SPAIN Police arrested at least 12 people yesterday in raids on Catalan government offices, news reports said, as national authorities intensified a crackdown on the region’s preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal. It was the first time Spanish authorities have detained Catalan officials since the campaign to hold a vote on Catalonia’s independence began to gather momentum in 2011.
CHINA-SINGAPORE Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People yesterday, calling his three-day visit “a reflection of the closeness of the two countries’ relations.”
MYANMAR The United States will contribute nearly USD32 million in humanitarian aid to help Rohingya Muslim refugees, the State Department said yesterday in the Trump administration’s first major response to the mass exodus from Myanmar.
INDONESIA An Indonesian militant linked to the Islamic State group smiled and raised one finger toward heaven after a court yesterday sentenced him to 11 years in prison for leading a plot to attack a presidential guard-changing ceremony in Jakarta.
IRAN A group of hackers suspected of working in Iran for its government is targeting the aviation and
petrochemical industries in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and South Korea, a cybersecurity firm warned yesterday.
KENYA’s Supreme Court said yesterday it nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election largely because the electoral commission refused scrutiny of its computerized voting system. The court judges said they had no option but to agree with the claim by Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga that the computerized data of the August presidential elections had been interfered with.
EUROPE More than half of the migrants who entered Europe amid a mass influx in 2015 and 2016 were still awaiting decisions on asylum applications by the end of the period, and only a small percentage had been turned down and sent home, according to a study released yesterday.
VENEZUELA A violinist who became the young face of anti-government protests in Venezuela may soon seek political asylum in the United States. Wuilly Arteaga became well-known after playing somber renditions of Venezuela’s national anthem while standing amid clouds of tear gas.
UNITED NATIONS Countries yesterday began signing the first treaty to ban nuclear weapons, a pact backed by over 100 countries but spurned by those with nuclear arms. The treaty requires all countries that eventually ratify it not to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons “under any circumstances.”
