Nation & World Glance
“Yes” side wins Catalonia independence vote marred by chaos
BARCELONA, Spain — Catalonia’s regional government declared a landslide win for the “yes” side in a disputed referendum on independence from Spain that degenerated into mayhem Sunday, with more than 800 people injured as riot police attacked peaceful protesters and unarmed civilians trying to cast their ballots.
Catalonia has “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 if the “yes” side wins.
“Today the Spanish state wrote another shameful page in its history with Catalonia,” Puigdemont added, saying he would appeal to the European Union to look into alleged human rights violations during the vote.
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.
Man fatally knifes 2 at French station, yells ‘Allahu akbar’
MARSEILLE, France — A man with a knife killed two women at the main train station in the French city of Marseille on Sunday, shouting “Allahu akbar” during an attack that French authorities were working to determine had links to Islamic extremism.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who went to Marseille to meet with local authorities and troops on the scene, said local police have video that shows a man attacking a woman and running away, then coming back and attacking a second woman.
The video shows the same man running toward soldiers who were rushing to Marseille Saint Charles train station. The soldiers fatally shot him and both of the women died of their injuries, Collomb said.
Some witnesses reported hearing the assailant shout “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” Collomb said.
2 women plead not guilty in N. Korean scion’s assassination
SHAH ALAM, Malaysia — Two women accused of fatally poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea’s ruler pleaded not guilty as their trial began Monday in Malaysia’s High Court, nearly eight months after the brazen airport assassination.
Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent on Feb. 13 at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur, killing him within about 20 minutes. The women say they thought they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.
The women are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea’s spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met.