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New York state budget talks collapsed Wednesday night after members of the Senate left the Capitol, with lawmakers from both parties blaming Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo for scuttling negotiations over the spending plan, now several days late. Members of the Senate and Assembly insist they were close to an agreement and hoped to pass a budget this week after blowing past a Saturday deadline. Those hopes eroded Wednesday night after the Democratic governor summoned reporters to his office to say that while he would continue to negotiate, there was no final agreement. Less than an hour later the Senate walked...

President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, invited a group of popular self-help authors to Camp David to help them dissect what had happened in the first two years of the presidency and to search for a way back after the Democrats' devastating loss to the Republicans in the 1994 congressional elections. They met the weekend beginning Friday, Dec. 30, 1994. The first was Jean Houston, co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research, which studies psychic experience and altered and expanded consciousness. ”I was misunderstood, Hillary replied, her eyes still shut, speaking as Mrs. Roosevelt." You have to do what you...

hina did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration, in which U.S. ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory. Meeting in the Laos capital Vientiane on Monday during a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Kerry that China and ASEAN had agreed the dispute should get back onto the "correct" track of being resolved by direct talks with the parties concerned. China "hopes the United States side talks actual steps to support the resumption of talks between China and...

On Tuesday’s radio program, Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin chastised Donald Trump for insisting that the Republican “primary system is rigged.” The system is not rigged, Levin said, and yet Mr. Trump sounds like an entitled liberal demanding delegates from Colorado without having put in the work to win them. It sounds like Mr. Trump is demanding “delegate welfare,” said Levin. The delegate appointment rules in most of these primaries have been established for nearly a century. In Colorado, for example, the rules for this primary process have been in place since 1912. “Has the system been corrupt for 100...

Top diplomats of Russia, US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia have discussed a range of global issues, including the ongoing situation in Syria. Russian, US, Saudi Arabian and Turkish foreign ministers discussed specific ideas on the situation in Syria during their meeting in Vienna, and decided to maintain contacts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. "We have expressed a number of specific ideas on all issues which were discussed with our colleagues from the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, these ideas will be continued, I hope. We have agreed to continue contacts, and we stressed the need to make...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid increasing unease and uncertainty over Russia's intentions, the Obama administration plans to accept an offer from Russia for direct talks on its military buildup in Syria that U.S. officials believe is aimed at propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Iran and six world powers have agreed on the outlines of an understanding to limit Iran’s nuclear programs, negotiators indicated Thursday, as both sides prepared for announcements.

With a deadline just hours away, negotiators from the United States, Iran and five other nations appeared on Tuesday to be struggling to move closer to a preliminary accord to limit Tehran’s nuclear program, and signaled that they might be prepared to work into Wednesday. Even if an agreement is struck, there have been signs that several of the most difficult issues will be deferred for a final agreement in three months.

Iran Nuclear Talks 'Enter Endgame' In Switzerland How close is a final nuclear deal on Iran? Talks on Iran's nuclear programme have entered their "endgame", Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said. Negotiators from six world powers are attempting to strike a deal with Iran to restrict its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. The parties have set a deadline of the end of March to reach an agreement.

(Reuters) - Iran's top leader voiced mistrust on Saturday of U.S. efforts to reach a nuclear deal, even as Washington and its allies spoke of real progress and urged Tehran to take "difficult decisions". With just 10 days remaining until an end-of-March deadline for a framework agreement, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced U.S. "bullying" in the negotiations and repeated Tehran's denial that it was seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. After week-long talks with Iran in Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to London to confer with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany on prospects...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's victory in the Israeli election will not hamper US efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, the State Department said Wednesday. The Israeli leader opposes any accommodation with Tehran and came to Washington during the campaign to address US lawmakers and denounce the agreement under negotiation as a "bad deal." "We've been long familiar with the views of the prime minister on Iran. We don't think that his win has impacted the Iran negotiations, or will," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Lausanne for talks this week...

