A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants Monday in central China, killing more than 8,700 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the country's worst quake in three decades.

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr launched a Libertarian Party presidential bid Monday, saying voters are hungry for an alternative to the status quo who would dramatically cut the federal government.

Wearing a flag lapel pin, Sen. Barack Obama emphasized his patriotism and support for a strong and humane military Monday, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton implored West Virginians to sustain her hopes of somehow denying him the Democratic presidential nomination.

Merced police have arrested a woman who allegedly left her 7-month-old baby alone in a car.

Regional air quality officials have cautioned San Joaquin Valley residents to avoid dusty conditions this afternoon and evening by staying indoors.

More than a third of the 22 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a twister.

A wet, gusty storm that lashed the mid-Atlantic states Monday forced evacuations, flooded roads, fanned the flames of a deadly New Jersey fire and wrecked a brand-new research vessel off the Delaware coast, killing a crew member.

Violent crime has increased in some cities in recent years in part because local police are too cash-strapped to fight it, the ATF chief said Monday.

Defense and prosecution attorneys in the Ramadan Abdullah murder case met this morning in Fresno County Superior Court as a judge set Aug. 25 as the date for the retrial of the 26-year-old schizophrenic man who shot and killed a sheriff's deputy in 2001.

Tribune Co.'s $650 million sale of Newsday is an important step toward alleviating its debt burden - for this year.

Heavy rain drenched the mid-Atlantic region Monday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers, flooding roads and chasing people out of their homes.

The United States delivered its first relief supplies to Myanmar on Monday, as the U.N. urged the reclusive nation to open its doors to foreign experts who can help up to 2 million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation.

The Environmental Protection Agency planned to check for high lead levels Monday after a deadly tornado blew through a heavily polluted former mining town where lead-filled waste is piled into giant mounds.

Congressional Democrats are pushing what could become the most dramatic expansion of college aid for military veterans since World War II, with a bill they hope will buoy them this election season and become an albatross for Republicans.

A Tulare County dairy on Sunday reported the theft of about 500 bales of hay valued at $10,000.

An argument over a utility bill led to a stabbing in a Fresno apartment late Sunday.

Two people were arrested Sunday evening after a hit-and-run accident in southeast Fresno.

For the third time in a day, a shooting was reported on North Divisadero Street in Visalia.

When gasoline costs $3.98 a gallon, every drop matters. That's why inspectors make surprise visits to every Fresno County gas station once a year, checking each of the 8,000 fuel nozzles.

Ben Drati fled war in his native Uganda, grew up in south-central Los Angeles and played linebacker for Fresno State.