Catalonia independence: Spain takes charge of Catalan government
The Spanish government has stripped Catalonia of its autonomy and taken charge of its government.
The measures early on Saturday came after the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence on Friday.
An official state bulletin dismissed Catalan leaders and handed control of Catalonia to Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.
Earlier, Spain's interior ministry took charge of Catalonia's police after firing senior Catalan police officials.
On Friday, PM Mariano Rajoy announced the dissolution of the regional parliament and the removal of the Catalan leader, and called snap local elections.
Demonstrations for and against independence went on into the night.
More are expected on Saturday, with a rally "for the unity of Spain and the constitution" to be held in Madrid.
Bangladesh to offer sterilisation to Rohingya in refugee camps
Family planning authorities have asked the government to launch vasectomies and tubectomies for women in Cox’s Bazar, where 1m refugees fight for space
Bangladesh is planning to introduce voluntary sterilisation in its overcrowded Rohingya camps, where nearly a million refugees are fighting for space, after efforts to encourage birth control failed.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in August triggered an exodus, straining resources in the impoverished country.
The latest arrivals have joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled in earlier waves from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the stateless Muslim minority has endured decades of persecution.
Iraq may be coming to the end of 40 years of war as the government wins two big victories
They must not overplay their hand, making sure that all communities in Iraq get a reasonable cut of the national cake in terms of power, money and jobs
There is a growing mood of self-confidence in Baghdad which I have not seen here since I first visited Iraq in 1977. The country seemed then to be heading for a peaceful and prosperous future thanks to rising oil revenues. It only became clear several years later that Saddam Hussein was a monster of cruelty with a disastrous tendency to start unwinnable wars. At the time, I was able to drive safely all around Iraq, visiting cities from Mosul to Basra which became lethally dangerous over the next 40 years.
The streets of the capital are packed with people shopping and eating in restaurants far into the night. Looking out my hotel window, I can see people for the first time in many years building things which are not military fortifications. There are no sinister smudges of black smoke on the horizon marking where bombs have gone off. Most importantly, there is a popular feeling that the twin victories of the Iraqi security forces in recapturing Mosul in July and Kirkuk on 16 October have permanently shifted the balance of power back towards stability. The Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, once criticised as weak and vacillating, is today almost universally praised for being calm, determined and successful in battling Isis and confronting the Kurds.
Will Filipinos rise up against President Rodrigo Duterte?
In the face of President Rodrigo Duterte's lethal drug policy to kill users and dealers at the slightest excuse, Philippine society is gradually daring to push back. Florian Neuhof reports from Manila.
In Manila's sprawling North Cemetery, paved roads are lined with the sumptuous tombs of the wealthy. Multi-storied and ornate, they resemble comfortable family homes. In narrower alleyways, chest-high graves and towering tombstones remind of the deceased. Occasionally, a funeral procession clogs a lane, a nuisance to the graveyard's living inhabitants.
Around 5,000 squatters have settled amidst the graves, their small shacks of plywood and corrugated iron nestled in between the ostentatious final resting places of the rich. In the evenings, they gather to drink beer and listen to music. Young men play basketball on a concrete patch near one of the entrances.
Why are so many women being murdered in Uganda?
Noah Musiba sat by the door all night listening out for a noise that would signal the return of his wife. His nine-year-old daughter, Sheerat, lay on a mattress on the floor by his feet, wide awake.
It was the early hours of Thursday, September 14, and Harriet Nantongo, Noah's wife of 10 years and Sheerat's mother, had not returned from work.
"I hoped that maybe she had slept at her sister's place, but when we went to look, she wasn't there," said Noah, "so we started searching all the hospitals".
By the afternoon, Musiba reported his wife missing, fearing the worst.
Congress is a breeding ground for harassment
As workplace sexual harassment allegations grow, reports put Congress at center stage
Updated by
As more and more women go public with allegations of sexual harassment against public figures, Congress is coming under scrutiny.
Conversations with congressional aides in the wake of the revelations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein all indicate a not-so-surprising reality on Capitol Hill: Everyone has heard of someone who has gone through hell in the workplace — from sexual assault to office abuses.
But in this major power center, workplace harassment isn’t a conversation congressional offices have until it absolutely needs to be had — whether because of a bombshell news report or a victim’s push for internal review.
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