Reuters: Top News

Mueller seeks tough sentence for ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
Prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller urged a federal judge in Virginia on Friday to impose a strict prison sentence for President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, after a jury last year convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud.
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Legal challenges to Trump emergency declaration face uphill battle (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
Democratic lawmakers, states and others mulling legal challenges to President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration to obtain funds to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall face an uphill and probably losing battle in a showdown likely to be decided by the conservative-majority Supreme Court, legal experts said.
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U.S. to slash payouts from 9/11 victims fund (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
The special master overseeing a U.S. government fund to compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Friday said future awards will be significantly reduced, typically by at least 50 percent, because the fund is running short of money.
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Trump declares emergency for border wall, House panel launches probe (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval, an action Democrats vowed to challenge as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
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Five killed as gunman opens fire at Illinois warehouse (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
A gunman opened fire at a manufacturing warehouse in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday, killing five people and wounding five police officers before he was slain, law enforcement officials said.
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Mexico to inject $3.9 billion in Pemex, seeks to prevent credit downgrade (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
Mexico will inject $3.9 billion into ailing state oil company Pemex, officials said on Friday, promising to strengthen its finances and prevent a further credit downgrade, although investors saw the plan as only a short-term fix.
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Analyst View: Investors divided over Mexico's bailout of state oil company (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
The Mexican government promised on Friday to do what it takes to strengthen the finances of ailing state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos with an injection of at least $3.6 billion to prevent a further credit downgrade.
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U.S. raises pressure on Maduro via sanctions, aid airlift (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
The United States ratcheted up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday by sanctioning some of his top security officials and the head of the state oil company, and unveiling plans to airlift over 200 tons of aid to the Colombian border.
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California, New York promise legal challenges to Trump's emergency declaration (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
California and New York suggested on Friday they would take legal action against President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration aimed at freeing up billions of dollars in funds to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
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Fed policymakers see one U.S. rate hike, or none, as growth slows (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
When the Federal Reserve last month adopted a new "patient" approach to monetary policy, it gave no specific guidance about how long its policy pause would last, or how many more interest-rate increases, if any, were in the offing.
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U.S. Supreme Court to decide legality of census citizenship query (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide the fate of a fiercely contested plan by President Donald Trump's administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, agreeing on Friday to an expedited review of a judge's ruling blocking the plan.
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Amazon invites Ocasio-Cortez for tour, calls worker claims untrue (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
A senior Amazon.com Inc executive on Friday disputed claims raised by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that Amazon workers face "dehumanizing conditions" as being untrue and invited her to take a tour of company facilities.
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U.S.-China trade talks to resume next week, Trump hints at extension (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
The United States and China will resume trade talks next week in Washington with time running short to ease their bruising trade war, but U.S. President Donald Trump repeated on Friday that he may extend a March 1 deadline for a deal and keep tariffs on Chinese goods from rising.
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Wall Street rallies on trade optimism (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
Wall Street rallied on Friday, with the Dow and the Nasdaq posting their eighth consecutive weekly gains as investors grew hopeful that the United States and China would hammer out an agreement resolving their protracted trade war.
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House panel announces emergency declaration probe in letter to Trump (Fri, 15 Feb 2019)
A key committee in the U.S. House of Representatives announced on Friday it was launching an immediate investigation into President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration, saying his move to fund his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border raised constitutional and statutory issues.
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