U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on Friday to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about Middle East stability and the oil market, the White House said, after tensions with Iran prompted a rise in oil prices.

Moments before Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered last October, two of his suspected murderers waiting at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate fretted about the task at hand, according to a U.N. report published on Wednesday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior officials should be investigated over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi given credible evidence against them, a U.N. rights investigator said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate will vote on Thursday on legislation seeking to block President Donald Trump's plan to complete $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, lawmakers said, making clear they want a harder line against what they see as human rights abuses by the two countries.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday sustained President Donald Trump's veto of a resolution demanding an end to military support for the Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen, in a victory for the White House's policy of continued backing for the kingdom.

The new U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, retired general John Abizaid, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday, an embassy statement said, filling a position vacant since President Donald Trump took office more than two years ago.

The Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society condemned the executions carried out by the Saudi authorities and considered them "a crime represented a major earthquake in the entire region."

The British the "Daily Mail" newspaper said that US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attacked Mohammed bin Salman in a Twitter rant on Tuesday, accusing him of "torturing and executing children".

A Saudi court on Wednesday postponed a fourth hearing in the trial of several women rights activists, a case that has intensified Western criticism of Saudi Arabia following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The children of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi denied on Wednesday discussing any sort of settlement over his killing by Saudi agents after a report of compensation awards.

The influence of Saudi Arabia's Bin Laden family on its eponymous construction business has been curtailed in a restructuring that follows an anti-corruption crackdown by Riyadh, a document seen by Reuters shows.

Turkey said on Thursday that Interpol had issued red notices - asking police worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition - for 20 people regarding the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Ten Saudi women detained last year in a sweeping crackdown on activists appeared in court on Wednesday, an official said, intensifying scrutiny of the kingdom's human rights record.

Lockheed Martin Corp will receive the first payment toward the installation a $15 billion missile defense system in Saudi Arabia as part of a $110 billion arms package the Trump administration said it negotiated with the Kingdom in 2017, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia's cabinet has approved electronic visas for foreign visitors to attend sporting events and concerts, local media reported, as the world's top oil exporter tries to diversify its economy and open up its society.

Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate asked the Trump administration on Thursday to tell them more about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate last year, days after a missed deadline for a detailed report on his death prompted an angry bipartisan backlash.

The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution that would end U.S. support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in the war in Yemen, as many lawmakers sought to push President Donald Trump to toughen his policy toward the kingdom.

U.S. senators from both parties introduced a resolution on Tuesday requiring that any deal to share U.S. nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia block the kingdom from making a nuclear weapon.

The Trump administration threatened on Monday to veto an effort in the U.S. Congress to end U.S. military support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in the war in Yemen, continuing a stand-off with lawmakers over policy toward the kingdom.

The United States is still probing the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, as U.S. lawmakers continued to demand stronger U.S. action to punish the perpetrators.