Trump says bin Laden son was killed in counterterror strike NEWS BRIEFING Staff and news services Ex-PM David Cameron ‘sorry’ for creating Brexit divisions Trump floats idea of mutual defense pact with Israel Women’s Hall of Fame to induct 11 honorees in Class of 2019 Solid gold toilet stolen from Churchill’s birthplace Drug firms seek removal of judge in key opioid case

WASHINGTON - Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden and once-possible heir to the al-Qaida terrorist network, was killed in a U.S. counterterror operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, President Donald Trump said Saturday - an announcement that comes more than a month after officials suggested he was killed.

Osama bin Laden's son was "responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups," Trump said in a statement released by the White House. His death is a blow to al-Qaida's leadership acumen, Trump said, and symbolic given the connection to his slain father, who was killed in a Navy SEAL raid on his Pakistani refuge in 2011.

But relatively little is known about the 9/11 mastermind's youngest son - not even his formal role in al-Qaida or his age, which is believed to be around 30.

Trump gave no further details over the operation to kill the younger bin Laden, and it is unclear when and where he was killed. No recordings featuring bin Laden had been released for several months, and al-Qaida has not issued a formal announcement over his death, even though it is typical for the group to do so when leaders are killed.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, who co-founded al-Qaida, remains the organization's leader. His whereabouts are unknown.

While the White House confirmed Hamza bin Laden's death on Saturday, U.S. officials for months have telegraphed the possibility of his killing at the hands of the U.S. In July, NBC reported it obtained intelligence he was killed.

Ex-PM David Cameron 'sorry' for creating Brexit divisions

LONDON - The British prime minister who called the 2016 Brexit referendum and then saw the public vote to leave the European Union, creating the nation's prolonged political crisis, says he is sorry for the divisions it has caused.

David Cameron said in an interview published Saturday by The Times newspaper that he thinks about the consequences of the Brexit referendum "every single day" and worries about what will happen next.

"I deeply regret the outcome and accept that my approach failed," he said. "The decisions I took contributed to that failure. I failed."

It is the closest the 52-year-old Cameron has come to a public apology for setting in motion events that led to the abrupt end of his premiership the next month and brought Britain into an unending political crisis.

Trump floats idea of mutual defense pact with Israel

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said he had discussed a possible new defense pact with Israel during a phone call Saturday with Benjamin Netanyahu, highlighting the Israeli prime minister's close ties to the White House days before Netanyahu faces a difficult reelection vote.

Trump did not promise to install a formal mutual defense pact, nor divulge further details of the conversation. The idea is generally popular in Israel, where the U.S. is the most important ally.

The announcement appeared to be an attempt to bolster Netanyahu ahead of the vote Tuesday, but it fell short of the kind of grand gesture Trump had offered ahead of Netanyahu's first election contest this year, when Trump said the U.S. would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Women's Hall of Fame to induct 11 honorees in Class of 2019

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, actress Jane Fonda and attorney Gloria Allred are among the latest inductees at the National Women's Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2019 inducted Saturday into the hall also includes activist Angela Davis, attorney Sarah Deer, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, retired Air Force fighter pilot Nicole Malachowski, the late artist and suffragist Rose O'Neill and the late New York Rep. Louise Slaughter.

Composer Laurie Spiegel is being honored for electronic music compositions and molecular biologist Flossie Wong-Staal for work that helped prove HIV is the cause of AIDS.

The hall is in Seneca Falls, New York, where a landmark U.S. women's rights convention took place in 1848.

Solid gold toilet stolen from Churchill's birthplace

LONDON - A unique solid gold toilet that was part of an art exhibit was stolen early Saturday from the magnificent home in England where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born.

The toilet, valued at roughly $1.25 million, was the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

It had been installed only two days earlier at Blenheim Palace, west of London, after previously being shown to appreciative audiences at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Because it had been connected to the palace's plumbing system, police said the toilet's removal caused "significant damage and flooding" to the building, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture.

A 66-year-old man was arrested in the case, but he has not been identified or charged.

Drug firms seek removal of judge in key opioid case

WASHINGTON - Drug industry lawyers facing more than 2,000 lawsuits over their alleged roles in the opioid epidemic demanded Saturday that the federal judge overseeing the case step aside, questioning his impartiality because he has urged both sides to settle the case.

The request comes after a series of stinging rulings against the drug industry by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in the historic trial slated to begin Oct. 21.

The defense lawyers said Polster has overstepped his authority, saying from the start that he wants the sides to settle the case so that the money for badly-needed drug treatment, overdose prevention and other services could be sent quickly to communities hardest hit by the opioid epidemic.

Plaintiffs are seeking $8 billion.

In Illinois: More than 2,200 medically preserved fetal remains have been found at the Illinois home of a former Indiana abortion clinic doctor who died last week.

The Will County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that an attorney for Dr. Ulrich Klopfer's family contacted the coroner's office Thursday about possible fetal remains being found at the home in northeastern Illinois.

The sheriff's office said authorities found 2,246 preserved fetal remains but there's no evidence medical procedures were performed at the home.

Klopfer, who died Sept. 3, was a longtime doctor at an abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana. It closed after the state revoked his license in 2015.

Caption: Supporters of the Beijing government fight with pro-democracy protesters Saturday in Hong Kong. Hundreds of pro-Beijing demonstrators rallied in the Kowloon district. Opposing protesters quickly gathered, sparking tensions as the groups heckled each other.

Kin Cheung/AP