First they cooperated. Then they stonewalled. Their television interviews were scattershot and ridiculed, their client mercurial and unreliable. But President Donald Trump's legal team, through a combination of bluster, legal precedent and shifting tactics, managed to protect their client from a potentially perilous in-person interview during special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. His lawyers are taking a victory lap after a redacted version of Mueller's findings revealed politically damaging conduct by the president but drew no conclusions of criminal behavior. "Our strategy came to be that when we weren't talking, we were losing," Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. Given that Mueller could not indict a sitting president, Giuliani said, the team kept its focus on Mueller's "capacity to report, so we had to play in the media as well as legally." Get More

At least 138 people were killed and hundreds more injured in near simultaneous blasts that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a security official said, in the worst bout of violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago. Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters. Worshippers and hotel guests were among the dead, the official said. The magnitude of the bloodshed recalled Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war, when separatist Tamil Tigers and other rebel groups targeted the Central Bank, a shopping mall, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists. Get More

Police in Northern Ireland arrested two teenagers Saturday in connection with the fatal shooting of a young journalist during rioting in the city of Londonderry. The men, aged 18 and 19, were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. The men have not been identified or charged. Police had said earlier that one gunman had pulled the trigger during the rioting but was backed by an "organization," and said they were searching for multiple suspects. Get More

By now, most Democratic presidential candidates have polished their stump speeches. But when they're in South Carolina, they may need to add in a sermon. In a large and diverse primary field, White House hopefuls are angling to develop relationships with black churches. That's because success in South Carolina, home to the nation's first Southern presidential primary, could come down to connecting with politically influential churchgoing African Americans. "Candidates recognize that black churches are the places to be seen and heard," said Bobby Donaldson, a professor of civil rights history at the University of South Carolina. "If you're trying to find a captive and captivating audience, then the black church is the perfect place to get your message across." Get More

Potheads have for decades celebrated their love of marijuana on April 20, but the once counter-culture celebration that was all about getting stoned now is so mainstream Corporate America is starting to embrace it. No, Hallmark doesn't yet have a card to mark "420." But many other businesses inside and outside the multibillion-dollar cannabis industry are using April 20, or 4/20, to roll out marketing and social media messaging aimed at connecting with consumers driving the booming market. On Saturday, Lyft is offering a $4.20 credit on a single ride in Colorado and in select cities in the U.S. and Canada. Carl's Jr. is using a Denver restaurant to market a hamburger infused with CBD, a non-intoxicating molecule found in cannabis that many believe is beneficial to their health. Get More

City officials say a tiger mauled a zookeeper at the Topeka Zoo in northeastern Kansas. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the incident happened around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, when a Sumatran tiger named Sanjiv tackled the worker in an enclosed outdoor space. Topeka Zoo director Brendan Wiley says the zookeeper suffered lacerations and puncture wounds to her head, neck and back. Wiley says she was awake and alert when she was taken by ambulance to a hospital and was in stable condition Saturday afternoon. The zookeeper's name has not been released. Get More

Displaced by a massive fire, Notre Dame Cathedral's Paris parishioners are gathering to celebrate Easter in another church and to pray for a speedy reconstruction of their beloved monument. The fire that engulfed Notre Dame during Holy Week has forced worshippers to find other places to attend Easter services. The Paris diocese invited them to attend Easter Mass on Sunday at the grandiose Saint-Eustache Church on the Right Bank of the Seine River. Get More

The City of Miami is creating a “master plan” to address its affordable housing crisis, with a goal of creating 12,000 affordable units by 2024. Throughout the month of April, residents in each of Miami’s five districts have met with city officials to learn about this plan and discuss how it can be catered to each neighborhood’s unique features. The plan comes weeks after a study by Florida International University revealed that Miami was the seventh least affordable metro in the world. Only Hong Kong, Sydney, Los Angeles, London, Toronto and New York were more expensive. Get More

Community members in suburban Denver marked the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting Saturday with a remembrance ceremony that celebrated the school's survival and by volunteering at shelters, doing neighborhood cleanup projects and laying flowers and cards at a memorial to the 13 people killed. "We're changed," Dawn Anna, whose daughter Lauren Townsend was among the students killed in the school's library, said before a crowd of more than 2,000 gathered in a park near the high school. "We're weaker in some places, but hopefully we're stronger in most of them. Our hearts have giant holes in them. But our hearts are bigger than they were 20 years ago." The events ended a three-day slate of somber gatherings honoring the victims and lending support to their families, survivors of the April 20, 1999, attack and the school's students and staff. The decades since have brought similar violence at schools in America, and some survivors and victims' families have found themselves acting as a support system for those affected by other tragedies. Get More

At GSA Coins and Jewelry in Corinth, the open sign is on, though the cases now sit empty. Owner Chris Lyche said he's unsure how much longer he can keep the doors open, two weeks after a burglar took the collection he's worked on since he was 11 years old. Now 21, Lyche said he opened the doors in November to turn his longtime hobby into a business. "Not a lot of people can take something they're passionate about and be able to live on it," Lyche said. But on April 7 around 7 a.m., a masked man broke into the store, threatening to take it all away. Get More

For the first time, the transgender woman who was violently beaten in Dallas, Texas earlier this month is speaking publicly about what happened. The attack on 23-year-old Muhlaysia Booker is being investigated as a hate crime. Saturday, she tearfully thanked supporters and demanded justice at a rally and press conference. It was held outside Abounding Prosperity, Inc., a Dallas-based nonprofit that provides health, social and economic services, particularly to gay and bisexual men, transgender women and their families. Get More

A young woman is dead, another is seriously injured and a toddler is in the hospital for observation after a violent domestic attack with an ax in Brooklyn early Saturday. Late Saturday night, police caught up with their suspect -- the injured woman's ex-boyfriend -- and were questioning him at the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn, a law enforcement source close to the investigation said. The incident started around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, when the NYPD responded to a call for an injured person outside the Bushwick Houses in Brooklyn. On arrival they discovered a 21-year-old woman had already been taken to Elmhurst Hospital with cuts to her head and body. Get More

Authorities say a Florida man impersonating an officer flipped the red and blue lights on his SUV while unknowingly trying to stop a car with a real officer. WFLA reports 26-year-old Matthew Erris was arrested on a charge of impersonating a public officer. An arrest report says Erris turned on the red and blue lights on his SUV in Plant City, Florida, to try to stop the car in front of him. The driver was an undercover Hillsborough County sheriff's detective in an unmarked car. He didn't pull over. Instead he called dispatchers to alert other deputies, who later stopped Erris. Get More