First Energy Nearly Finished Placing Towers At Site Of Explosion In Center Township

FIRST ENERGY OFFICIALS SAY THE PLACING OF HALF A DOZEN TOWERS AT THE SITE OF AN EXPLOSION IN CENTER TOWNSHIP ABOUT SIX WEEKS AGO…IS NEARLY COMPLETE. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS MORE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

 

Monaca Borough Council Discusses Whether To Hire School Resource Officer At Middle School

MONACA BOROUGH COUNCIL DISCUSSED THE POSSIBILITY OF HIRING A SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER FOR ITS MIDDLE SCHOOL…DURING THE COUNCIL MEETING LAST NIGHT. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO WAS THERE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

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Police: Man Facing Charges In Bizarre ‘Driving While Naked’ Incident!

A man is in custody after police say he terrorized a local neighborhood along Boundry Street in Aliquippa in a bizarre incident in which he was driving naked and crashing a work van into parked vehicles. Witnesses say the driver – who didn’t have any clothes on – hit several vehicles then jumped back into the van, drove around the corner and ended up on Davidson Street. The suspect, still naked, was taken into custody by Aliquippa Police after the van he was driving hit a parked camper,  this time causing only minimal damage to that vehicle. The man, who is in his 30s, was taken to a local hospital for an evaluation. Aliquippa Police say he will be facing charges.

Aliquippa Police Sgt. Kenneth Watkins Back On The Job

Aliquippa Police Sgt. Kenneth Watkins has returned to work.Watkins was placed on leave in May following the murder of Rachel DelTondo, who was shot outside of her family’s home in Aliquippa. Watkins was not placed on leave for disciplinary reasons but rather because he and his family were close friends with DelTondo. His return to work was confirmed by acting Aliquippa Police Chief Robert Sealock. DelTondo’s murder remains unsolved.

Pennsylvania expands income rules for seniors’ drug subsidy

Pennsylvania expands income rules for seniors’ drug subsidy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — More older Pennsylvanians will qualify for prescription drug assistance under newly enacted eligibility standards.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf inked into law on Tuesday the legislation that passed the General Assembly unanimously earlier this month.
The income limits for PACENET will increase from $23,500 to $27,500 for individuals and from $31,500 to $35,500 for married couples.
It’s the first increase in income eligibility in 15 years.
Supporters say it will allow more than 14,000 people to enroll over the coming couple years, and prevent about 3,000 people from being kicked off the program.
PACENET and its companion program, PACE, are funded by the state lottery.

Wolf signs revisions to Pennsylvania’s organ donation law

Wolf signs revisions to Pennsylvania’s organ donation law
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A revision to Pennsylvania’s law governing organ and tissue donations is going into effect, and backers say it will improve survival rates for transplant patients.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday signed the bill that passed both legislative chambers unanimously earlier this month.
The bill imposes rules to prevent organ donation from interfering with criminal investigations.
It lets those with power of attorney give permission for organs to be donated and sets out a procedure for determining the intention of a dying person if he or she hasn’t made clear if they want to donate their organs and tissues.
A voluntary organ donation fund on driver’s license and vehicle registration applications will increase from $1 to $3.
Officials say the state’s transplant waiting list currently has about 7,500 people.

