LOS ANGELES -- A woman has been sentenced to five years in California state prison in what prosecutors called a "diabolical scheme" to frame her husband's ex-fiancee in a Craigslist rape fantasy plot.

Angela Maria Diaz, 32, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 10 felony and 22 misdemeanor charges, including kidnapping, false imprisonment and falsely ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign, voters in swing states including Nevada and North Carolina saw ads appear in their Facebook feeds and on Google websites touting a pair of controversial faux-tourism videos, showing France and Germany overrun by Shariah law. French schoolchildren were being trained to fight for ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said that failure to pass the Republican tax overhaul would trigger a "significant" drop in the stock market, which has rallied to record highs in recent months.

His warning, which some market analysts disputed, came as a new poll showed 52 percent of Americans oppose the tax plan, which is ...Read more

ATLANTA -- A Cherokee County high school math teacher embroiled in a controversy has tendered her resignation to the school board.

Lyn Orletsky's resignation is on the agenda set for Thursday.

She was put on administrative leave last month after a video of her request that two students wearing "Make America Great Again" T-shirts turn them ...Read more

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday to show their frustration with repeated attacks by Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab, after a weekend truck bombing killed almost 300 people.

Protesters wore red bands around their arms and heads in support of the families of the...Read more

Spain and Catalonia hurtled toward a potential secession showdown, with the president of the northeastern region facing a Thursday deadline set by the central government to back away from a bid for independence.

Madrid has warned that if Catalonia moves unilaterally to secede, the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will invoke a never-...Read more

Trump is said to tell senators they might see his taxes one day

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump told a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday that they may see his tax returns one day, according to a Democratic aide who was briefed on the meeting.

The aide said the remark appeared to be flippant, and it's not clear the attendees believed ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump kept silent on the deaths of four American soldiers for nearly two weeks, while finding time to tweet about "fake news" and Republicans' fundraising, attack Puerto Ricans and a Republican senator, among others, and keep up his complaints against protesting professional football players.

When he finally spoke...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--Florida regulators have moved to permanently revoke the operating license of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills after 14 people died when it lost air conditioning during Hurricane Irma.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration also wants the owners to pay a fine of about $43,000 for violations of health ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration will impose substantial trade penalties on a critical export for Argentina, delivering a significant blow to one of President Donald Trump's few friends in the hemisphere.

According to two people familiar with the plans, the Commerce Department will announce aggressive anti-dumping duties on biodiesel ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Even though Albertina Vega is dead and the sweltering nursing home where she died is shut down, the facility still billed her on what would have been her 100th birthday.

Vega, 99, was one of 14 deceased residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills where the central air conditioning failed during Hurricane ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Shortly before she was shot to death inside her Los Angeles home, Susan Berman told a close female friend she had the "inside story" about the disappearance of the wife of a male friend in New York with whom she was angry and disappointed, according to testimony Wednesday in the murder case of Robert Durst.

The witness, Robin ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- In kicking his top priorities to Congress, President Donald Trump is setting the stage -- intentionally or not -- for weeks of messy horse-trading that may culminate in a year-end standoff to avoid another government shutdown.

Trump is betting he can pressure Congress into breaking its gridlock and squeeze some concessions from ...Read more

SOCHI, Russia -- Russia may have got what it wished for with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, but almost a year later Moscow's foreign policy community shows more signs of alarm than triumph.

Alongside statements of neutrality toward the U.S. vote from officials and others at a Kremlin-sponsored gathering of foreign and domestic ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's onetime presidential campaign manager, was questioned Wednesday behind close doors by the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a person familiar with the interview.

The committee, like its House counterpart, has been looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and whether there ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- For more than a year while he was dean of the University of Southern California's medical school, Dr. Carmen Puliafito abused drugs on days he worked as an eye doctor in university facilities and "would return to his medical office to see patients within hours of using methamphetamine," a state investigation alleges.

Puliafito ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Claire McCaskill thinks she knows why she sat right next to President Donald Trump at the White House. Of the Democrats invited to talk taxes in the West Wing on Wednesday, Trump won her state by the widest margin.

Five Senate Democrats, all facing tough re-election bids next year and representing states Trump won in November, got...Read more