Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (SWF) CEO Yngve Slyngstad
Norway's sovereign wealth fund expects to double its investments in Saudi Arabia when the country is included in the fund's reference index a few months from now, Chief Executive Yngve Slyngstad said on Friday.
The fund currently has Saudi assets worth 6.9 billion Norwegian crowns ($824.82 million).
The recent turmoil surrounding the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi did not influence the investments.
"We invest in companies, not countries. Our investments in companies based in Saudi Arabia will not be changed based on political developments," Slyngstad told Reuters. ($1 = 8.3655 Norwegian crowns)
Russia has no reason to doubt the statements of the Saudi king and crown prince that the royal family was not involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Kremlin said on Friday."No one should have any reasons not to believe them," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call on Friday, adding that the Kremlin welcomed the investigation into the murder.Erdoğan asks Saudi Arabia to reveal whereabouts of Khashoggi's body
Kremlin says no reason to doubt Saudi statements on Khashoggi murder
Claims are circulating that the body of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, could possibly have been dumped in the well at the residence of the Saudi consul-general.Police say Khashoggi was killed and dismembered within two hours, and taken from the Saudi consulate in suitcases and plastic bags. His DNA was found in a Vito minibus that traveled from the consulate to the consul-general’s residence, a distance of 300 meters.Investigators believe that there is a high chance Khashoggi’s remains are still in Istanbul. Allegations that the 15-man hit squad panicked once they found out that Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was waiting for the Saudi journalist outside the consulate have surfaced.Saudi van with 3 suitcases leaves Istanbul consulateA 15-man hit team, many of them Saudi intelligence operatives, flew into Istanbul hours before Khashoggi’s death and entered the consulate on Oct. 2 while the journalist was inside.Khashoggi was a U.S. resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post and he was critical of the Saudi government, calling for reforms.Khashoggi murdered, dismembered in two hoursSecurity sources believe once Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate at 13:14 local time, there was a high level of activity inside and outside of the building. A black Vito with the number plate 34 CC 1865 neared the consulate gate at 15:08 local time, and camera footage shows suitcases and black plastic bags being loaded into the vehicle before it traveled to the consul-general’s residence.Washington Post starts Khashoggi truth ad campaignMurdered in the consul-general’s officeOnce Khashoggi entered the consulate, he was allegedly invited to the Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi’s office, where he was choked to death. His body was dragged to the conference room behind the consul general’s office. Khashoggi’s body was tehn allegedly divided into three pieces, and his head, chest and legs were put into a suitcase. Salah al-Tubaigy, a forensic doctor and reported autopsy expert, was the one who dismembered the body. He then proceeded to clean the conference room.Khashoggi remains may be hidden in wellTurkish teams searched the consulate on Oct. 18, and the 12-meter-deep well is now being evaluated as the dumping site of Khashoggi’s body. Turkish security forces were not allowed to search the garden and well in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, however, water samples were taken.Khashoggi's son arrives in US after travel ban liftedHatice Cengiz foiled Saudi planNoting that the remains could be protected by waterproof chemicals, the prosecution office demanded that the water in the well be emptied and the bottom searched. It is believed that the presence of Hatice Cengiz foiled the plot to bury the body in Istanbul’s Belgrad Forest when she called the consulate security demanding to know the whereabouts of Jamal.Cengiz called the consulate at 17:30 local time and said that her fiancée had entered but not reemerged. When asked where she was, Cengiz told the consulate worker that she was outside. A Saudi official then emerged and told her all rooms had been searched but Khashoggi was not inside. Following this, the 15-member Saudi squad that had made reservations for five days at two hotels returned to Riyadh.Within the scope of the investigation, the police searched 26 different vehicles as well as the consul-general’s residence. Following a tipoff, police found a diplomatic vehicle belonging to the Saudi consulate in a carpark in Istanbul’s Sultangazi district. A laptop and documents were found in the vehicle which was not on