Conference in Pittsburgh aims to amplify 1st Amendment

In chaotic era, conference aims to amplify 1st Amendment
By TED ANTHONY, AP National Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Not long ago in the American republic, information was less chaotic — or, at least, seemed to be. Newspapers appeared reliably on stoops every morning. Reassuring men from three networks delivered the news at dinnertime. We knew what was true, what was false, what was important.
Except it never actually was that way. Not really. And we now know that like never before.
A generation-long technological rumpus that upended how information is delivered and gave everyone with a device in their pocket the ability to speak globally has revealed, as never before, the chaos that is free expression in the United States.
For two days in Pittsburgh, a national exploration of what the First Amendment means to America in 2018 dug into every corner of this notion to understand where we are, and where we’re going, in terms of the rights Americans have to express themselves.
“Too many people in this country don’t understand how freedom works in their native land,” said Maxwell King, former editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and head of the Pittsburgh Foundation, a philanthropy that co-sponsored the event at Duquesne University.
In the spirit of the amendment itself, a barrage of provocative ideas surfaced. And, predictably when it comes to free speech, few produced unanimous conclusions.
Among news leaders, government officials and academics, the consensus seemed to be this: In an era upended by technology and the behaviors that have grown up around it, the First Amendment remains pivotal to a functioning democracy — perhaps more so than ever in a society increasingly suspicious of the role that the mass media plays.
“I don’t believe democracies can exist without a free press,” Tom Ridge, secretary of Homeland Security under former Republican President George W. Bush and the onetime governor of Pennsylvania, said Monday.
Nevertheless, there’s much to consider about the role of the First Amendment in our sometimes-brave new world, and the rapid-fire questions ran the gamut Sunday and Monday, as they are wont to do in a free society:
Is “fake news” — however it is defined, and whoever uses the term — protected speech? Who checks facts, and who watches them do it? How do we balance the desire for open debate and the rising need for “safe spaces” on college campuses? When are leaks legal?
And what is speech, precisely, in this new world? Am I expressing myself by my choice of locations, and does that make my GPS data protected expression? Are veiled dark-internet encouragements to hurt or dismember someone speech that should be protected? Are social networks the new arbiters of who can be amplified? Should they be required to police content?
Finally: What does it mean when the president of the United States continually takes verbal potshots at the press and encourages disdain for media whose stories run counter to his narrative?
“The social media companies themselves don’t understand social media,” said Sree Sreenivasan, a leader in digital journalism and former associate dean of the Columbia Journalism School. He says Donald Trump’s presidency was “a direct result of him understanding social media better than the social media companies.”
So how do we sort this all out? First of all, you probably can’t. A strong portion of chaos is natural — healthy, even — when it comes to freedom of expression in a society based on personal liberty.
But the fragmentation of media, society and politics, and the willingness of partisans to exploit that to contentious ends, have made many wonder whether the relationship between polarization and unfettered, unverified expression is too corrosive. The approaching midterm elections lend an urgency to this as well.
“I think it’s really hard to have a democracy when we don’t agree on a baseline set of facts,” said Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post. That, he said, is where responsible journalism must play a role.
Other reflections from speakers at the conference:
THE NORTH KOREA EXAMPLE — Suki Kim, a journalist who went undercover in North Korea for six months to chronicle life there, spoke of the deep indoctrination she encountered in that society. “If you cannot tell the difference between what is true and not true,” she said, “it changes your foundations.”
THE SMORGASBORD MODEL — Ohio Gov. John Kasich, appearing via video, exhorted Americans to ingest their media mindfully — as one might consider choosing items from a restaurant buffet. “Don’t be a siloed consumer of the press. Take a bite of everything,” Kasich said. “The ability to sample a lot and draw a conclusion is the best way to be a consumer of the news.”
THE EXPANDING WAYS WE COMMUNICATE — Noel Francisco, the solicitor general of the United States, marveled at how many more methods of communication exist than when the First Amendment was ratified in the 18th century. “We have a lot more speech today,” he said. “And I think that just means we will have a lot more kinds of speech that are protected.”
Hugh Hewitt, the radio host and media critic, took a moment to muse about the republic’s founders as well. What, he wondered, might people who measured information’s speed in days and weeks, not minutes and seconds, have made of this phantasmagorical media landscape that might well have left them, well, speechless?
“I wish we could summon their brains,” he said, “to deal with issues they could never have imagined.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — Ted Anthony, director of digital innovation for The Associated Press, writes frequently about American culture. Follow him on Twitter at @anthonyted.
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This story has been corrected to show the former associate dean of Columbia Journalism School is Sree Sreenivasan, not Sree Srinivasan.

