IN BRIEF (Page 11)

SPAIN

80 hurt in third night of Catalan protests

Spanish authorities said that 80 people, including 46 police officers, were injured on Wednesday night during the most violent of three nights of rioting over the imprisonment of Catalan separatist leaders. A statement from the office of Spain's caretaker prime minister said that 33 people have been arrested. Four protesters have been jailed so far on provisional public disorder charges. The Spanish leader, Pedro Sanchez, is presiding over a meeting with experts from the interior and other ministries to analyze the security situation in the northeastern region. Thursday began with new road blockades across the northeastern region, including a main highway leading to France.

UNITED STATES

Global child porn probe nets 337 suspects

International law enforcement authorities announced on Wednesday that a global investigation into child pornography sold for bitcoin on the underground internet had reaped 337 arrests and the shutdown of the dark web's most notorious pedophile site. Authorities from the United States, Britain, South Korea and other countries said they had rescued at least 23 minors who were victims of sexual exploitation. Often, they had been video-recorded by abusers who then sold the videos on the now-shuttered "Welcome to Video" site on the darknet. The website sold the videos to users for bitcoin, which makes it extremely difficult to track the buyer. The server, which had about 250,000 videos, was seized by US, British and South Korean police on March 5, 2018, and the operator, 23-year-old Son Jongwoo, was arrested and jailed in South Korea.

LIBYA

82 migrants rescued off western coast

The Libyan navy on Wednesday rescued more than 80 illegal immigrants from Africa and Asia off the country's western coast. "After receiving a distress call, a Coast Guard patrol rescued 82 illegal immigrants, including 11 women and eight children," said navy spokesman Ayob Qassem. Qassem said that the rescue operation took place 65 kilometers off the coast of Zawiya, a city some 45 km west of Tripoli. Earlier in the day, the Libyan navy rescued 90 illegal immigrants off the coast of Khoms, a city nearly 120 km east of Tripoli. As Libya has been plagued with insecurity and chaos since Muammar Gadhafi was toppled as leader in 2011, thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, have chosen to cross the Mediterranean from there toward Europe.

Agencies - Xinhua

(China Daily 10/18/2019 page11)