MURDERED JOURNALIST | Merkel: Arms sales on hold

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Latest on the slaying of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi:

10:42 a.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country is not ready to export arms to Saudi Arabia until the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is properly investigated.

Speaking in Prague through a translator after meeting her Czech counterpart Andrej Babis, Merkel says it’s necessary to clarify the background of the crime that took place in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Merkel says Germany has made it clear that until then “we won’t deliver any arms to Saudi Arabia.”

Merkel also again said that Saudi Arabia has to ensure access for humanitarian aid to get into Yemen, which has been ravaged by a 3 1/2-year war between the Saudi-led alliance and Shite rebels.

10:12 a.m.

The fiancee of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi says she has not received any condolence call from Saudi officials after the writer was killed in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul.

Hatice Cengiz, who is Turkish, also said in an interview on Turkish television channel HaberTurk on Friday that she continually asks herself questions about Oct. 2, the day that Khashoggi entered the consulate and was killed by officials there.

Cengiz says: “I found myself in a darkness I cannot express.”

She says she had asked U.S. Secretary of State Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called her about the case, whether he had any news that would make her happy.

“But he said he didn’t,” she says.

Khashoggi had gone to the consulate for paperwork related to his planned marriage to Cengiz. Saudi prosecutors have acknowledged that Turkish evidence shows his killing was premeditated. His body has not been found.