SANDS POINT, N.Y. -- Two former associates of Donald Trump helped a family of wealthy Kazakh fugitives make extensive investments in the United States, some aimed at helping family members obtain legal residency here, a McClatchy investigation shows.

Felix Sater, an ex-con and onetime senior adviser in the Trump Organization, helped the Trump ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Real estate developer Mohamed Hadid must do community service, pay fines and put forward a plan to stabilize a Bel-Air hillside after pleading no contest to criminal charges tied to a mammoth mansion in the hills of Bel-Air.

It remains undecided whether Hadid will be required to secure a bond to cover the costs of tearing down ...Read more

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- When Police Chief Gregory Mullen started getting calls about a potential "mass casualty" at the Emanuel AME Church downtown, he knew the first officers on the scene might need some extra help.

Not reinforcements or more firepower, but help coping with what he suspected would be a horrific scene. And he was right.

In barely ...Read more

Candidate for Ohio Senate seat retweets 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theorist

WASHINGTON -- Ohio state treasurer and Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel retweeted the right-wing conspiracy theorist behind the "Pizzagate" theory.

Mandel, who is running for a rematch against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2018, retweeted a post on Medium by Mike...Read more

Editors: Do not use TRUMP-KAZAKHS-VISAS:WA (Wieder, Paluch and Hall), which moved Thursday evening. The story is embargoed for web use until 5 a.m. EDT Friday. This is a mandatory KILL. An embargoed version will move momentarily.

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CARACAS, Venezuela -- A general strike called by the opposition in Venezuela on Thursday emptied the streets of the capital Caracas, while a senior Venezuelan U.N. diplomat publicly severed ties with Nicolas Maduro's government.

Both incidents were further signs of the growing crisis in Venezuela, which is suffering its worst economic crisis, ...Read more

BEIRUT -- Heavy clashes erupted late Thursday between the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement and militants on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, a Lebanese security source said.

A source close to the movement said Hezbollah managed to take control of three observation points for al-Qaida Syria affiliate Fatah al...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has made several trips to Moscow during his 15 terms in Congress.

But the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats canceled a publicly announced trip to meet with the Russian parliament last spring with little notice.

Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told the Los ...Read more

Being told you have cancer is never welcome, but being told you have a glioblastoma tumor is especially scary.

This is the news that longtime Arizona Sen. John McCain got after he had a blood clot removed above his left eye last week. A glioblastoma tumor killed Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 2009. It also was responsible for the death of Beau Biden...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- In her first public comments five days after a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed Justine Damond, Chief Janee Harteau said the department will work on regaining the public's trust, acknowledging that "Justine didn't have to die."

Repeating the phrase more than once during a Thursday afternoon news conference, Harteau said...Read more

JERUSALEM -- Days of escalating clashes and a diplomatic crisis over recently installed Israeli metal detectors at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City is stoking concern of a new wave of violence ahead of Friday prayers.

Girding for a surge of friction at noontime prayers on the Muslim day of rest, the Israeli army put five ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- James Kester was so angry at the South Carolina Department of Mental Health for its alleged treatment of his daughter that he plowed his Cadillac sedan into the graveside service of a formal mental health employee as a form of revenge, a police investigator said Thursday.

Judge Overture Walker set a $5 million bond for Kester,...Read more

WASHINGTON -- To Senate Republicans, John McCain is a real-life hero, a leader and a trusted voice who speaks his mind in the often muddled milieu of Washington politics.

He is also a crucial vote in their slim 52-seat majority.

McCain's sudden absence from the Senate as he battles brain cancer complicates the Republican leadership's already ...Read more

SEATTLE -- Federal research vessels have located the Destination, the Seattle-based crab boat that went missing Feb. 11 along with six crew, on the bottom of the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska.

The crew was heading out to fish for snow crab when their boat went down on a cold day off St. George Island in the Pribilofs.

The sunken vessel ...Read more

Two so-called "dark Web" sites dedicated to illegal drug and arms sales have been seized in an audacious sting operation, and the suspected ringleader has committed suicide, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday.

Alexandre Cazes, a 25-year-old man from Quebec who was suspected of creating an illegal online marketplace called AlphaBay,...Read more

ATLANTA -- It's been two weeks since a father and four children were stabbed to death inside their Gwinnett County, Ga., mobile home. And as more details are released, the already horrific crime spree becomes even harder to fathom. Why would the suspect, a 33-year-old Mexican national, kill her family?

The motive remained unknown Thursday. But ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Senators want the new FBI director on the job as soon as possible, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell intends to see Christopher Wray confirmed before August recess. That looks increasingly likely, as the Judiciary Committee unanimously approved his nomination, teeing it up for floor consideration as soon as McConnell moves...Read more

WARSAW, Poland -- Tens of thousands of Poles poured into the streets of the eastern European nation's biggest cities after the passage of a controversial revamp of the judiciary that's been criticized by the European Union for backsliding on democracy.

Over 50,000 people gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, a city spokesman ...Read more