prominent New...

Weary firefighters got no Independence Day reprieve from a pair of out-of-control wildfires that roared along California's central coast, chewing through opposite ends of an arid forest in the Los Padres National...

Berlin police say a man has ripped off the head of a wax figure of Adolf Hitler at Madame Tussauds' newly opened branch in the German capital. A police statement says the 41-year-old man tore off the head of the figure...

More than 1,000 people marched in northern Japan on Saturday to protest an upcoming summit of the top industrialized countries, and police arrested four protesters after a brief scuffle. No injuries were reported. ...

Japan's Meteorological Agency says a moderately strong earthquake has jolted the Tokyo area. There have been no reports of injuries or damage from the magnitude 5.1 quake. The agency says the earthquake hit Saturday...

Suspected insurgents in Thailand's restive south shot up a bustling cafe early Saturday, killing three customers and injuring four others, police said. Police Maj. Saenchai Kesarin said the insurgents drove up in a...

British police arrested a suspect early Saturday in connection with the recent brutal stabbing murders of two French students. Officers detained a 21-year-old man at about 3:40 a.m. on a street in southeast London near...

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...

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...

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...

When the media capital of the world meets a celebrity divorce, it's a breakup made in tabloid heaven. So the city that has hosted the spectacular splits of Woody Allen, Liza Minnelli and Rudolph Giuliani now is feasting...

As thousands of singers converge on Nashville for an international convention of barbershop harmony music, the old-fashioned music style is facing discord among its fans. The 70-year-old Barbershop Harmony Society...

Seon Hwa Lee's approach shot hopped to the back of the green and stopped about 3 feet from the hole. One last birdie on a back nine full of them. Lee birdied five of her final six holes Friday for an 8-under 64 to take...

Tom Pernice Jr. matched the course record with a 63, then criticized the commissioner. John Merrick, with a boost from some boisterous fans, went 5 under for his last five holes. Greg Kraft was forced to make an...

Michael Phelps is almost done at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials. The superstar has one bit of unfinished business: the 100 butterfly and a showdown with world recordholder Ian Crocker. Phelps must finish first or...

Kevin Youkilis created the drama. Mike Lowell gave Boston the win. Lowell hit a go-ahead, three-run homer two innings after Youkilis' shot squirted out of Johnny Damon's glove, bounced off the top of the left-field wall...

!!-- hobj:08047256 -->Mark Martin will make one final effort to win the NASCAR championship that's eluded him the past 26 years by driving for storied Hendrick Motorsports next season. The 49-year-old Martin has run a...

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...

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...

Widespread showers and thunderstorms pounded the Eastern Seaboard early Monday, while a warm day dawned across the Midwest, Plains and much of the West. A line of storms stretched from New England to Florida and into...