Bill Cosby judge rejects new trial bid

Beaver County Radio

Cosby judge rejects new trial bid; Camille Cosby sees bias
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge on Tuesday rejected Bill Cosby’s bid for a new trial or sentencing hearing, leading the comedian’s wife, Camille, to again accuse the judge of bias against her husband.
The ruling by the same judge that presided over Cosby’s trial also led the entertainer’s lawyers to file their appeal with the state Superior Court, the next step in trying to reverse his felony sex assault conviction.
Cosby is serving a three- to 10-year state prison term after a jury this year found he drugged and molested a woman in 2004. The defense wants the legally blind, 81-year-old actor released on bail while he appeals over alleged trial errors.
Cosby, in the meantime, is living in a single cell near the infirmary at the State Correctional Institution-Phoenix in suburban Philadelphia and has access to a day room, where he can watch television or eat meals, a state prisons spokeswoman said.
For now, he is the only person using that day room, spokeswoman Amy Worden said. Several inmates are assigned to help him as part of their prison jobs, she said. He has also had several visitors.
Camille Cosby continued to issue searing attacks against Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill, as she has done since the first trial ended in a jury deadlock in June 2017. In the latest missive Tuesday, she again said he should have stepped down from the case because his wife has advocated for sex assault victims. O’Neill has heard the argument before and said his wife’s work has no bearing on his legal rulings.
The defense also renewed attacks on the judge over what they call his feud with a key pretrial witness, former county District Attorney Bruce Castor.
Castor had declined to arrest Cosby when the accuser first came forward in 2005 and said he’d promised Cosby he would never be charged. When a successor did, O’Neill ruled that any verbal promise Castor made wasn’t legally binding. In an affidavit attached to Tuesday’s appeal, Castor said he believed O’Neill’s ruling was influenced by a long-ago feud between them.
“Mr. Cosby had a right to have his petition reviewed and decided by a judge who could make a decision free of bias, or even the perception of bias, where the ability to prosecute hinged on the testimony of the 2005 district attorney,” his new lawyers, the latest of about 20 to work the criminal case, wrote in the appeal.
The defense also challenged O’Neill’s decisions to let five other accusers testify; let the jury hear portions of Cosby’s damaging deposition in the accuser’s related lawsuit; and declare Cosby a sexually violent predator who remained a threat to the community.

Trump says Saudi operation ‘worst cover up ever’

