National News

By STEVE PEOPLES and THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press   WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden formally joined the crowded Democratic presidential contest on Thursday, declaring the "soul of this nation" at stake if President Donald Trump wins re-election. In a video posted on Twitter , Biden focused on the 2017 deadly clash between…

HUNTSVILLE, TX (AP) — An avowed racist who orchestrated one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history was executed Wednesday in Texas for the dragging death of a black man. John William King, who was white, received a lethal injection for the slaying nearly 21 years ago of James Byrd Jr., who was…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia by train on Wednesday, a day before his much-anticipated summit with President Vladimir Putin that comes amid deadlocked diplomacy on his nuclear program. Kim, dressed in a black coat and a fedora, met with Russian officials at Russia's Khasan train station…

PORAC, Philippines (AP) — A new powerful earthquake hit the central Philippines on Tuesday, a day after 6.1 quake hit the country's north and killed at least 11 people. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of Tuesday's quake at 6.3, while the local seismology agency said it was a 6.2. The quake was centered…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The coordinated Easter Sunday bombings that ripped through Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels were carried out by seven suicide bombers, a government investigator said Monday. An analysis of the attackers' body parts made clear that they were suicide bombers, said Ariyananda Welianga, a forensic crime investigator. He said most…