CATALAN SEPARATISTS, EXCEPT PUIGDEMONT, FACE GRILLINGS
MADRID: Cheered by supporters, Catalonia’s separatist leaders arrived Thursday in Madrid to be grilled and potentially charged in another day of high drama in Spain’s crisis over the region’s independence drive. Notable by his absence, however, was dismissed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and four of his former ministers, in Belgium and refusing to come and potentially be locked up. Puigdemont and 19 others involved in Catalonia’s roller coaster secession push over recent weeks have been summoned to be questioned by Spanish judges in separate hearings at the National Court and the Supreme Court in Madrid on Thursday and Friday. The first person to be questioned was Jordi Turull, the regional government’s former spokesman. Puigdemont’s government organized an independence referendum on October 1— that heavy- handed Spanish police tried and
‘ PROUD’ BRITAIN MARKS BALFOUR ANNIVERSARY WITH NETANYAHU
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May and Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday were preparing to celebrate the centenary of a British declaration that ultimately led to the foundation of the state of Israel. “We are proud of our pioneering role in the creation of the state of Israel,” May will say at a dinner in London to mark the date alongside Netanyahu, according to extracts released by her office. May will also warn about a “pernicious form of anti- Semitism which uses criticism of the actions of the Israeli government as a despicable justification for questioning the very right of Israel to exist.” On the second day of his five- day visit to Britain, Netanyahu was set to meet with May in her Downing Street office and hold talks with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, including on the Iran nuclear agreement.”
UN CALLS ON AUSTRALIA TO STOP ‘ HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY’ AT PNG REFUGEE CAMP
SYDNEY: The United Nations called on Australia to stop a “humanitarian emergency” unfolding at a detention center in Papua New Guinea on Thursday, urging an end to a tense days-long stand- off between refugees and authorities. The Manus Island camp, set up to hold and process asylum-seekers under Australia’s harsh immigration policy, was officially closed Tuesday after it was ruled unconstitutional by PNG’s Supreme Court. But some 600 men have locked themselves inside despite water and electricity being cut and dwindling food supplies, saying they are fearful for their safety if they move to transition centers amid reports locals do not want them there. “UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, today reiterates its call to Australia to stop a humanitarian emergency unfolding on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea,” the organization said in a statement. “As the days go by where they have no water and no electricity, I think the tensions will just go up higher,” UNHCR representative Lam Nai Jit told Agence France-Presse. He said unease between the refugees and local communities had grown due to a lack of consultation when the transition centers were being constructed.