The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, The Washington Post reported Friday, a finding that contradicted Saudi government assertions that he was not involved.  The Post said U.S. officials had expressed high confidence in the CIA assessment, which was the most definitive to date linking Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler to the killing and complicated President Donald…

U.S. Sen. John McCain was posthumously given the 2018 Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Award in a ceremony in London on Thursday night. The award recognizes those who have fought for human rights in Russia and is named after a lawyer who was killed in a Moscow jail in 2009. John McCain’s daughter Meghan accepted the award on behalf of her late father. In a speech she contrasted his legacy with…

American prosecutors have obtained a sealed indictment against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose website published thousands of classified U.S. government documents, a U.S. federal court document showed Thursday. The document, which prosecutors say was filed by mistake, asks a judge to seal documents in a criminal case unrelated to Assange, and carries markings indicating it was originally filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, in August. A source familiar…

Ethically driven businesses are becoming increasingly popular and profitable but they can face threats for shaking up the existing order, entrepreneurs said on Social Enterprise Day. When Meghan Markle wore a pair of “slave-free” jeans on a royal tour of Australia last month, she sparked a sales stampede and shone a spotlight on the growing number of companies aiming to meet public demand for ethical products. “Right now is the…

The three candidates competing to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU) agreed on Thursday to revive their party’s fortunes by cutting taxes and reducing Germany’s dependence on the United States for defense. In a strikingly good-humored three-hour debate in the northern city of Luebeck, the first of eight meetings with party grass roots across Germany before a leadership vote on Dec. 7, the rivals…

Russia is awaiting a European court ruling on whether it violated the rights of opposition leader Alexei Navalny when arresting him on repeated occasions. A leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny is to appear at the European Court of Human Rights in the French city of Strasbourg to hear the ruling Thursday, after a last-minute legal problem delayed his arrival. The court ruled last year that seven of…

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s already tough task of persuading parliament to approve an agreement on Britain’s exit from the European Union took a hit Thursday as her Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab resigned. “I cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU,” Raab said as he released a statement outlining his opposition to the agreement he helped negotiate. Raab specifically objected to a key…

The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed on a deal that will give London’s vast financial center only a basic level of access to the bloc’s markets after Brexit.  The agreement will be based on the EU’s existing system of financial market access known as equivalence — a watered-down relationship that officials in Brussels have said all along is the best arrangement that Britain can expect.  The EU…

Britain’s Prince Charles is turning 70 with a family birthday party, and a firm commitment to his environmentalist views. Charles is due to have tea on Wednesday with a group of people who are also turning 70 this year, before a Buckingham Palace party thrown by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The prince’s Clarence House office released two family portraits to mark the birthday. The photos by Chris Jackson show…

Britain is to allow citizens from all Commonwealth countries to join its armed forces — even if they have never lived in Britain. The new rules are aimed at tackling a recruitment crisis. But campaigners want clarity over the citizenship rights of the new recruits after they leave the services. Touring Africa earlier this month, Prince Charles paid tribute to soldiers of the former Empire who fought for Britain. Out…