the original search list.Russia’s Putin, Saudi king discuss Khashoggi issueOn the day of the murder, it was found that the security cameras Saudi authorities had claimed were not working were actually switched off one hour before the murder time. The audio recording of the last minutes of Khashoggi’s life is allegedly the hands of Turkey’s national intelligence organization, MİT.Khashoggi body double spotted out and about in IstanbulAs part of the probe launched by the Chief Public Prosecutors' Office in Istanbul, a special security team went through 3,500 hour-long footages from a total of 137 surveillance cameras at 72 points.Moustafa al-Madani, who led the intelligence efforts of the 15-man team in Istanbul, entered the consulate building by the front door four hours earlier together with Saudi's forensic medicine chief Salah al-Tubaiqi. Following the murder, Madani donned Khashoggi’s clothes, eyeglasses and Apple watch and left through the back door of the consulate in an attempt to make it look like the journalist had walked out of the building, although he was wearing different shoes to the ones Khashoggi entered the consulate with. He is seen in Khashoggi's clothing near the city's Blue Mosque in the Sultanahmet district hours after the journalist was seen entering the consulate building.Madani is a government employee who studied at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, according to a Facebook profile with photographs resembling the suspect identified by Turkish media.US actress rejects funding for film from Saudi princeGermany's EconMin welcomes proposal for joint EU position toward Saudi
Call by Khashoggi’s fiancée caused Saudi hit squad to panic, dump journo’s remains in well
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday said that the 18 people who were arrested in Saudi Arabia in relation to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi know who the murderer is.Saudi Arabia has detained 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of the investigation into Khashoggi’s murder. Some were members of a 15-man hit team, many of them Saudi intelligence operatives, who flew into Istanbul hours before Khashoggi’s death, Turkish security sources say.Erdoğan also called on Saudi Arabia to disclose the location of the body of Khashoggi and said Turkey had more information about the case than it has shared so far.He said Riyadh needs to disclose the identity of the "local cooperator" who purportedly took Khashoggi's body from Saudi agents after the journalist was killed at the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.“Saudi's public prosecutor is due to meet the Istanbul prosecutor in Istanbul on Sunday,” he added.Saudi van with 3 suitcases leaves Istanbul consulateWashington Post starts Khashoggi truth ad campaignTurkey will focus on the east of Euphrates, says ErdoğanErdoğan also said, “We are determined to focus our attention to the east of Euphrates rather than Manbij.”“We will not allow activities that will endanger our borders,” he added.Turkey and the U.S. in June struck a deal focusing on the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terror elements from the northwestern Syrian town of Manbij, and Erdoğan has repeatedly stated that Turkey might launch a military operation to the east of the Euphrates river to purge the region of terror elements.
Erdoğan asks Saudi Arabia to reveal whereabouts of Khashoggi's body
A van left the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul Friday morning after consular staff moved three suitcases and a black plastic bag to the vehicle, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter on the scene outside the consulate. The suitcases and plastic bag were moved to a van with black-tinted windows from another vehicle while a man from inside the consulate carrying a coiled white cable also got in the van.The contents of the suitcases and plastic bag were unknown, as was the identity of the man.Video: Saudi van with 3 suitcases leaves Istanbul consulateThe consulate is under heightened scrutiny amid near-daily revelations about the case of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was last seen on Oct. 2 when he entered the consulate building.After days of denying any knowledge of his whereabouts, Saudi officials last week admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a "brawl" at the consulate.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday laid out his country’s initial findings in its investigation, saying Khashoggi's “murder was premeditated."Washington Post starts Khashoggi truth ad campaignKhashoggi's son arrives in US after travel ban liftedRussia’s Putin, Saudi king discuss Khashoggi issueUS actress rejects funding for film from Saudi princeGermany's EconMin welcomes proposal for joint EU position toward Saudi
Saudi van with 3 suitcases leaves Istanbul consulate