Republican John McCain called Thursday for a federal investigation into plans by the DHL shipping company that could cost 10,000 jobs here, as he and his campaign manager took criticism for helping DHL complete a merger...

John McCain's campaign says it is returning tens of thousands of dollars in contributions solicited by a foreign citizen. The move follows the disclosure that the money was being raised by a Jordanian man who is a...

The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday it will not appeal a federal judge's ruling that upheld the city's decision to limit protests during the Democratic National Convention to a fenced-in demonstration zone,...

A man who authorities said was keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car appeared in court Thursday on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. ...

The diverse culture of the nation's 50th state _ and the island nature of Hawaii itself _ shaped Barack Obama's view of the world and the politics he would practice. Those who knew him as a child say that view and...

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was jailed Thursday for a bond violation in his perjury case, his pleas for leniency rejected by a judge who made it clear the mayor would get no special treatment. Kilpatrick, charged with...

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt attempted to ease concerns Thursday that the Bush administration is planning to issue new rules that would limit women's access to birth control. Under federal law,...

Erik Darling, the reedy-voiced guitarist and banjo player who deftly stepped in when Pete Seeger left the pioneering folk music group The Weavers, has died after battling lymphoma. He was 74. He died Sunday in Chapel...

A federal judge ruled Thursday that American Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million in a long-running trust case, a fraction of the $47 billion they wanted. But U.S. District Judge James Robertson did not say...

The wife of evangelical pastor Joel Osteen got physical when her demands that a small spill on her seat be cleaned up were not immediately met, a flight attendant testified Thursday at a civil trial over the incident. ...

Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S....

A U.S. military jury gave Osama bin Laden's driver a surprisingly light sentence on Thursday, making him eligible for release in just five months despite the prosecutors' request for at least a 30-year sentence to deter...

The capital of the separatist South Ossetia region came under heavy fire early Friday, just hours after Georgia's president declared a cease-fire following days of sporadic fighting, news reports and the rebel...

The general who masterminded Africa's latest coup appeared in public for the first time Thursday, leading a triumphal march on the streets of Mauritania's capital and declaring he is "determined to save democracy" in...

!!-- pobj:PAGRE201-0513081123 -->The deadliest three months for American forces in Afghanistan have pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 500, forcing a war long overshadowed by Iraq back into the headlines. Larger,...

Citigroup Inc. will buy back more than $7 billion in auction-rate securities and pay $100 million in fines as part of settlements with federal and state regulators, who said the bank marketed the investments as safe...

Wheat prices jumped more than 50 cents a bushel Thursday after a big decline the previous day attracted new buyers seeking to lock in cheap supplies of the grain used to make pasta, bread and other food. Other...

A food company voluntarily recalled frozen ground beef Thursday that has been linked to 27 confirmed cases of E. coli at a Boy Scout camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains. S&S Foods of Azusa, Calif., said it is...

Wall Street tumbled Thursday as further troubles in the financial sector, higher unemployment and lackluster retail sales touched off fresh concerns about the economy. The Dow Jones industrials skidded nearly 225...

Treasury bond prices rebounded Thursday as investors sought safe-haven investments after a surprise jump in weekly unemployment claims and disappointing sales reports from retailers. The Labor Department said the...

The parents of an assistant propmaster killed in an accident during the filming of "The Kingdom" have sued director Peter Berg, seeking reimbursement of funeral expenses and other damages. Berg was traveling in a sport...

Don't judge Brett Favre in "Madden NFL 09" by his cover. When the latest edition of the football video game franchise is released Tuesday, it will still feature the quarterback in his Green Bay Packers uniform _...

Morgan Freeman was discharged Thursday from a Tennessee hospital after the Oscar-winning actor was treated for broken bones and other injuries sustained in a weekend car crash in Mississippi. Kathy Stringer, a...

Concert company Live Nation Inc. says its net profit in the second quarter shrank 88 percent to $1.2 million, or two cents a share. The results, however, beat Wall Street analysts' expectation of a loss. Revenue rose...

Elvis Presley's favorite performance costume, the peacock jumpsuit, sold for $300,000 Thursday, making it the most expensive piece of Elvis memorabilia sold at auction. The online sale by auctioneer Gotta Have It!...

Cito Gaston will return as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays next year. "Cito's definitely going to be back," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Thursday. "He's done a good job. We're six games over .500 since he took...

