WASHINGTON — The Trump administration was set to ignore a Friday deadline for giving the Senate a full accounting of the role of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the brutal slaying of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi four months ago.

The administration, which has consistently sought to shield Saudi rulers from blame, had until midnight Friday to answer senators’ questions about whether Prince Mohammed ordered the killing, as U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded, and what additional sanctions should be placed on the government in Riyadh.

The deadline was set by Democratic and Republican senators, who wrote the president on Oct. 10 — slightly more than a week after Khashoggi’s disappearance — calling for an investigation.

Senators said Trump was obliged by law to answer within 120 days. Administration officials contended, however, that the law was not binding and that the president could ignore the senators’ demands.

A top Saudi official, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir, on Friday insisted the crown prince had no role in Khashoggi’s slaying, saying the trial of the suspects and the ongoing investigation would show it was a “rogue operation” with no official backing.

The New York Times reported Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted a 2017 conversation in which Mohamed told a top aide that he would use “a bullet” on Khashoggi, a regime critic, if he did not return home to Saudi Arabia.

Fire at Brazilian soccer academy kills 10, injures 3

RIO DE JANEIRO — Fire tore through the sleeping quarters of an academy for one of Brazil’s most popular professional soccer clubs Friday, killing 10 people and injuring three, most likely teenage players, authorities said.

Firefighters were called just after 5 a.m. local time to the sprawling Ninho de Urubu training grounds of the Flamengo soccer club in Rio de Janeiro.

The cause of the fire was not known.

Those killed were not immediately identified by the club but they were athletes, a health official said.

Two of the injured youths were hospitalized in stable condition and one was in critical condition. The ages of the injured were 14, 15 and 16, according to a fire official.

Several people who appeared to be relatives entered the complex without speaking to reporters.

Stone says he should be free

to speak in Russia probe case

WASHINGTON — A federal judge shouldn’t bar longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone from making public statements about his criminal case in the Russia investigation, his attorneys said Friday.

Defense lawyers say in a court filing that any limits on Stone’s public comments would infringe on his right to free speech.

They made the argument as U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is considering a gag order preventing both sides in the case from making public statements that could prejudice potential jurors.

Jackson raised the issue last week as she told Stone not to treat his criminal case like a “book tour,” referring to post-indictment talk show appearances Stone made in which he attacked the investigation as politically motivated.

Iran’s top leader defends chants of ‘Death to America’ by crowds

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is defending “Death to America” chants that are standard fare at anti-U.S. rallies across Iran but says the chanting is aimed at America’s leaders and not its people.

Khamenei’s website on Friday quoted him as saying the chant means “death to U.S. leaders, death to (President Donald) Trump and John Bolton and (Mike) Pompeo.”

He says the Iranian people “will not stop saying ‘Death to America’ as long as the U.S. acts malicious” toward Iran.

Khamenei was referring to Trump’s State of the Union address this week in which the American president, among other things, said: “We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants ‘Death to America.’?”

France presses Italy in historic EU dispute

PARIS — France’s pro-EU government and Italy’s populist leaders sparred anew Friday amid the neighbors’ biggest diplomatic spat since World War II.

French officials said Friday that this week’s recall of French Ambassador Christian Masset was prompted by months of “unfounded attacks” from Italian government members Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, who have criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic and migration policies.

But the main trigger for the crisis appeared to be Di Maio’s meeting in a Paris suburb this week with members of the yellow vests — a French anti-government movement seeking seats in the European Parliament — without informing French leaders, who considered it an unwarranted intrusion into the nation’s internal affairs.

Steep fall in enforcement by EPA seen since 2016

WASHINGTON — Civil and criminal crackdowns on polluters dropped sharply in the second year of the Trump administration, according to 2018 enforcement figures released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Trump administration EPA says the agency is taking a new tack with polluters, giving states more of a role in regulation and enforcement and stressing education and voluntary compliance with offenders as well as fines and criminal prosecution.

The EPA has been one of the most active agencies overall in carrying out the deregulatory goals of President Donald Trump.

Declines include civil investigations carried out by the agency, which fell to 22 last year, down from 40 in 2017 and 125 in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration.

Health exam: President Donald Trump is “in very good health” and expected to remain healthy for “the duration of his Presidency, and beyond,” the president’s doctor said Friday after a physical exam by 11 specialists. The White House did not release more details and did not say whether any would be released.

Summit location: President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold their second summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Feb. 27-28, the president said Friday night. The president had previously announced Vietnam as the summit location, but the city hadn’t been identified.