!!-- pobj:MTBUT101-0704081938 -->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...

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...

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...

Barack Obama is celebrating the 4th of July in Butte, Montana, attending a parade and picnic. It's a state that usually gives its three electoral votes to a Republican. Only two Democrats have carried Montana since...

A 52-year-old Milwaukee-area man has been accused of faking heart attacks to avoid paying restaurant bills and cab fares. Police say the Waukesha (WAWK'-uh-shaw) man took a cab to a mall Monday and pretended to have a...

Tropical Storm Bertha is still churning in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. At 8 p.m. EDT Friday, Bertha was centered about 505 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph....

Two supervisors at an Iowa meatpacking plant that was raided by federal immigration agents in May were arrested and charged with encouraging people to live in the United States illegally. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza,...

Authorities say the lone survivor of a mid-air crash of two medical helicopters has died at a hospital. Police and officials at Flagstaff Medical Center say 36-year-old James Taylor died Friday. He was a registered...

Dan Cook SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ Dan Cook, a San Antonio sports writer who helped popularize the phrase "the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings," died Thursday. He was 81. The San Antonio Express-News, for which Cook...

Video taken during the rescue of 15 rebel hostages shows them filing grim-faced toward the helicopter that would fly them to safety, then hugging one another and crying with joy after they are aloft and realize they are...

The U.S. military said airstrikes by its attack helicopters hit two vehicles carrying insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. The province's governor said 22 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed. A...

It's Staff Sgt. Edgar Covarrubias' second Fourth of July in Iraq. No family barbecue, no fireworks, but Covarrubias says he'll call his mom, wife and kids to share the day anyway. Across Iraq, America's Independence...

As of Friday, July 4, 2008, at least 468 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department....

As of Friday, July 4, 2008, at least 4,113 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...

Fuel prices are soaring and credit markets tightening, but the super-rich are still lining up to pay tens of millions of dollars for mega yachts. The well-heeled buyers of the floating mansions are increasingly coming...

Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel Friday from record levels set a day earlier on hopes that tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program could ease and cut the chances of American or Israeli military action against...

The European Commission on Friday widened its antitrust probe into the proposed acquisition of Rio Tinto Inc. by BHP Billiton Ltd., saying an initial investigation revealed concerns about higher prices and reduced...

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...

Bradford & Bingley PLC said Friday it is revising its plans to raise new capital after U.S. private equity fund Texas Pacific Group pulled out of its agreement to invest more than $350 million in the mortgage...

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...

Shane Victorino's two-out RBI single in the ninth inning lifted the Philadelphia Phillies over the New York Mets 3-2 on Friday night. Duaner Sanchez (3-1) retired the first two batters before Pedro Feliz doubled to...

For those athletes thinking about taking a stand in Beijing, John Carlos supports you. But, he cautions, think about the consequences before you act. American sprinters Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their...

Michael Phelps set another world record. No surprise there. Dara Torres is going back to the Olympics. Who would've believed it? Fresh off another endorsement from Mark Spitz, the iconic star he'll try to better in...

It takes plenty of confidence and oodles of cash just to play in the World Series of Poker main event, but the world's best rounders are making things even spicier by raising the stakes against one another. Gold...

Forty-one-year-old Dara Torres completed her improbable Olympic comeback, making the U.S. team for the fifth time by winning the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials. Wearing goggles older than some of her...

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...