Local Simple Connectedness of Resolutions of Log-Terminal Singularities

We study fundamental groups related with log-terminal singularities, and show that fundamental groups are preserved by a resolution of singularities. As corollaries, we show that fundamental groups are invariant under various fundamental operations in the Minimal Model Program, for example, by contractions of extremal rays, by flips, by pluricanonical morphisms of minimal varieties of general type.