IN BRIEF (Page 11)

SPAIN

Warrant reactivated for ex-Catalan leader

Judge Pablo Llanera, the examining magistrate in the trial of 12 Catalan politicians over events related to an independence referendum on Oct 1, 2017, on Monday reactivated the European arrest warrant for former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont. The Supreme Court has confirmed that Llarena had issued both European and international arrest warrants after former Catalan deputy leader Oriol Junqueras was sentenced to 13 years in prison for sedition and misuse of government funds related to the referendum, which was declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Monday saw other former members of Puigdemont's government handed sentences ranging from 10-and-a-half years to 12 years in prison for similar offenses by the Spanish Supreme Court in Madrid. Puigdemont did not face trial because he fled to Belgium on Oct 30, 2017. He has lived in exile since then.

MEXICO

13 police officers killed in 'cartel' ambush

At least 13 police officers were killed and nine others wounded on Monday in an ambush by gunmen in the Mexican state of Michoacan, a western region where violence attributed to drug cartels has spiked in recent months. The state police officers had gone to a home in the town of El Aguaje in Aguililla municipality to enforce a judicial order when "several armed civilians fired on them", Michoacan's state security department said in a statement. "No attack on the police will go unpunished, and this was a cowardly, devious attack because they laid an ambush in this area of the road," Governor Silvano Aureoles said.

UNITED KINGDOM

Two women share Booker Prize

Judges tore up the rule book on Monday, awarding the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction jointly to Canadian author Margaret Atwood for The Testaments and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other. Atwood becomes only the second female author to win the award twice, sharing the $62,800 prize at the 50th anniversary ceremony at London's Guildhall. The award has been shared twice before, in 1974 and 1997, when the rules were changed to supposedly prevent it from happening again. Gaby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said the judges found it impossible to single out one winner from their shortlist of six and finally chose the twin winners.

UNITED STATES

Firefighters gain upper hand with fires

Firefighters are dousing smoldering areas left from a destructive wildfire that raged along the northern edge of Los Angeles last week. The Los Angeles Fire Department said containment of the approximately 31-square-kilometer fire was at 43 percent on Monday. Updated assessments lowered the number of destroyed structures to 17 but increased the number damaged to 58. The fire erupted on Thursday night and was rapidly spread by Santa Ana winds. A man in the fire area went into cardiac arrest and died. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

THAILAND

Minister warns jet-ski tourists

Thailand's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa on Tuesday warned jet-ski tourists of serious consequences if they are found to disrupt the existence of the protected Bryde's whales off Phetchaburi Province near the Gulf of Thailand. The warning followed reports of tourists on about 20 jet-skis tearing through the gulf at high speeds in search of the rare whales over the weekend.

Agencies - Xinhua

(China Daily 10/16/2019 page11)