Beer ads will continue to pay for college sports telecasts, and college fantasy leagues could become the next real moneymaker on Web sites. On Thursday, the NCAA's executive committee decided it couldn't eliminate...

Lastings Milledge homered twice and drove in a career-high four runs, and Jason Bergmann earned his first win in nearly three months to help the Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies 6-3 in the first game of a...

Oakland Hills grudgingly gave up low scores in the opening round of the 90th PGA Championship on Thursday. "The Monster," as Ben Hogan called the long and difficult course, also refused to let anyone pull away. Retief...

No more rumors, no more speculation about Brett Favre. With Tampa Bay no longer a potential destination for the iconic quarterback coming out of retirement, a sense of normalcy returned to Buccaneers training camp on...

DORA, Ala. (BP)--Bob Dylan sang it many years ago, and it's still true today: "The times, they are a-changin." In barely two years, gas prices have more than doubled. Costs for diesel fuel have surpassed gasoline, and...

ISTANBUL (BP)--An Iranian Christian couple in their 60s have died from injuries sustained when secret police raided a house church service at their house and severely beat them, a source told Compass.Less than a week...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (BP)--A Missouri Baptist is suing after she says she was discriminated against and suspended from her job for refusing to promote a "Harry Potter" book she believes promotes "worship of the...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Each day during Baptist Press' coverage of the Beijing Olympics, we are publishing a letter from a Southern Baptist missionary who served in China during the years before the People's Republic of China...

BEIJING (BP)--The team of six women and one child did not know what to expect when they entered the Buddhist temple. They just knew that God had led them to come and pray. Arriving from the subway at one of countless...

The average time that hospital emergency rooms patients wait to see a doctor has grown from about 38 minutes to almost an hour over the past decade, according to new federal statistics released Wednesday. The increase...

A suspected cholera outbreak in a remote southern Philippine township has killed 21 people and sickened at least 50 others, the mayor and the Red Cross said Wednesday. Most of the victims of the outbreak in several...

New advice that men over 75 should not be screened for prostate cancer won't quell the long-standing controversy over the usefulness of the blood test for the disease, cancer experts said Tuesday. "It stokes the...

Dr. Paul Dougherty delicately slipped a tiny lens inside the right eye of 7-year-old Megan Garvin _ a last-ditch shot at saving her sight in that eye. The California girl last week became one of a small number of U.S....

Many immigrant children get even less vigorous exercise than their U.S.-born counterparts, the largest study of its kind suggests. Plenty of earlier evidence shows that U.S. children are pretty inactive. The new study...

Sprint Nextel Corp. said late Thursday it has canceled a proposed $3 billion convertible stock offering that it had announced the day before. The nation's third-largest wireless carrier said Wednesday it planned to...

State wildlife officials raided three residences in the Reno area where they seized more than 100 African clawed frogs, which they say are prohibited because they can pose a serious danger to native frogs and entire...

A stork that's abundant in South America but rare farther north was spotted in Louisiana, one of fewer than a dozen sightings of the bird in the U.S. Michael Seymour and Josh Sylvest, 20-year birdwatchers and employees...

The theater where "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum...

It's Venusmania in Vienna, where Austrians are celebrating the discovery 100 years ago Thursday of a tiny but voluptuous figurine that dates back 25,000 years to a time when mammoths roamed the region. Venus wine,...

The remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard were expected to cause flooding problems in central Texas on Thursday. The southern Plains were forecast to see hot and humid conditions with temperatures in the lower to mid-90s. ...

Central Texas was to continue seeing stormy weather on Wednesday as Tropical Storm Edouard was predicted to deteriorate into a tropical depression. Heavy rainfall, strong winds and scattered thunderstorms were all...

Tropical Storm Edouard was churning through the northern Gulf of Mexico early Tuesday and was expected to veer north, likely making landfall at near-hurricane strength near Galveston, Texas. Southern Texas was forecast...

Strong winds and high seas were expected to lash the Gulf Coast Monday as Tropical Storm Edouard gains strength and moves toward an expected landfall Tuesday in Texas. High pressure was to continue to hold strong in...

A large ridge of high pressure was expected to continue to bring stiflingly hot weather Sunday to the middle portion of the country. Widespread temperatures in the 90s and 100s were forecast for the Plains and the Lower...