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Ending the suspense with a surprise choice, Republican John McCain reached up into Alaska to choose a woman as his running mate: Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor.

DENVER--Invoking the iconic images of John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama promised to lead America to a new era of prosperity, peace, and conciliation as he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night before a jubilant crowd of 80,000 at Invesco Field.

DENVER--Barack Obama faces a big challenge in trying to win over Reagan Democrats this fall, and he needs to address their concerns as soon as possible, says Stan Greenberg, a former senior strategist for President Bill Clinton.

DENVER--Joseph Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, widely respected for his knowledge of international affairs.

DENVER--Sen. Ted Kennedy two days ago talked about passing the party's political torch to Barack Obama. But it was former President Bill Clinton's embrace tonight of the expected Democratic nominee--the political phenom who defeated Clinton's wife in the primaries--that was desperately needed to make that happen.

DENVER--Barack Obama and the Democrats won't just be attacking Republican presidential candidate John McCain this fall over domestic issues, which many party leaders emphasized in speeches to their national convention Tuesday. They are also preparing to confront McCain at his strong point--national security.

Average scores on the reading, math, and writing sections of the SAT test held steady for the second consecutive year, according to a new report by the College Board on the high school class of 2008. But for critics of standardized testing, the bigger story drawn from the data is the slight decline in student participation since a longer, more expensive version of the SAT test was introduced in 2006.

DENVER--She left no question. There was no couching. No B.S.

DENVER--Many voters still have doubts about Barack Obama because he apparently hasn't connected very well with them and hasn't demonstrated enough sensitivity to their problems, but the country's desire for change goes so deep that Obama will win the presidential election anyway, says Democratic pollster and former Hillary Clinton strategist Geoff Garin.

China was intent on making a splash with the 2008 Olympics, which concluded on Sunday, and it did just that. The games are being described as the best ever, thanks to great organization, impressive Olympic venues, stunning opening and closing ceremonies, an army of 70,000 smiling volunteers, and the amazing performances by athletes such as swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Usain Bolt.

DENVER--She came to the stage last night with confidence and a big grin, waving to the cheering thousands and clearly comfortable with the microphone.

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, used his weekly radio address to make some of his most pointed attacks yet on Barack Obama's abortion record, ending a summerlong détente on a hot-button culture war issue that still deeply divides many voters.

Britain's government-run health system is under siege for restricting new therapies. The outcries became especially sharp this summer after patients and doctors got wind of plans to deny several new cancer drugs that are widely available in Europe and the United States, including Avastin and Sutent, because they aren't "cost-effective." In an op-ed in the Daily Mail, one of Britain's leading oncologists, Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College London, decried a "misguided and barbaric decision to ban four kidney cancer drugs" that double life expectancy. And that means years of life in some cases. ...

College students had yet another reason to celebrate last week when a group of more than 100 university presidents--including leaders of prestigious institutions such as Duke, Dartmouth, and Ohio State--made a dramatic proposal to lower the legal age for drinking alcohol from 21 to 18. But the proposal would have to overcome many obstacles, not least of which is the British experience, where an 18-year-old drinking age has done little to stymie an expanding binge-drinking culture.

In the realm of foreign policy, Joseph Biden brings to Barack Obama's presidential bid something it lacks at the top--long experience with a range of countries, problems, and foreign leaders.

If improving public schools was all that voters cared about in this presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama would get more votes than Republican candidate John McCain, according to the results of a new poll. The poll was conducted by the Gallup Organization and Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional society for educators. Its findings are surprising partly because neither candidate has said much publicly about his plan for improving schools. These results also differ from the results of the same poll in the previous two presidential elections. ...

Democrats are still piling on John McCain today for "losing track" of how many houses he and his wife own.

U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, says that it is clear that the Taliban increasingly is trying to create instability in the capital. "I'm certainly concerned about security in Kabul," he says.

Although surveys show the presidential race could be a squeaker, Barack Obama is winning women 51 to 39 percent, according to a poll conducted for EMILY's List. The group, which supports Democratic, pro-choice women candidates and is behind Obama in '08, found that Obama leads among women voters of all age groups, but his advantage is narrowest among baby boomers.

The Department of Homeland Security is studying how best to implement a little-noticed congressional mandate to gather, search, and store biometric data from all foreign visitors leaving the country. The objective is to collect better data on foreigners who violate the law while in the country or who overstay their visas.

Millions of people have them in their mouths, yet their widespread use in treating cavities is one of the more contentious issues in dentistry. So-called silver amalgam fillings contain about 50 percent mercury, with the remaining material made from a powder of silver, tin, zinc, and copper. Some experts are concerned that the release of microscopic amounts of mercury vapor--a consequence of chewing food, grinding teeth, and exposing the fillings to hot substances--might cause neurological problems or kidney damage, particularly in sensitive populations, such as children and pregnant women. ...

They're back. Harry and Louise, that famously frustrated fictional couple whose negative comments about the Clinton healthcare reform plan back in the early 1990s helped sink it, are taking to the airwaves again. But this time, they're urging the next president to make healthcare reform a priority. The new ad, which was unveiled yesterday, will run from August 24 through September 7, on local TV stations in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul during the Democratic and Republican conventions as well as national cable and network programs.

The heavy metal arsenic, which occurs naturally as an element of the Earth's crust, has a long history as an instrument of murder. The notorious Borgia family of Italy, including Pope Alexander VI, is said to have used the tasteless, colorless, and odorless substance to regularly dispatch enemies, and even a despot of Napoleon Bonaparte's stature may have fallen victim to an orchestrated overdose. ...

The resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president means "an opportunity for Pakistan to build a democratic system," Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, said Tuesday in Washington. From now on, said Haqqani, "Pakistan's future will be determined by those who are elected."

Bill Clinton was a relatively unknown governor from Arkansas when the nation tuned into the 1992 Democratic National Convention and saw him introduce himself as "The Man from Hope" in a gauzy, heartwarming, Hollywood-ized version of his life from his beginnings in Hope, Ark., to the national stage.

John McCain is making gains on Barack Obama, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll released today, and one reason appears to be the smoldering crisis between Georgia and Russia.

To many in Washington, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili exemplifies the new, courageous--and very pro-American--generation of democratic leaders who have risen in now-independent lands once under Soviet domination.

Top Democratic Party officials are expecting Sen. Barack Obama to select Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh as his running mate as early as midweek. "He brings state and federal experience, helps us in the Midwest, and is a good compliment to Barack," said a top party source.