• Supreme Court loosens the reins on contributors

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court's conservative majority voted Wednesday to free wealthy donors to give to as many political candidates and campaigns as they want, further loosening the reins on giving by big contributors as the 2014 campaign moves into high gear.

It was a fresh declaration by the 5-4 majority that many limits on big-money contributions violate the givers' constitutional free-speech rights, continuing a steady erosion of the restrictions under Chief Justice John Roberts. The biggest of those rulings was the 2010 decision in the Citizens United case that lifted restrictions on independent spending by corporations and labor unions.

Wednesday's ruling voided the overall federal limit on individuals' contributions - $123,200 in 2013 and 2014 - and may have more symbolic than substantive importance in a world in which millions in unlimited donations from liberal and conservative spenders already are playing a major role in campaigns.

The ruling will allow the wealthiest contributors to pour millions of dollars into candidate and party coffers, although those contributions will be subject to disclosure under federal law, unlike much of the big money that independent groups spend on attack ads.

The early beneficiaries could be the political parties, which have lost influence amid the rise of independent spending, and challengers who may have been cut off from getting money from wealthy contributors who previously hit the cap that the court invalidated Wednesday.

• Yanukovych: I was wrong to invite troops

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - Defensive and at times tearful, Ukraine's ousted president conceded Wednesday that he made a mistake when he invited Russian troops into Crimea and vowed to try to negotiate with Vladimir Putin to get the coveted Black Sea peninsula back.

"Crimea is a tragedy, a major tragedy," Viktor Yanukovych told The Associated Press in his first interview since fleeing to Russia in February, following months-long protests focused on corruption and his decision to seek closer ties to Russia instead of the European Union.

Putin said last month that Yanukovych had asked Russia to send its troops to Crimea to protect its people - a request seen as treason by many Ukrainians. Russian troops quickly overran Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, taking over government and military facilities on the pretext of protecting Russians.

Asked about the move, Yanukovych said he made a mistake.

"I was wrong," he told the AP and Russia's state NTV television, speaking in Russian. "I acted on my emotions."

Experts mull mystery in quest to ID remains

EVERETT, Wash. - As medical examiners painstakingly piece together the identities and lives of the 29 people known killed when a mudslide wiped out a small Washington community, one mystery troubles them.

One set of remains does not fit with the description on the missing persons list, which, as of Wednesday included 18 people.

The medical examiners know it is a male. But his remains give no clue as to who he was, or who might be looking for him. They can't even identify his age range. Without possible family members to compare, DNA tests are useless. At this point, gold teeth are all they have to go on.

The mystery underscores the tedious process of identifying remains more than a week after the March 22 landslide that broke off a steep hill, roared across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River and buried a community at Oso, about 55 miles north of Seattle.

Like the homes, the cars and the other parts of people's lives swept away by the torrent of mud, some bodies are in pieces.

• Magnitude 8.2 quake kills only 6 in Chile

IQUIQUE, Chile - Hard-won expertise and a big dose of luck helped Chile escape its latest magnitude-8.2 earthquake with surprisingly little damage and death.

The country that suffers some of the world's most powerful quakes has strict building codes, mandatory evacuations and emergency preparedness that sets a global example.

But Chileans weren't satisfied Wednesday, finding much room for improvement. And experts warn that a "seismic gap" has left northern Chile overdue for a far bigger quake.

Authorities on Wednesday discovered just six reported deaths from the previous night's quake. It's possible that other people were killed in older structures made of adobe in remote communities that weren't immediately accessible, but it's still a very low toll for such a powerful shift in the undersea fault that runs along the length of South America's Pacific coast.

"How much is it luck? How much is it science? How much is it preparedness? It is a combination of all of the above. I think what we just saw here is pure luck. Mostly, it is luck that the tsunami was not bigger and that it hit a fairly isolated area of Chile," said Costas Synolakis, an engineer who directs the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California.

Chile is one of the world's most seismic countries and is particularly prone to tsunamis, because of the way the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera ever higher.

• Suicide bombing in Kabul kills 6 police officers

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bombing killed six policemen at the Afghan Interior Ministry compound in one of the capital's most heavily fortified areas Wednesday, part of a recent escalation in violence in the heart of Kabul.

The bloodshed is threatening to scare voters away from the polls as Afghans worry security forces unable to guard areas previously considered safe won't be able to protect them on election day. The Taliban have launched a campaign of violence to disrupt Saturday's vote for a new president and provincial councils.

Many voters have defiantly said they would go to the polls despite the violence, but Wednesday's attack was a last straw for some.

• Official warns of complexity in hunt for plane

PERTH, Australia - Malaysia's prime minister on Thursday arrived at the Australian air force base serving as a hub for the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, as the coordinator of the multinational search effort warned that the hunt for the jetliner was one of the most complicated searches in history.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak met with his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, at the base near the west coast city of Perth, and received a briefing by Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search.

"This is one of the most demanding and challenging search and rescue operations, or search and recovery operations, that I have ever seen - and I think probably one of the most complex operations of this nature that the world has ever seen," Houston told Najib and Abbott.

Najib's trip to Perth reinforces the reality that while Australia is coordinating the ocean search, the investigation into the tragedy ultimately remains Malaysia's responsibility.

On Wednesday, however, officials warned that the investigation may never produce answers into why the Boeing 777 vanished on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A frustrating dearth of information has plagued investigators from the moment the plane's transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off.

• Man admits trespassing at Gomez's home

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors said a man charged with trespassing at Selena Gomez's home has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and ordered to stay away from the singer-actress.

Los Angeles district attorney's spokesman Ricardo Santiago says Che Cruz admitted trespassing at an initial court appearance Wednesday and was immediately sentenced.

Cruz was arrested Sunday in Gomez's guesthouse and was charged Wednesday with one count of misdemeanor trespassing.

Santiago said Cruz was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to stay away from Gomez and her home in Calabasas, Calif.

Authorities said Gomez arrived home Sunday night and called security after hearing noises on the property.

- The Associated Press