[Natalie Allen, Cnn Anchor:] Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Here are our top stories. The king of Saudi Arabia promises a speedy investigation into the deadliest tragedy at the hajj in 25 years. At least 717 people were killed in a stampede near the holy city of Mecca. It happened during a ritual known as the stoning of the devil. Chinese President Xi Jinping received a cordial welcome at the White House Thursday ahead of what are expected to be tough discussions on cybersecurity. The White House is threatening sanctions against Chinese hackers allegedly stealing intellectual property. Four international students were killed in Washington State after a tour bus and a duck boat tourist vehicle collided. It happened on a highway near downtown Seattle. Dozens of people were hospitalized. Two of them remain in critical condition. Pope Francis had high praise for the women of the Catholic Church when he visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York Thursday. The pope told a group of nuns he loves them very much and thanked them for their courage. Francis' evening prayers at the Cathedral capped a busy day. Thursday morning, he addressed Congress back in Washington where he touched on two hot-button topics in the United States, climate change and immigration.
[Pope Francis:] I call for a courageous effort to redirect our steps. The most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I'm convinced that we can make a difference, I'm sure. I say this to you as a son of immigrants knowing that so many of you are also descendants of immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected.
[Allen:] Later today, the pope will speak at the United Nations, and we'll bring that to you here at CNN. Pope Francis spent the night at a multimillion-dollar home in New York. But as Miguel Marquez reports, the Catholic leader doesn't need much to be comfortable.
[Miguel Marquez, Cnn Correspondent:] It's where pontiffs have laid their papal heads when visiting the Big Apple for nearly 40 years.
[Bernardito Auza, Archbishop Of Suacia & Apostolic Nuncio:] For this pope to visit the United States for the first time, and Cuba, I think that means a lot to him.
[Marquez:] Archbishop Auza will host him at the Vatican's official home in New York, the Apostolic Nunciature for the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. A big title, but for this pope, it will a simple affair.
[Auza:] Dinners and lunch and breakfast will be very simple, really. No, no, no. No red meat.
[Marquez:] All fine for a pope who shunned the ornate papal apartment in Rome for the simplicity of the Vatican's more humble guest house. "The New York Times" reports Francis has asked only for water and bananas in his room during his stay. The five-floor home is 11,000 square feet located on Manhattan's Upper East Side, valued at around $20 million. It was given to the church in 1975 by the family of former New York City Mayor Hugh Grant. Francis will be the third pope to stay.
[Unidentified Priest:] That's where Pope John Paul II stayed his visit in '79, his visit in '95 and then again when Pope Benedict came in 2008.
[Marquez:] Pope John Paul II dedicated the building on his first New York trip as pontiff in October 1979, even shaking hands with Hugh Grant Jr, the son of the New York mayor who owned the house. Grant grew up in the home.
[Unidentified Priest:] The house was completed in 1894.
[Marquez:] Regis High School, also founded by the Grant family, made this video, "The Pope's Home Away from Rome," for Francis' visit. Those who have been inside the residence say it's modest by New York standards. Even the bedroom where the pope will sleep is described as basically a room. It does come with its own chapel.
[Unidentified Priest:] In 1914, Mrs. Grant had a private chapel built in the residence naming it the Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
[Marquez:] After two nights in New York, the pontiff moves on to Philadelphia and somewhat less storied accommodations, The St. Charles Seminary. The church was forced to sell its 23,000-square-foot mansion in 2012 for budgetary reasons. Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.
[Allen:] To the other side of the world now, and North Korea. And the question, Kim Jong-Un the peacemaker? That's not a widely held view of the North Korean leader outside North Korea, but a top North Korean official says that Kim averted all-out war when tensions spiked between North and South Korea last month. Will Ripley has more from North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.
[Park Yong-chol, North Korean Official:] We've characterized it as a suspicious incident. The South Koreans are saying it was caused by us, but it was definitely not us. We expressed our regret meaning we felt sorry it caused injury to their personnel. That is all. Importantly, our respected marshal, Kim Jong-Un, brought the situation under control with his firm decision to preserve peace and security, taking the safety of our loving people and the entire nation as his top priority and for the future of mankind.
[Will Ripley, Cnn Correspondent:] You characterize leader, Kim Jong-Un, as a peace maker. The outside world has a different impression. Case in point, the statement recently from your own state media that North Korea is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the United States at any time.
[Yong-chol:] This is simply our official position on the fact that we have been under constant military threat from the United States. It's not a declaration of war or threat of a preemptive strike against the United States.
[Ripley:] Any preemptive nuclear strike from North Korea?
[Yong-chol:] America has said it would launch a preemptive nuclear strike against North Korea. We're just showing we have such rights to preemptive strikes as well.
[Ripley:] Is your leader, Kim Jong-Un, the person that would push that button and make that call?
[Yong-chol:] Of course, yes. To use the nuclear option or not is solely decide by the central committee of the Workers Party of Korea. You have to understand it correctly. The fact that we're a nuclear power does not mean we're going to use it randomly.
[Ripley:] I want to talk about the North Korean economy. Here in Pyongyang I see more cars, people carrying Smartphones. We even saw a woman with a pet the other day. There are signs the economy is growing here. Is that growth happening also outside of Pyongyang and other major cities? Is everybody seeing the benefit?
[Yong-chol:] You've seen for yourself some of the good signs of the improvement in our national economy. Things are happening here in very positive ways, not just in Pyongyang but throughout the country. We have fully now emerged from the economic difficulties of the arduous march. Now we're entering the heyday of the prosperity of the country. We think the country will make a rapid and strong leap forward to make this young nation into an economically prosperous nation and in the very near future.
[Allen:] CNN's Will Ripley again there reporting live from inside the capital of North Korea. And I'll talk with Will about his reporting from there in our next hour. He'll be live from Pyongyang. The remains of a Russian czar have been exhumed nearly 100 years after his execution. Many people in Russia are buzzing about this story. Ahead, what investigators hope to learn about Nicholas II.