White House denies Channel 2 report claiming US has stopped updating Israel about developments in nuclear negotiations with Iran in response to Netanyahu's planned Congress speech, after Boehner admits he failed to tell administration he had invited PM. According to the report by Israel's Channel 2, US Undersecretary of State, Wendy Sherman, who is involved in the talks has announced she will no longer be updating Israelis about the talks. Susan Rice, US President Obama's National Security Advisor, has also reportedly announced she is cutting ties with her Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, who serves as Netanyahu's National Security Adviso

Washington's policy of briefing Israel on progress in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program has not changed, senior US officials told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, despite reports to the contrary in Israeli media. Channel 2 reported earlier in the day the US would halt its briefings to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in light of his planned speech to Congress. Netanyahu is expected to criticize the state of the global diplomatic effort, which is geared towards crafting a comprehensive nuclear agreement. "Conversations continue with Israel on the Iran nuclear negotiations," one senior State Department official said. "Under Secretary [of...

North Korea on Wednesday appeared to rule out any resumption of dialogue with the United States, threatening to react to any US "war of aggression" with nuclear strikes and cyber warfare. The statement from the country's top military body, the National Defence Commission (NDC), came after reported moves by Washington and Pyongyang to revive long-stalled six-nation talks on denuclearisation. The NDC said recent comments from President Barack Obama had revealed that the United States' goal was to "bring down" North Korea. The statement was an apparent reaction to an interview Obama gave on January 22 in which he spoke of...

VIENNA - A deadline for resolving a 12-year-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program may be extended from Monday until March because of sharp disagreements between Tehran and Western powers, officials close to the talks said on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Vienna later for what Washington and its allies had hoped would be the culmination of months of difficult diplomacy between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. The aim is to remove sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic program, but the talks have long been deadlocked:...

Ukraine rebels pull back from independence demands at cease-fire talks MOSCOW – Pro-Russian rebels softened their demand for full independence Monday, saying they would respect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for autonomy -- a shift that reflects Moscow's desire to strike a deal at a new round of peace talks. The insurgents' platform, released at the start of Monday's negotiations in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, represented a significant change in their vision for the future of Ukraine's eastern, mainly Russian-speaking region. It remains unclear, however, whether the talks can reach a compromise amid the brutal fighting that has continued in eastern...

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to return to the negotiating table to quickly agree on a lasting truce in Gaza. In a unanimously adopted statement quoted by AFP, the 15-member council "offered full support to the Egyptian initiative and called upon the parties to resume negotiations to urgently reach a sustainable and lasting ceasefire." The statement drafted by France was agreed after negotiations in Cairo teetered on the verge of collapse amid a fresh flare-up of violence. The measure fell short of a full resolution, but diplomats signaled they would be ready...

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is hoping to establish a new ceasefire between Kyiv and pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, as he hosts Ukrainian, Russian, and French diplomats in Berlin on Wednesday. A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had been invited to the afternoon meeting. Lavrov reportedly welcomed the initiative.

National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen has sent protest letters in the last two weeks to the White House as well as various other Western governments, in which he argues that the Palestinian Authority (PA) planned the failure of peace talks. In the letter, Cohen states that the PA deceived US Secretary of State John Kerry regarding its intentions in the talks. Haaretz published the letter on Wednesday, after having received a copy on April 22. A 65-page document submitted to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by PA Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat on March 9 is attached to the letter. The date places the document...

As new U.S. sanctions against Russia loom, the Kremlin has shut down—at least for now—intensive high level communications between top U.S. and Russian officials. Since the invasion of Crimea, President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama have had regular phone calls in an often half-hearted attempt to deescalate the ongoing crisis inside Ukraine. But as the U.S. and EU prepare to unveil new sanctions against Russia, Putin has decided the interactions should stop. The Kremlin has ended high-level contact with the Obama administration, according to diplomatic officials and sources close to the Russian leadership. The move signals an end to...