SAUDI Arabia has announced it will seek the death penalty against five suspects alleged to have been involved in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Prosecutors said 11 suspects attended their first court hearing with lawyers, but their statement did not name those in court. It also did not explain why seven other suspects arrested over the October 2 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul did not immediately face formal charges.

Members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage have been implicated in the writer’s death. Khashoggi, 59, had written columns in which he criticised the prince.

The statement from prosecutors said: “The Public Prosecutor demanded imposing proper punishments against the defendants and is seeking capital punishment for five of the defendants for their direct involvement in the murder.”

The statement also claimed Turkey had failed to answer two formal requests for evidence in the case.

AUTHORITIES in Thailand have suspended ferry services and begun evacuations ahead of a powerful tropical storm that is expected to pound the country’s southern beach resorts during a peak tourism season.

Torrential downpours, strong winds and rough seas are forecast in 16 provinces when Tropical Storm Pabuk makes its expected landfall today. There are fears the storm will be the worst to hit Thailand since 1989, when Typhoon Gay left more than 400 dead.

A tropical storm in 1962 killed more than 900 people in the south.

In an incident possibly related to the incoming storm, a Russian tourist in Koh Samui drowned as he tried to rescue his daughter, who was struggling in strong surf.

Thai PBS television reported that the daughter survived but her father lost consciousness after being tossed against some rocks and could not be revived by rescuers.

RELIGIOUS hard-liners shut shops and businesses and clashed with police in a state in southern India as they protest over the entry of two women into one of the country’s largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.

Supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held protest marches in Kerala state as part of a strike call by Sabarimala Karma Samithi, an umbrella organisation of Hindu groups.

Women “of menstruating age” were forbidden to pray at the Sabarimala temple in Kerala state until India’s supreme court lifted the ban in September.

The ban was informal for many years, but became law in 1972.

Some devotees have filed a petition saying the court decision revoking the ban was an affront to the celibate deity Ayyappa.