Saudi admission over critic's killing shields crown prince

Scores of American lottery players were disappointed they hadn't become an overnight billionaire Saturday -- but they'll get another chance to scoop the jackpot, with $1.6 billion up for grabs in a few days.

Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman has shaken up the ultraconservative oil superpower with economic, social and religious reforms since becoming crown prince last year. But many now see his crackdown on any dissent as verging on authoritarianism.

Australia's embattled conservative coalition was Saturday dealt a spectacular defeat in a crucial by-election two months after it turfed out its latest prime minister, sending it in into minority government.

Russia's defence minister said Saturday that almost 88,000 rebels had been killed in Syria in the three years since Moscow's intervention to back government forces.

Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's "authoritarian rule" shortly before his death, in an interview published following confirmation he died at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

Tens of thousands of Taiwan independence campaigners took to the streets Saturday for a major rally that is a rebuke to Beijing and a challenge to the island's already embattled government.

Angry relatives staged a protest Saturday on the tracks where a speeding train ploughed into crowds watching fireworks, killing about 60 people in the latest disaster to bedevil India's railway network.

The Islamic State group has released two women and four children among 27 surviving Druze hostages it seized during a deadly July attack on the minority community's heartland in southern Syria.

More than 130 Afghans were killed or wounded in poll-related violence on Saturday, officials said, as the legislative election turned chaotic with hundreds of polling centres failing to open and voters queueing for hours.

The controversial Guantanamo Bay prison still houses 40 aging inmates -- and with no plans to close it, many of them will probably remain there until they die.

Canada is preparing to welcome a group of Syrian White Helmets rescuers, officials said on Friday, without specifying when they will be resettled.

US President Donald Trump said Friday he found Saudi Arabia's explanation about the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi credible and termed it an "important first step.

Moody's has cut Italy's credit rating by a notch over concerns about plans for larger deficits and the high public debt load as the country's populist government clashes with Brussels over its budget.

President Martin Vizcarra swore in a retired police general as Peru's new interior minister Friday to replace Mauro Medina, who resigned after a fugitive supreme court judge fled to Spain.

Britons dreading life outside Europe will rally from all corners to London Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU.

The United States called Friday on all sides to respect the new independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, wading into a religious feud that has enraged Russia.

A Peruvian prosecutor called Friday for powerful opposition leader Keiko Fujimori to be placed under preventive detention for three years as part of a corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

Many of the world’s top tech companies and governments claim to have high ideals. Their problem now is that Saudi Arabia, one of the top global investors in tech, is now under a bloodstained shadow. What are they going to do about it?

A complex man of contradictions, journalist Jamal Khashoggi went from being a Saudi royal family insider to an outspoken critic of the ultra-conservative kingdom's government, and was ultimately killed inside its consulate in Istanbul.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that he hopes to receive his North Korean counterpart in Washington in the coming weeks to arrange a new summit.

Saudi Arabia admitted on Saturday that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its Istanbul consulate, saying he died during a "brawl", as Turkey vowed to release the full findings of its own investigation.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton will meet Saturday in Moscow with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, amid reports that Washington will tell Russia it plans to quit a landmark nuclear weapons treaty.

Macedonia's parliament on Friday voted to start the process of renaming the country North Macedonia, a major step towards ending a decades-long stalemate with Greece and opening a door to NATO and the EU.

The United States has asked United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to come up with an exit strategy for the UN's mission in Kosovo after a nearly two-decade presence there.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has instructed military judge Douglas Watkins to oversee court proceedings for 9/11 suspects imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said Friday.Watkins, a US army colonel, replaces now-retired colonel James Pohl.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sued the Ecuador government on Friday for violating his "fundamental rights" and limiting his access to the outside world while in asylum at its London embassy.

Afghans are bracing for more deadly violence on Saturday as voters turn out for the long-delayed legislative election across the war-torn country that the Taliban has vowed to attack.

The United States warned Friday of a "wide range" of responses should it determine that Saudi Arabia is behind the disappearance and apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as Turkey widened its investigation into the scandal.

Residents of the Crimean city of Kerch, where 20 were killed and some 50 injured in an attack on a technical college, on Friday widely expressed doubts over claims by investigators that the teenage gunman acted alone.

The finance chief of Russia's leading troll farm was indicted by the US Justice Department on Friday for interfering with US elections, the first person to face charges involving the 2018 congressional midterms.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Friday of a "wide range" of responses should Washington determine that Saudi Arabia is behind the disappearance and apparent death of critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Two people died and several more were injured on Friday in an explosion at a fireworks factory outside Russia's second largest city of Saint Petersburg, regional authorities said.

More than 350 economists -- among them a Nobel Prize winner -- have signed a declaration saying Brazil's frontrunner to be president, far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro, is not the best choice for his country.

The International Monetary Fund announced Friday it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on economic policies that would unlock a new loan deal that will provide nearly $4 billion.

Russia's top rights group on Friday said that for the first time in 11 years, Moscow city authorities had refused permission for an annual ceremony honouring victims of Stalin's terror.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Friday that the creation of Kosovo army would "jeopardise peace and stability" and put the Balkan country in "big trouble".

A sacked Supreme Court judge on the run as he faces trial for corruption in Peru was arrested in Spain on Friday, the South American country's president, Martin Vizcarra said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that illegal migration across the US-Mexican border is near crisis levels, as a caravan of Honduran migrants prepared to enter Mexico bound for the United States.

A speeding train ran over revellers watching fireworks during a Hindu festival in northern India Friday, killing more than 50 people, with eyewitnesses saying they were given no warning before disaster struck.