The Latest: Trump says Saudi operation ‘worst cover up ever’
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Latest on the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi (all times local):
11:15 p.m.
President Donald Trump is criticizing the Saudi operation that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, calling it one of the “worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups.”
Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office that he’s expecting a full report on the killing soon.
But he says, “They had a very bad original concept” and it was “carried out poorly.”
He calls the events after Khashoggi’s death “the worst cover-up ever.”
Saudi Arabia has claimed Khashoggi, a writer for The Washington Post who wrote critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, died accidentally in a brawl at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
But Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer and say Saudi officials had planned the killing for days.
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10:50 p.m.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri is scheduled to speak at a high-profile investment conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Hariri’s appearance, announced Tuesday, was not previously listed on the agenda, and comes as Saudi Arabia is under mounting pressure over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi officials in Istanbul earlier this month.
Hariri, a dual Lebanese-Saudi citizen, resigned from his post last year during a visit to Saudi Arabia in a speech that many Lebanese suspected was given under duress. Hariri later returned to Lebanon and his post following French mediation.
He has visited Saudi Arabia and has met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since then.
Several Western business leaders and officials withdrew from the Saudi conference after Khashoggi’s killing, the circumstances of which remain under dispute.
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10 p.m.
The widow of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died from radioactive poisoning in 2006, says the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi should be a wake-up call about the deadly behavior of authoritarian states.
Marina Litvinenko says her husband’s murder may have led some governments to think “it’s just so easy to kill people” without provoking a strong response.
Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian agent turned Kremlin critic, died in November 2006 after drinking tea laced with polonium-210 at a London hotel. Britain says he was murdered by Russian intelligence, likely with the approval of President Vladimir Putin.
Marina Litvinenko said the death of Khashoggi and the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England were evidence that her husband’s death had not deterred governments from seeking to silence their critics.
She said “it’s very important to react (to) any kind of behavior and crime. Because if you will make nothing happen today, you will just be not sure what might happen tomorrow.”
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8:15 p.m.
The United Nations says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stands by his earlier call for an independent and transparent investigation into the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq reiterated Tuesday that the secretary-general can initiate an investigation if key parties request it or if there is a legislative mandate from a U.N. body.
Saudi Arabia said early Saturday that Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed during a “fistfight” in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. an explanation many countries have questioned.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that “If a request for an international investigation is made … we would cooperate.”
Haq said that did not constitute a formal request from Turkey’s government, which Guterres would need to consider authorizing an international investigation.
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7:30 p.m.
Turkish state media say investigators found three suitcases, a laptop computer and clothing inside a car belonging to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
State television TRT reported that Turkish crime scene investigators inspected the vehicle on Tuesday for possible evidence in the slaying of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Authorities discovered the car at an underground garage on Monday.
Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi was killed in a fistfight that broke out inside the consulate. Turkey says he was the victim of a planned killing.
Turkish authorities have not found the journalist’s body.
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7:10 p.m.
Foreign ministers from the G-7 group of industrialized nations say the explanations offered for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi leave many questions unanswered and those responsible for the death must be held to account.
A joint statement from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with the European Union, condemned Khashoggi’s slaying in the “strongest possible terms.”
They called Saudi Arabia’s confirmation of the writer’s death inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul a first step toward full transparency and accountability.
The statement issued Tuesday reiterated the need for a thorough, credible and prompt investigation done with the full collaboration of Turkish authorities.
The G-7 ministers say Khashoggi’s killing demonstrates the need to project journalists and to reaffirm the right to free expression.
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6:45 p.m.
The European Union’s top diplomat says the bloc is working with the group of seven most industrialized nations to coordinate a response to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday that “the European Union’s reaction from now on will depend on the next steps that will be taken by the Saudi authorities.”
Mogherini told EU lawmakers that foreign ministers are working with their G7 counterparts on “further steps and statements to be taken together.” She did not go into detail about those steps.
She called on the Saudi’s “to provide all the information they have about the case and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”
Lawmakers described Saudi explanations about Khashoggi’s death as a “cover-up and a “white-wash.”
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6:30 p.m.
Turkish officials say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised family members of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi that Turkey would do all it can “to shed light on the murder.”
The officials said Erdogan on Tuesday called Khashoggi’s son, Abdullah, to express his condolences, and also spoke with other members of his family.
Erdogan told family members that he was “deeply saddened” by his death and that Turkey would follow up the incident. The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Saudi Arabia has said the journalist, a critic of the Saudi royal family, was killed in a fistfight. Erdogan said earlier Tuesday that he was the victim of a “savage murder” that was planned days ahead.
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6:15 p.m.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says the death of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi “will not go without an American response.”
Pence said CIA Director Gina Haspel is in Turkey reviewing the facts of what Pence called a “brutal murder.” He offered condolences to Khashoggi’s family.
Speaking Tuesday in Washington at an event hosted by The Washington Post, Pence would not elaborate on what a possible U.S. response would be. Khashoggi, a Post contributor, lived in Virginia.
Asked if the U.S. would sanction members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family if they were found to have been complicit, Pence said that’s a decision for President Donald Trump.
He says Trump will make a decision that reflects the values and national security interests of the nation and will “make sure the world knows the truth.”
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6 p.m.
Lawmakers in Spain have rejected proposals to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia after a debate.
