Trump says it 'certainly looks' like journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he presumes journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that the US response to Saudi Arabia will likely be "very severe" but that he still wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly happened.
In Istanbul, Turkish investigators for a second time searched the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi - a US resident and Washington Post columnist who was a strong critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - vanished on Oct 2, seeking clues about an incident that has caused an international outcry.
Trump acknowledged for the first time that Khashoggi had likely been killed.
"It certainly looks that way to me. It's very sad," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One on a political trip.
Top Trump aides get into heated exchange outside Oval Office: Sources
Two of President Donald Trump's top advisers got into a heated exchange outside the Oval Office on Thursday as passions boiled over about how to handle illegal immigration, two sources familiar with the incident said.
The two advisers were White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a former secretary for Homeland Security, and Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, the sources said.
One source described the argument as a "tense exchange" but said that it had blown over, and that it involved the job performance of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a former deputy to Kelly.
Another source said it was "not a big deal."
Pope gets invite to North Korea, indicates will consider it
Pope Francis on Thursday received an invitation to visit North Korea and the pontiff indicated that he would consider making what would be a landmark trip to the hermit nation, according to South Korean officials.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in relayed the invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the Pope verbally during a 35-minute meeting in the Vatican.
Any visit would be the first by a pope to the reclusive state which does not allow priests to be permanently stationed there. There is little information on how many of its citizens are Catholic, or how they practice their faith.
Power-related issue behind Singtel mobile service disruption
A power-related issue was behind a disruption to Singtel's mobile services that affected many users islandwide for over three hours from around 10pm on Thursday.
Apologising for the service disruption, the telco said in a Friday 1.20am update on Facebook that it detected issues with mobile voice and data services on its 3G and 4G network at 10.11pm.
While some customers said service was restored for them after Singtel's 1.20am update, others still had issues connecting to the Web on their mobile lines. The telco said later at 2am that, as of 1.22am, all affected services had been restored.
Formula One: Alonso puts Hamilton in top five of all time - but not Vettel
Fernando Alonso heaped praise on Lewis Hamilton and omitted Sebastian Vettel on Thursday when he was asked to name his five greatest Formula One drivers of all time.
Speaking at a news conference ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix, the two-time world champion Spaniard said that Hamilton had proved his talent by winning in cars that were not expected to be victorious.
"When the car is dominating, then he delivers - and when it is not good enough to win a world championship, he still puts in the performance to show his talent," he said of Hamilton. "That is difficult to see nowadays."
