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As Democrats are politically targeting former President Donald Trump for allegedly paying hush money during the 2016 presidential election, President Obama's "illegal foreign influence operation" is flying under the radar. Earlier this week, actor Leonardo DiCaprio testified in federal court that Malaysian financier Jho Low revealed his plans to donate up to $30 million to help Obama's 2012 reelection campaign. "It was a causal conversation about what party he was in support of; I told him what party I was in support of. And he told me that he, or he and a group, were going to make a significant...

“He told me that he, or he and a group, were going to make a significant contribution to the Democratic Party. … I said 'wow, that’s a lot of money.’” Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio took the stand in a federal trial on Monday that seeks to hammer down the details of what appears to be a money-funneling scheme that features a Malaysian financier funneling tens of millions of dollars through a prominent 90s rap artist for the purpose of donating to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. DiCaprio plays into the saga because he was said to have partied...

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio told a Washington jury on Monday (Apr 3) that Malaysian financier Jho Low revealed his plans to donate up to US$30 million to help US President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign in what prosecutors allege was part of an illegal foreign influence operation. "It was a casual conversation about what party he was in support of," DiCaprio said, telling jurors that Low said he planned on giving "a significant donation" to the Democratic Party that was "somewhere to the tune of US$20-30 million." SNIP The Titanic star took the witness stand in the trial of Prakazrel "Pras"...

The military contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” the mastermind behind the worst public corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history who was three weeks away from being sentenced in the case, is on the run. Leonard Glenn Francis, who has been under house arrest, cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and absconded from his San Diego home sometime Sunday morning, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo. Pretrial Services, the federal agency monitoring Francis, was alerted to an anomaly with Francis’ bracelet, and Francis’ defense team went to check on him, knowing he has a history of health issues. An...

The Justice Department announced today the filing of civil forfeiture complaints seeking the forfeiture and recovery of approximately $96 million in assets allegedly associated with an international conspiracy to launder funds misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.  Combined with earlier civil forfeiture complaints filed begining in July 2016, the United States has sought the forfeiture of more than $1.8 billion in assets traceable to funds embezzled from 1MDB.  To date, as a result of these actions, the United States has recovered or assisted Malaysia in recovering nearly $1.1 billion in assets associated with the 1MDB international...

For months, a small team of U.S. Navy investigators and federal prosecutors secretly devised options for a high-stakes international manhunt. Could the target be snatched from his home base in Asia and rendered to the United States? Or held captive aboard an American warship? Making the challenge even tougher was the fact that the man was a master of espionage. His moles had burrowed deep into the Navy hierarchy to leak him a stream of military secrets, thwarting previous efforts to bring him to justice. The target was not a terrorist, nor a spy for a foreign power, nor the...

The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country. The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold. Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed. Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI's most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed. According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island,...

MANILA, Philippines – More than 30 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents Sunday in the southern Philippines in the biggest single-day combat loss for Philippine forces in many years, officials said.

Amid floods that have forced 100,000 people from their homes, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been forced to defend his recent golf outing with President Obama in Hawaii. As The Hill reports, Najib has come under fire at home, cutting short his trip on Friday to return to Malaysia amid headlines such as the Malaysia Chronicle's "Stop Playing Golf, Najib," which appeared above images of the flooding and of Najib on the golf course with Obama.  As The Hill reports, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Saturday was forced to defend his recent golf outing with President Obama after coming...

Did you know Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was full of corpses when it took off from Amsterdam? Did you know that, for some darkly inexplicable reason, on July 17, MH17 moved off the standard flight path that it had taken every time before, and moved north, toward rebel-held areas outside Donetsk? Or that the dispatchers summoned the plane lower just before the crash? Or that the plane had been recently reinsured? Or that the Ukrainian army has air defense systems in the area? Or that it was the result of the Ukrainian military mistaking MH17 for Putin’s presidential plane, which...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks sank on Thursday, with the S&P 500 posting its biggest one-day percentage drop since April 10 on news that a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet crashed near the Ukraine-Russia border. Investors sold stocks in a move to avoid risk and poured money into safe-haven investments like gold and U.S. government bonds as the crash stoked concerns that the conflict in Ukraine might widen after U.S. sanctions against Russia were announced late Wednesday. The United States said the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was "blown out of the sky," probably by a ground-launched missile. The jet had...

