US President Donald Trump acknowledged that Khashoggi was likely dead even as his fate remained unclear 17 days after he vanished. The forest, a vast area and sufficiently remote for even locals to regularly get lost there, is nearly 15 kilometres (over nine miles) away from the Saudi consulate. Investigators already conducted two searches of the consulate and a nine-hour search of the consul's residence this week. Earlier Trump said he now believed Khashoggi was dead and warned of "very severe" consequences should Saudi Arabia be proven responsible. But four prominent human rights and press freedom groups urged Turkey to demand a United Nations investigation to prevent a "whitewash" of the alleged crime.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 19, 2018 17:03 UTC