Virginia governor refuses to resign over racist photo

Ralph Northam, the Democratic governor of the US state of Virginia, reportedly changed his story Saturday about appearing in a racist 1984 yearbook photo and insists he will not resign from office.

Northam called several state Democratic officials to say that he isn't one of the men in a photo from his university yearbook depicting two people -- one in blackface, the other dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood, according to various US media reports.

The Virginia governor, who initially acknowledged he was one of them in the picture and apologized, told local media he will make a statement from the governor's mansion in the state capital Richmond later Saturday.

On Friday, a website published a photograph from Northam's medical school yearbook "in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive," the governor said in a statement soon after the picture surfaced.

"I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and ...