Do you remember the old Ali-Frazier fights? Ah! Those were the days, my friend. For those of you who are young bucks and weren’t born when the entire nation, yea, the world, shut down to see the classic Ali-Frazier matchups, I feel sorry for you. Get the highlight films and be inspired. Today, we have a match up in politics that is very similar to the old Ali-Frazier fights. Of course, McCain is Frazier and Obama is Ali. (The fact that Obama and Ali both have Muslim names is a coincidence.) The similarities between the boxers in the titanic boxing match-ups of old and the presidential candidates in the political match-up of today are as follows: [Read More.]

For years, they were the picture of solidarity: the four children of Martin Luther King Jr. carrying on the legacy of the civil rights icon. But a lawsuit over how their father's estate is being run has left a rift in one of the world's most famous families. And it may now be up to a judge to get the King children in the same room. [Read More.]

Condoleezza Rice says it's a remarkable accomplishment that a black politician is on track for his party's presidential nomination. The secretary of state said Democrat Barack Obama's likely nomination shows the nation's progress in race relations. "I think it's great, and I think it's great for our country," Rice said of Obama's candidacy. Rice noted that Colin Powell was the first black person to be America's top diplomat. She is the second. [Read More.]

Todd Bentley believes God acts through him to cure cancer, heal the deaf and raise the dead. So do hundreds of thousands of people who have visited his raucous revival meeting, now in its third month and broadcast nightly from a huge tent in the middle of Florida. The 32-year-old Canadian, tattooed to the fingers and neck, puts a palm to the forehead of the sick, desperate and faithful. Bentley yells "Bam!" they collapse and he proclaims them cured. Attendees dance in the aisles, shout to Heaven, laugh, shake violently and cry. [Read More.]

Americans are sharply divided by race ahead of the first presidential election in which a black candidate will represent a major party, a New York Times/CBS News poll showed on Tuesday, The poll found that blacks and whites hold vastly different views of Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who would be the first black president, and are also divided on the state of race relations in the United States, the newspaper reported. [Read More.]

The request befuddled Leah Daughtry. The experienced political hand in charge of planning next month's Democratic National Convention — a self-described "black chick from Brooklyn" and ordained Pentecostal minister who keeps a Bible in her purse — didn't know what to tell the atheists. Daughtry, 44, was preparing for an Aug. 24 interfaith service that will open the Democrats' gathering here — a first for a party that hasn't always gotten God. Before her was an angry letter from a secularist group that wanted to know whether atheists would be on the podium. [Read More.]

Conservative Christian leader James Dobson has softened his stance against Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, saying he could reverse his position and endorse the Arizona senator despite serious misgivings. "I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air Monday. "... While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might." [Read More.]

A U.S. Embassy official said Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Iraq on Monday where he will meet with commanders and troops in a war he has long opposed. Obama was expected to meet Gen. David Petraeus as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki while in the country, although aides provided few details, citing security concerns. [Read More.]

It's not just the American dollar that's losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn't worth what it used to be. The "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million in today's dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May — a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago. The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years. [Read More.]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran on Monday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior US diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions. In her first public comments since Saturday's meeting in Switzerland, Rice said Iran had given the run-around to envoys from the US and five other world powers. She said all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline Iran now has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties. [Read More.]

Barack Obama kicked off his overseas trip this week with a visit to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before heading to Afghanistan to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan officials. Here are photos and video from Obama's first two stops: [Read More.]

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama started a campaign-season tour of combat zones and foreign capitals, visiting with U.S. forces in Kuwait and then Afghanistan — the scene of a war he says deserves more attention and more troops. [Read More.]

Pope Benedict XVI used some of the strongest language yet in his apology Saturday for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy, but his words were just more of the same for the victims. The pope said he was "deeply sorry" for the sexual abuse, delivering a strongly-worded apology that described their acts as evil and a grave betrayal of trust. "I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them as their pastor that I too share in their suffering," Benedict said during an address at a Mass in Sydney. "Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice," he said. [Read More.]

Republican John McCain launched a new television ad Friday that accuses presidential rival Barack Obama of switching positions on Iraq "to help himself become president" just as the Democratic candidate prepared to make a high profile trip to Baghdad. McCain's sharply worded criticism was not limited to the ad. He said Friday that Obama would be facing a far less secure Iraq "if we had done what he wanted to do." [Read More.]