Conservative and ruling Socialist lawmakers argued Tuesday that jobs in the defense industry needed to be protected. They rejected non-binding proposals by far-left and smaller parties calling for a weapon export freeze. The pro-business Citizens party abstained.
Spain chose last month not to risk a $2.1 billion contract for five navy frigates in a job-hungry region when it went ahead with a bomb shipment to Saudi Arabia that members of Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist government had tried to stop.
The prime minister is expected to brief lawmakers on the issue on Wednesday.
Western countries have been rethinking their dealings with the Gulf kingdom amid international uproar over the killing of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul earlier this month.
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5:30 p.m.
Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have received the family of killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi and expressed their condolences.
The royals received the journalist’s son, Salah, and his brother, Sahel, at the Yamama Palace in Riyadh on Tuesday. A friend of the Khashoggi family told The Associated Press that Salah has been under a travel ban since last year. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.
Prince Mohammed has come under mounting pressure, with critics suspecting he ordered the high-profile operation or at least knew about it. Saudi authorities say they have arrested 18 suspects and dismissed senior officials.
The prince appeared briefly at an afternoon panel Tuesday alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah II, but made no public remarks.
–By Aya Batrawy in Riyadh
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4:40 p.m.
The leaders of Sweden and Denmark are reacting after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi Arabia murdered Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi after plotting his death.
Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s acting prime minister, says “it seems very credible that something terrible has happened there, something horrible.”
However, Lofven refrained from commenting further pending more facts, Sweden’s TT news agency reported.
In neighboring Denmark, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen is summoning the Saudi ambassador and said the meeting would be held “as soon as possible.”
He said, “there are still a lot of unclear questions and I believe it is fair to give the ambassador the possibility to explain himself.”
Samuelsen had earlier said there would be no official Danish participation in an investment conference in Saudi Arabia as “a natural consequence of the actual situation.”
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3:15 p.m.
A U.S. official says CIA Director Gina Haspel is in Turkey to review the case of slain Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. The official was not authorized to discuss the trip and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Haspel’s visit Tuesday comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s explanation of Khashoggi’s death three weeks ago in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Saudi Arabia said he was killed in a fistfight, but Turkish officials said the 59-year-old Washington Post columnist was attacked and killed by a 15-man Saudi team.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he wants Saudi Arabia to allow 18 suspects that it detained for the journalist’s killing to be tried in Turkish courts.
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By Deb Riechmann in Washington, D.C.
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1 p.m.
Turkey’s president has urged Saudi Arabia to reveal who ordered the “savage murder” of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, and said the 18 Saudis suspected of carrying it out should be tried in Turkish courts.
Addressing lawmakers of his ruling party in Parliament Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says all those responsible for the killing must be punished regardless of rank — from the person who ordered his death to those who carried out the killing.
He asked: “where is the body of Jamal Khashoggi?” For the first time, Erdogan also confirmed that a body double of Khashoggi was used as a decoy after he was killed.
Erdogan’s speech came as skepticism intensified about Saudi Arabia’s account that he died accidentally in its consulate in Istanbul.
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12:40 p.m.
Turkey’s president says Saudi officials started planning to murder Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi days before his death in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the Saudi officials began plotting against Khashoggi in late September, days ahead of his disappearance after he entered the consulate on Oct. 2.
Erdogan’s comments contradicted Saudi accounts that Khashoggi died accidentally in a “fistfight” in the consulate.
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12:25 p.m.
Saudi Arabia says organizers will be signing deals worth $50 billion at the start of a major economic forum in Riyadh.
The Future Investment Initiative forum, which began on Tuesday, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s aimed at drawing more foreign investment into the kingdom and to help create desperately needed jobs for its youthful population.
The deals will be in manufacturing, transportation and other fields.
Prince Mohammed was not immediately at the forum when it started.
The forum last year proved to be a glitzy affair that drew more international business attention to the kingdom. This year’s event meanwhile has seen business leaders drop out over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying.
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11:10 a.m.
A high-profile economic forum in Saudi Arabia has begun in Riyadh, the kingdom’s first major event on the world stage since the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.
The Future Investment Initiative forum, which began on Tuesday, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s aimed at drawing more foreign investment into the kingdom and to help create desperately needed jobs for its youthful population.
Prince Mohammed was not immediately at the forum when it started.
The forum last year proved to be a glitzy affair that drew more international business attention to the kingdom. This year’s event meanwhile has seen many top business leaders and officials drop out over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying.
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10:35 a.m.
Turkey’s foreign minister says his country would cooperate with international bodies if they were to launch an independent probe into the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.
In an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency, Mevlut Cavusoglu also said Tuesday that Turkey has not shared evidence concerning his death at the Saudi consulate with any country but added that there may have been “an exchange of views between intelligence organizations.”
Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi royal family, was killed Oct. 2 in a “fistfight” with officials sent to encourage him to return to the kingdom. Turkish media and officials say the 59-year-old Washington Post columnist was killed and dismembered by a 15-man Saudi hit squad.
Cavusoglu said: “If a request for an international investigation is made … we would cooperate.”
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10:20 a.m.
The Turkish president is expected to announce details Tuesday of his country’s investigation into the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, as skepticism intensified about Saudi Arabia’s account that he died accidentally in its consulate in Istanbul.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will “go into detail” about a case that has shocked the world and raised suspicions that a Saudi hit squad planned Khashoggi’s killing after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2, and then attempted to cover it up.
Top Turkish officials have said Turkey would clarify exactly what happened to Khashoggi and a stream of leaks to national and international media has increased pressure on Saudi Arabia, which is hosting a glitzy investment conference this week that many dignitaries have decided to skip because of the scandal. “