World News Roundup: Brexit deal 90 per cent done, Khashoggi audio, Saudi conference

European Union negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday a Brexit deal with the United Kingdom was 90 per cent done, although there was still a chance no accord would be reached due to ongoing stumbling blocks over the Irish border.

Russia's Putin to meet U.S. security adviser Bolton next week: RIA

The Kremlin said on Friday President Vladimir Putin plans to meet U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton when he visits Moscow on Oct. 22-23, the RIA news agency reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying: "We are preparing a meeting with president Putin and we expect that the meeting will take place."

EU's Barnier says Brexit deal 90 per cent done, but Ireland issue could derail it

European Union negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday a Brexit deal with the United Kingdom was 90 per cent done, although there was still a chance no accord would be reached due to ongoing stumbling blocks over the Irish border. "Ninety per cent of the accord on the table has been agreed with Britain," Barnier told France Inter radio.

Turkey says it has not shared Khashoggi audio with anyone

Turkey has not shared audio recordings said to document the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, its foreign minister said on Friday, dismissing reports it had passed them on to the United States. Saudi Arabia has denied Turkish allegations that Khashoggi was murdered and his body removed from the consulate after he entered on Oct. 2.

As Khashoggi crisis grows, Saudi king asserts authority, checks son's power: sources

So grave is the fallout from the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that King Salman has felt compelled to intervene, five sources with links to the Saudi royal family said. Last Thursday, Oct. 11, the king dispatched his most trusted aide, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, governor of Mecca, to Istanbul to try to defuse the crisis.

Tanzania police work with Interpol to search for abducted tycoon

Africa's youngest billionaire snatched a week ago off the street outside a luxury hotel in Tanzania, was kidnapped in a car that had arrived from "a neighbouring country", police said on Friday. Police said they had identified the car's owner and driver, although they declined to identify which country the car had come from, saying to do so might cause diplomatic conflict.

Saudi conference boycott over Khashoggi shows a political threat to the economy

A Western boycott of a major business conference in Riyadh next week suggests rising political risks in Saudi Arabia could harm its ambitions to attract foreign capital and diversify its economy away from oil. Rather than whipping up interest in Saudi investment opportunities, the event risks becoming a public relations debacle because of the disappearance of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, company executives and analysts say.

In China's Catholic heartland, Vatican deal brings Communist Party closer

In 1996, a tiny village with a huge Gothic-style church in China's Catholic heartland of northern Hebei province was the scene of a tense stand-off between the ruling Communist Party and the faithful. Authorities surrounded Donglu village's Our Lady of China Catholic Church, blocking thousands of pilgrims and detaining Vatican-ordained Bishop Su Zhimin, who was a member of the "underground" Church, not the state-backed official Church which did not recognize the pope's authority to name bishops.

Afghanistan delays vote in strategic Kandahar after killing of a commander

Saturday's parliamentary election in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar will be delayed by a week after the assassination of one of the country's most powerful security chiefs dealt a stunning blow to the Western-backed government. General Abdul Razeq, the Kandahar police commander, was killed outside the provincial governor's office on Thursday when a bodyguard opened fire on a group of officials as they left a meeting with General Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Turkey, Russia, Germany, France to discuss Syria in Istanbul on October 27: Erdogan spokesman

A four-way summit between the leaders of Turkey, Russia, Germany and France on the conflict in Syria will be held in Istanbul on Oct. 27, the spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Friday. Ibrahim Kalin said the latest developments in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province and the political process for the resolution of the conflict would be discussed at the summit, adding that the sides would aim to coordinate joint efforts, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

EU top court orders Poland to immediately stop Supreme Court overhaul, reinstate judges

Poland must immediately suspend the application of a new law forcing some of Supreme Court judges into early retirement and reinstate those who have already left, the European Union's top court ruled on Friday. The injunction, issued by the European Court of Justice on the request of the EU's executive European Commission, is a blow to Poland's ruling nationalists who earlier this month rushed with new judicial appointments.

(With inputs from Reuters)