North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris, a first-term senator and former California attorney general known for her rigorous questioning of President Donald Trump’s nominees, entered the Democratic presidential race on Monday. Harris would be the first woman to hold the presidency and the second African-American.

Harris, 54, who grew up in Oakland, California, is one of the earliest high-profile Democrats to join what is expected to be a crowded field. She made her long anticipated announcement on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district are expected to strike for a sixth school day Tuesday as talks between Los Angeles Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles continue.

The union said Monday that teachers are due back at picket lines Tuesday morning even if an agreement is reached Monday, saying it takes time to mobilize a ratification vote of a deal.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti remained upbeat as he mediated the fifth day of marathon negotiations at City Hall on Monday.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina judge is considering a demand to order the victory of the Republican in the country’s last undecided congressional race despite an investigation into whether his lead was boosted by illegal vote-collection tactics.

A trial judge in the state’s capital of Raleigh hears arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit by Republican Mark Harris, who narrowly led Democrat Dan McCready in the 9th District race before the investigation started.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Falling temperatures replaced the weekend’s falling snow Monday as bitter cold and gusty winds swept across the eastern United States.

The National Weather Service had forecast that temperatures would be more than 20 degrees below normal across the Northeast, with wind gusts up to 30 mph (48 kph) and wind chills approaching minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in northern New York and Vermont.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have released a measure designed around President Donald Trump’s proposal for breaking a budget impasse, its centerpiece his demand for $5.7 billion to build a southern border wall all but guaranteeing Democratic opposition and no foreseeable end to a partial government shutdown.

As the shutdown dragged through its fifth week, another missed paycheck loomed for hundreds of thousands of workers.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A rural Oregon man killed four members of his family at the home they shared and was shot by sheriff’s deputies as he tried to kill a girl, authorities said.

Mark Leo Gregory Gago, 42, killed his parents, his girlfriend and their infant daughter Saturday night before deputies shot him, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said.

The victims were not shot, The Oregonian reported . Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brian Jensen said the causes of death will be investigated.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Matthew Nimetz, the UN envoy who brokered a Greece-Macedonia deal on their dispute over the latter's name, has asked Athens to ratify the deal as Skopje has completed its internal legal procedures.

Skopje on Wednesday formally informed the Greek government of its ratification of the deal known as the Prespa Agreement, following a parliamentary vote on Dec. 13, Nimetz said in a statement on Sunday.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump spoke over phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday over ongoing tension in Syria and bilateral ties, said the White House.

The two leaders "agreed to continue to pursue a negotiated solution for northeast Syria that achieves our respective security concerns," said the White House in a statement.

Trump and Erdogan also discussed "their mutual interest in expanding the trade relationship," the statement added.

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The fuel pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo has killed at least 79 people and injured 81 others, Minister of Public Health Jorge Alcocer said Sunday.

"There are still patients who sustained serious injuries, with burns of more than 80 percent," said the official in a press conference, accompanied by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid internal controversies and a capital city deeply distracted by the partial government shutdown, the third Women’s March returned to Washington on Saturday with an enduring message of anger and defiance aimed directly at President Donald Trump’s White House.

The original march in 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration, flooded the city with pink-hatted protesters. The exact size of the turnout remains subject to a politically charged debate, but it’s generally regarded as the largest Washington protest since the Vietnam era.