US IMPLICATES SAUDI CROWN PRINCE IN JOURNALIST'S KILLING

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved of an operation to capture or kill dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in 2018, according to a declassified US intelligence assessment released on Friday in a manner choreographed to limit damage to US-Saudi ties.

Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote opinion columns for the Washington Post critical of the crown prince’s policies, was killed and dismembered by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in the report posted on its website.

“We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of decision making in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,” it added.

The Biden administration announced sanctions and visa bans on Friday targeting Saudi Arabian citizens over the killing of the journalist, but stopped short of imposing sanctions on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself.

Saudi Arabia said it rejected completely "the negative, false and unacceptable" assessment of the U.S. intelligence report.

"The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia completely rejects the .... assessment in the report pertaining to the Kingdom’s leadership, and notes that the report contained inaccurate information and conclusions," the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

"The crime was committed by a group of individuals that have transgressed all pertinent regulations... and the kingdom's leadership took the necessary steps to ensure that such a tragedy never takes place again," the foreign ministry statement added.

SYRIA AIRSTRIKES TO PROTECT US PERSONNEL, FACILITIES: WHITE HOUSE

The White House has said that through the airstrikes in Syria, President Joe Biden protected US personnel and facilities, and deterred the risk of additional attacks "over the coming weeks".

On Thursday, airstrikes in Syria targeted facilities belonging to a powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi armed group, reportedly killing one fighter and wounding several others.

The strikes came in the wake of recent attacks on US interests in Iraq, including a rocket attack last week which killed a civilian contractor and injured a US service member and other coalition troops.

"The president is sending an unambiguous message that he's going to act to protect Americans, and when threats are posed, he has the right to take action at the time, and in the manner of his choosing," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

"He also is going to take these actions in a manner that's deliberative, and that has the objective of de-escalating activity in both Syria and Iraq," she said.

Asked if the airstrikes influences reopening talks with Iran, Psaki said the status of that, at this point in time, remains that the U.S. is open to having these diplomatic conversations.

Right now the Europeans have issued an invitation and "we are waiting to hear back”, she said.

TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF LGBTQ, US HOUSE PASSES EQUALITY ACT

The House has passed the landmark Equality Act, taking LGBTQ+ Americans one step closer to winning legal protection from discrimination.

By a vote of 224 to 206, the House passed the landmark Act, which amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in addition to race, religion, sex and national origin. The vote closely followed party lines, with only three Republican lawmakers supporting the Bill.

“Without the Equality Act, this nation will never live up to its principles of freedom and equality,” Democratic Representative Marie Newman of Illinois, who has a trans daughter, said on the House floor. “I'm voting yes on the Equality Act for Evie Newman, my daughter and the strongest, bravest person I know.” Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people often encounter prejudice in housing, credit, jury service and public spaces. Since the start of the year, a dozen states have introduced or passed laws to bar trans girls from participating in girls' sports leagues.

HUNDREDS OF GIRLS UNACCOUNTED FOR AFTER NEW ABDUCTIONS IN NIGERIA

Gunmen raided a school in northwestern Nigeria overnight, abducting students, local authorities said Friday, raising fears that the country had been hit by another mass kidnapping.

The suspected armed bandits attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe in Zamfara state, kidnapping an unknown number of students from dormitories.

In the initial aftermath, teachers said several hundred girls were unaccounted for.

"It is true, gunmen... kidnapped students," Sulaiman Tunau Anka, the state information commissioner, confirmed.

"They went to the school with vehicles. They forced some of the girls to trek."

The security forces are tracking the criminals, he added.

Heavily-armed criminal gangs known locally as "bandits" in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.

Just last week, 42 people were taken by a gang from a boys school in nearby Niger state.

One teacher told AFP "more than 300 are unaccounted for" after Friday's attack, while another teacher had a higher estimate.

The UN agency called on those responsible to "release the girls immediately" and on the government "to ensure their safe release and the safety of all other schoolchildren in Nigeria."

PAKISTAN TIGHTENS SECURITY IN BALOCHISTAN TO PROTECT CPEC PROJECTS

Amid a rise in attacks on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in Balochistan, Pakistan has beefed up its security in the province to protect the facilities.

The information about the strengthening of security in Balochistan province was shared by Pakistan Military, reported Xinhua.

"We have raised two division-size security settlements which are dedicated to providing security to CPEC, besides that, we have increased the number of paramilitary troops' units from one to two in the province to ensure security," said Major General Babar Iftikhar, director general of the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations.

The security for the CPEC has been beefed up directly and indirectly by providing more security to CPEC projects and enhancing security in the whole province to ensure smooth work at CPEC projects after recent attacks on the facility, reported Xinhua.

TWITTER INTENDS TO MAKE ITS CONTENT MODERATION PRACTICES MORE TRANSPARENT: JACK DORSEY

Twitter has said that social media entities are facing a “significant trust deficit” and pledged to make its content moderation practices more transparent, giving people more control as it strives to be among the most open companies globally.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the microblogging platform is making a lot of progress in its accountability by “owning our mistakes and correcting, and reliability by following published principles and not wavering”.

“We are lacking in transparency and giving people more choice and control,” he told analysts.

Dorsey said that Twitter intends to make its content moderation practices more transparent, give people more control to moderate their interactions, enable a marketplace approach to relevance algorithms, and fund an open source social media standard.

“... We agree many people don’t trust us. Never has this been more pronounced than the last few years... And we aren’t alone: every institution is experiencing a significant trust deficit,” he said.

Focussing on metrics like transparency, accountability, reliability and choice will have a huge impact, Dorsey noted.

NO POSSIBILITY OF PAKISTAN BEING BLACKLISTED BY FATF, SAYS MINISTER

There was no possibility of Pakistan being blacklisted by the FATF as it has made "significant progress", a senior minister claimed on Friday, a day after the global anti-money laundering watchdog retained the country on its "Grey List", citing "serious deficiencies" on its part in checking terror-financing.

Addressing the media after the Financial Action Task Force, the Paris-based global body against money-laundering and terror-financing, announced to keep Pakistan on its Grey List until June, Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar said that Islamabad achieved the targets despite the challenging timeline given to it.

"There was no possibility of Pakistan being blacklisted by the FATF," Azhar, who led Pakistani delegation at the plenary as the chairman of the FATF Coordination Committee, said.

“At the previous plenary, FATF countries and the FATF secretariat said that blacklisting was not an option because the country has achieved significant progress," he said.

Azhar claimed that the world was "appreciative" of Pakistan's effort to complete the 27-point action plan of the FATF.

“As you have seen, today the FATF itself is saying that we are 90 per cent close to achieving this goal,” he said, adding that the remaining three point out of 27 would be completed soon.