Good Morning Australia!! - More fallout and a new fall guy in the Khashoggi murder - Putin obliquely blames the US for the Crimea college massacre - Fake news is about to ruin another country - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox announced they have pulled out of Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, in the wake of the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The conference is scheduled to be hosted by the oil kingdom's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman - widely suspected of having ordered Khashoggi's gruesome killing - from 23 to 25 October.  Most of the world's top banks and corporations have already pulled out, as did International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde.

Human Rights campaigners are urging Turkey to give its evidence purportedly linking a Saudi Arabian hit team to the apparent murder of Mr. Khashoggi to the United Nations for a thorough, transparent international investigation.  Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement reading; "UN involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh".  It appeared to be a criticism of Donald Trump, who has cited America's business ties with Saudi Arabia instead of flat-out condemning the atrocity.  Turkey has released bits of information, claiming it has audio and video recordings showing that the hit team - made of loyalists and close associates of Prince Muhammad - abducted Khashoggi, tortured and dismembered him with a bone saw, and eventually killing him in a gruesome seven-minute scene. 

Many have criticized Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for giving the appearance of slow-walking the investigation, and giving time to the Saudis to come up with a "mutually agreeable" cover story that absolves Prince Muhammad.  The New York Times is reporting that despite two weeks of blanket denials and claims that Khashoggi is still alive, the rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering making a fall guy out of General Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince.  White House operatives have stated leaking to friendly media, identifying Assiri by name.

The Washington Post published Jamal Khashoggi's final column, after initially holding off in hopes of his return.  "Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen," wrote the Post's Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah in the introduction.  In the column, Khashoggi calls for an end to Arab regimes "silencing the media":  "The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power," Khashoggi wrote, adding that Arab voices deserve a platform:  "We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education."  He also lamented the world's perceived indifference to persecuted journalists in the lead up to his murder.

Heavy sigh..

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cryptically blamed US school shootings for the massacre at a college in Crimea that took 19 lives.  "On social media, on the internet, we see the creation of entire communities," he said, suggesting that the gunman got his inspiration from "the tragic events in schools in the US".  18-year old Vladislav Roslyakov apparently had a grudge against Kerch Polytechnic College on the Black Sea; he went from room to room, firing at fellow students and setting off explosives, before killing himself.  The Health Minister says many of the injured lost limbs to the improvised explosives.

The Taliban is claiming responsibility for an insider attack that killed two top Afghan security officials.  A gunman in an Afghan military uniform somehow got within shooting range of some of the country's top officials at a gathering in Kandahar.  Killed were Gen. Abdul Raziq, the well-known police chief in Kandahar; and intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin.  Kandahar's governor and two Americans were hurt, but NATO's Afghanistan commander Gen. Austin Scott Miller was not injured.

An appeal court judge ordered the release of Peru politician Keiko Fujimori, daughter of 1990s dictator Alberto Fujimori.  She was placed under arrest a week ago in the investigation into illegal contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign.  Police arrest 19 other people in the probe.  The money is alleged to have come from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction titan implicated in pay-to-play corruption scandals on four continents.

A newspaper investigation suggest that Brazil's pro-torture, dictatorship-praising presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is benefiting from a massive and criminal disinformation campaign funded by the country's right-wing business interests.  The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper says the 156-member cabal is bankrolling a multi-million dollar campaign to bombard WhatsApp and other social media with fake news about Worker's Party candidate Fernando Haddad.  "The practice is illegal since it constitutes undeclared campaign donations by companies, something outlawed by electoral legislation," the newspaper said.  The Worker's Party is calling for an investigation, but the final election round is on 28 October and polls show that Bolsonaro leads Haddad 59 percent to 41 percent.