JUDGE JAILS CATALAN MINISTERS

A Spanish MADRID judge jailed nine former members of Catalonia’s separatist government Thursday and was deliberating a possible international arrest warrant for the region’s ousted president, who remained in Belgium while the others appeared in aMadrid court for questioning about their efforts to break away from Spain.

Former President Carles Puigdemont and his 13member Cabinet are being investigated for rebellion, sedition and embezzlement in their pursuit of Catalan independence.

Ex- campaign official withdraws nomination.

A former WASHINGTON

Trump campaign official linked to the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has withdrawn his nomination as the Agriculture Department’s chief scientist. Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign national co- chairman and chief policy adviser, wrote in a letter Thursday to President Donald Trump that he does “not want to be a distraction or a negative influence.”

Disagreement on timeline of power restoration.

SAN JUAN, PUERTO

» Officials in the U. S. and Puerto Rico gave differing views Thursday on when power will be fully restored to the U. S. territory after Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 4 storm more than a month ago.

Ricardo Ramos, director of the state- owned power company, said the utility has restored 35 percent of the electrical system’s regular output and expects to reach 50 percent by mid- November and 95 percent by mid- December. But Ray Alexander, director of contingency operations at the Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps’ goal is to have 50 percent restored by the end of November and 75 percent by the end of January.

Lamar Smith quitting Congress, second Texas GOP chair this week.

Texas Rep. WASHINGTON

Lamar Smith, an immigration hard- liner and climate change skeptic, announced Thursday that he will leave Congress at the end of his current term. He’s the second GOP chairman thisweek from Texas to retire. He leads the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and under GOP rules would hit a six- year term limit at the end of 2018.

Departing Twitter employee deactivates Trump account.

WASHINGTON

» A Twitter customer support worker who was on his or her last day on the job deactivated President Donald Trump’s account for 11 minutes Thursday evening, the social media company reported.

Shortly before 7 p. m. Thursday, social media reports surfaced that the president’s account, @ RealDonaldTrump, was unavailable, providing the error message that the user “does not exist.”

Twitter said the deactivation “was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day.”— AP