THE US Senate has been dealt an unusually strong rebuke by Saudi Arabia, rejecting a bipartisan resolution that blamed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of 59-year-old Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul and describing it as an interference in the kingdom’s affairs.
Last Thursday, US senators passed a measure which blamed the Crown Prince for Khashoggi’s killing in the Saudi Consulate and called on Riyadh to “ensure appropriate accountability”.
US President Donald Trump has been reluctant to condemn the Crown Prince, despite US intelligence officials concluding that Prince Mohammed must have had knowledge of the plot.
Trump instead has Saudi arms deals worth billions of dollars and has thanked the Saudis for lowering oil prices.
Saudi Arabia denies Prince Mohammed was involved in the October 2 killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who wrote critically of the Crown Prince
Under intense international pressure, the kingdom recently acknowledged that the plot was masterminded by top Saudi agents close to Prince Mohammed.
MEANWHILE security forces have physically ejected Hungarian opposition politicians from the headquarters of the Hungarian state broadcaster MTVA in Budapest.
In a video posted on opposition politician Bernadett Szel’s Facebook page, she and fellow independent Akos Hadhazy are seen being pushed out of the MTVA headquarters by security guards.
A group of 10 politicians had entered the building, insisting on the right to read five demands live on air.
The demands included the revocation of the new labour law, passed last week in parliament, which gives employers the right to request up to 400 hours of mandatory overtime annually, without payment settlement for up to three years.
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the law will help relieve the current shortage of labour in Hungary’s booming manufacturing sector, and allow workers to earn more.
FINALLY, a tomb thought to be more than 4000 years and built for a senior official from the 5th dynasty of pharaohs has been discovered in Egypt.
Antiquities minister Khaled al-Anani announced the find in Saqqara, just west of the Egyptian capital Cairo, which is also home to the famed Step Pyramid.
Brightly painted relief statues were part of the “exceptionally well-preserved” treasures found in the tomb of a priest called Wahtye who was involved in royal purification during the reign of King Nefer Ir-Ka-Re about 4,400 years ago.
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