Malaysian authorities have issued a new version of the last communication between air traffic control and the cockpit of the missing flight MH370. The last words spoken were "Good night Malaysian three seven zero" - and not "all right, good night" as reported. The transport ministry said forensic investigations would determine whether the pilot or co-pilot spoke the words. The plane, carrying 239 people, was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared on 8 March. The plane's last contact took place at 01:19 Malaysian time. The BBC's transport correspondent Richard Westcott says the new version of the last...

(KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia) — China demanded that Malaysia turn over the satellite data used to conclude that a Malaysia Airlines jetliner had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean killing everyone on board, as gale-force winds and heavy rain on Tuesday halted the search for any remains of the plane. The weather is expected to improve later Tuesday for the multinational search being conducted out of Perth, Australia, to possibly resume Wednesday. But even then, the searchers face a monumental task of combing the vast expanse of choppy seas for suspected remnants of the aircraft sighted earlier. “We’re not searching for...

A flight crew scouring the southern Indian Ocean for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane tells ABC News that they're getting radar hits of "significant size," indicating something lurking below the water's surface. ABC News' David Wright, on board the US Navy P-8 Poseidon, said the crew tells him the radar indicates "there is something down there." It is still too early to tell if the radar hits are related to the missing plane, which was carrying 239 people when it disappeared on March 8. The P-8 is among four aircraft and one merchant ship heading to a region off the...

CNN’s Don Lemon has been entertaining all sorts of theories about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, including the chance something “supernatural” happened, but on Wednesday night, he actually asked panelists about the possibility a black hole was involved. Lemon brought this up along with other “conspiracy theories” people have been floating on Twitter, including people noting the eerie parallels to Lost and The Twilight Zone, and wondered, “is it preposterous” to consider a black hole as a possibility? Mary Schiavo, a former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said, “A small black hole would suck in our...

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 is no closer to being found as the disappearance of the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people nears its two-week mark. Pilot suicide, terrorism and hijacking are some possibilities that are being theorized to the plane as the search area expanded to 7 million square miles. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week that “there are a number of possible scenarios that are being investigated as to what happened to the flight.” Rick Mathews, of the National Center for Security & Preparedness at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy of SUNY Albany, tells...

Retired Air Force General Thomas McInerney isn’t backing away from his thriller novel-like suggestion that the missing Malaysian Airlines flight could have very well landed in Pakistan — and he says his theory is based on more than mere conjecture. “General, I’ve known you a long time, I know you too well to know that you’re not just making this up, this is not something you’ve concocted. You’ve spoken to a number of people, am I correct?” Sean Hannity asked McInerney during Tuesday night’s episode of “Hannity” on Fox News. “Yes, but that’s all I want to say, Sean, please,”...

Many people are asking, with all the satellite coverage, radar, data services, and technology available today, how could a Boeing 777 disappear without a trace? Sadly, this has led to some really wacky ideas, which have managed to infiltrate otherwise sane media outlets. The real explanation is very ordinary and pedestrian.

According to the Times of Israel, Israel's Channel 2 has revealed that Israeli air defenses have been boosted, and approaching civilian aircraft will be asked to identify themselves far earlier. Though the flight was presumed at first to have crashed, whole or in pieces, into the ocean, passive satellite transmissions from the aircraft suggest that it made a deliberate course change and may have headed north into central Asia. Pakistan has already said that the flight never registered on its radar, but at least one expert has suggested the flight could have landed in Bangladesh, whose air defenses presumably would...

Indian intelligence officials have cleared the five Indians on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, police said today. "We are still awaiting reply from all agencies, especially intelligence reports from many countries. So far, Indian and Chinese authorities have cleared the list," police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. The list of passengers on board includes 154 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 7 Indonesians, 6 Australians, 5 Indians, 4 Americans and 2 Canadians.