AP, Ankara
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could meet with Prince Mohammed on the sidelines of the G20 summit, according to a Turkish presidential spokesman.
Such a meeting would be the first face-to-face encounter between the two since the killing that has tainted the image of both the crown prince and the kingdom.
Erdogan has said the order to murder Khashoggi came from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government but has stopped short of directly blaming Prince Mohammed.
Spain repeats threat to veto Brexit deal
AFP, Havana
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeated his threat to veto the draft agreement on the UK leaving the European Union.
Spain has reservations about the deal, which it has said does not specify the future status of the British territory of Gibraltar.
Mr Sanchez said that following a conversation with British Prime Minister Theresa May on the subject, their positions remained “far away” and that if there were no changes to the draft Brexit deal, Spain would veto it.
8 dead as gunmen storm French drilling camp
AFP, Niamey
Seven local employees of a French drilling firm and a government official were killed in southeast Niger Thursday when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed the compound where they were sleeping.
The attack shattered months of relative calm in the Diffa region near the Lake Chad basin, a strategic area where the borders of four countries converge.
Boko Haram turns into poll issue in Nigeria
AFP, Lagos
Nigeria’s main opposition party has called the government to account for its record on tackling Boko Haram, after at least 44 soldiers were killed at the weekend.
Dozens more were suspected to have lost their lives in the attack on the base in Metele village, in Borno state near the border with Niger, although numbers have not been confirmed. President Muhammadu Buhari made defeating the Islamist insurgents a key plank of his 2015 election campaign and has said the jihadists were “technically defeated”.
California fire death toll rises to 84
AFP, Los Angeles
The fire that has ravaged northern California is now almost completely contained, authorities said Thursday as the death toll rose to 84. Rain fell in the first measurable amounts in months in the drought-stricken area and this helped put out hot spots and smouldering fires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. It said the so-called Camp Fire is now 95 percent contained. The number of people listed as unaccounted for in the deadliest and most destructive fire in state history stands at 563. Previously the death toll had been put at 83.
