Violence mars Catalonia independence vote, hundreds hurt ADVERTISING Violence mars Catalonia independence vote, hundreds hurt BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia’s regional government declared a landslide win for the “yes” side in a disputed referendum on independence from Spain that degenerated
Violence mars Catalonia independence vote, hundreds hurt
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia’s regional government declared a landslide win for the “yes” side in a disputed referendum on independence from Spain that degenerated into ugly scenes of mayhem Sunday, with more than 800 people injured as riot police attacked peaceful protesters and unarmed civilians gathered to cast their ballots.
Catalonia “won the right to become an independent state,” Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said after the polls closed, adding that he would keep his pledge to declare independence unilaterally from Spain if the “yes” side wins.
Catalan regional government spokesman Jordi Turull told reporters early Monday that 90 percent of the 2.26 million Catalans who voted chose the “yes” side in favor of independence. He said nearly 8 percent of voters rejected independence and the rest of the ballots were blank or void. He said 15,000 votes were still being counted.
Hundreds of police armed with truncheons and rubber bullets were sent in from other regions to confiscate ballots and stop the voting.
OJ Simpson freed; official says he plans to live in Vegas area
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada parole official says O.J. Simpson plans to live at a home in the Las Vegas area for the foreseeable future.
State Parole and Probation Capt. Shawn Arruti said Sunday the former football hero and celebrity criminal defendant has one approved residential plan, and it doesn’t currently include a move to Florida or any other state. Arruti says the exact location of the house in Las Vegas isn’t disclosed for security and privacy reasons.
But he says that at least for now, the 70-year-old Simpson has no permission to leave Nevada without advance approval from his parole officer.
Simpson was set free early Sunday morning after serving nine years for armed robbery.
Supreme Court opens pivotal term with Trump nominee in place
WASHINGTON (AP) — Disputes over a wedding cake for a same-sex couple and partisan electoral maps top the Supreme Court’s agenda in the first full term of the Trump presidency. Conservatives will look for a boost from the newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, in a year that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said will be momentous.
President Donald Trump’s travel ban appears likely to disappear from the court’s docket, at least for now.
But plenty of high-profile cases remain.
The justices will hear important cases that touch on gay rights and religious freedoms, the polarized American electorate, the government’s ability to track people without search warrants, employees’ rights to band together over workplace disputes and states’ rights to allow betting on professional and college sporting events.
Last year, “they didn’t take a lot of major cases because they didn’t want to be deadlocked 4-to-4,” said Eric Kasper, director of the Center for Constitutional Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. “This year, that problem doesn’t present itself.”
IS claims fatal stabbings of 2 women at French train station
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — A man with a knife stabbed two women to death Sunday at the main train station in the southern French city of Marseille as he reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar!” — an attack the Islamic State group claimed was the work of one its “soldiers.”
French soldiers shot the man to death after the attacks and authorities were working to determine if he had links to Islamic extremism.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who went to Marseille to meet with local authorities and troops on the scene, said police have video that shows the man attacking a woman and running away, then coming back and attacking a second woman.
The video shows the man running toward soldiers who were rushing to Marseille’s Saint Charles train station. The soldiers fatally shot him and both women died of their injuries, Collomb said.
Some witnesses reported hearing the assailant shout “Allahu akbar!” Arabic for “God is great,” Collomb said.
Media titan Samuel ‘Si’ Newhouse is dead at 89
NEW YORK (AP) — S.I. Newhouse Jr., the low-profile billionaire media mogul who ran the parent company of some of the nation’s most prestigious magazines, died Sunday. He was 89.
Newhouse’s death was confirmed by his family, who said he died at his New York home.
The chairman of Conde Nast since 1975, Si Newhouse, as he was known, bought and remade The New Yorker and Details magazines and revived Vanity Fair. Other magazines in the Conde Nast stable included Vogue, Wired, Glamour, W, GQ, and Self.
The glossy titles helped set the nation’s tastes, reached millions of aspirational readers and appealed to upscale advertisers.
“In all realms, he wanted Conde Nast — and its writers, artists and editors — to be at the center of the cultural conversation,” Bob Sauerberg, the company’s CEO, wrote to staff in announcing Newhouse’s death.
