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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016
World
Catalans demand break with Spain B
ARCELONA--Hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets on Sunday to demand their region break away from Spain, pressuring pro-independence leaders to unite and iron out differences over their secession plan.
Crowds waved red and yellow striped Catalan flags in Barcelona and four other cities under bright sunshine on the region’s national day, the “Diada,” which marks the conquest of Barcelona by Spain’s King Philip V in 1714. Local police estimated that 800,000 people had taken part but Spain’s central government, which fiercely opposes Catalan independence, put turnout at around 370,000 strong. Many wore white T-shirts with the slogan “Ready” in Catalan, highlighting their belief that the northwestern region of 7.5 mil-
lion people was already prepared to be its own country. “This is the moment to stand united for the ‘yes’ to the Catalan Republic,” Jordi Sanchez, the head of the Catalan National Assembly, a pro-independence organisation which co-organised the protest, told the rally near the regional parliament. “We are impatient,” he added. The run-up to the protest has coincided with a rift between separatist parties just as they target independence for the region in mid-2017. In the coming months “critical
decisions” regarding Catalonia’s future will have to be taken, the head of the regional government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, told a meeting with foreign journalists before the rallies. Catalan separatists have tried in vain for years to win approval from Spain’s central government to hold an independence referendum like the one held in 2014 in Scotland in Britain which resulted in a “no” vote. After winning a clear majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament for the first time ever last year, secessionist parties approved a plan to achieve independence in mid-2017. But the plan ran into trouble in June when Puigdemont’s coalition government lost the support of the tiny anti-capitalist party CUP which has the hardest line on independence. As a result it lost its clear majority in the assembly. The pro-independence camp
hopes Sunday’s mass protest will reunite and breathe new life into their campaign, which is moving along more slowly than many of its supporters would like. “Politicians say we are close but we want to see it happen now,” said 60-year-old researcher Xavier Vallve at the rally in Barcelona. Carmen Santos, a 58-year-old civil servant, said she hoped this “Diada would be the last before independence.” Rallies were also held in the southern city of Tarragona, Berga in the centre, Salt in the north and Lleida in the east. Catalans have nurtured a separate identity for centuries, but an independence movement surged recently as many became disillusioned with limitations on the autonomy they gained in the late 1970s after the Francisco Franco dictatorship, which had suppressed Catalan nationalism. AFP
Akansas bet crowned Miss America WASHINGTON--An Arkansas business student who once kicked so high she gave herself a black eye was crowned Miss America 2017 late Sunday. Savvy Shields, 21, wore an elegant strapless black evening gown as she accepted the crown from the 2016 winner, Betty Cantrell of Georgia. Shields then waved to the crowd at the auditorium in Atlantic City, New Jersey as the pageant’s classic theme song “There she is, Miss America,” played over the loudspeakers. The event was broadcast live on the ABC network. Shields is a senior at the University of Arkansas where she studies Art with a minor in Business, according to her official biography. For the talent portion of the contest Shields performed a jazz dance to a song from the TV series “Smash.” This year’s judges - which included Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas, pop singer Ciara, and celebrity tech billionaire Mark Cuban posed tough questions to the finalists on topics ranging from immigration to the US presidential race. Shields answered a question about Hillary Clinton and the news media posed by Douglas. The second runner-up was Miss New York, Camille Sims, and the first runner-up was Miss South Carolina, Rachel Wyatt. All runner-ups won scholarship money, the non-profit Miss America Organization said. Shields will receive a hefty paycheck, expenses during the year, a $50,000 scholarship and an agreement to appear with the entertainment production company Dick Clark Productions. Among the 52 original hopefuls was Erin O’Flaherty representing Missouri, the first openly lesbian Miss America contestant. O’Flaherty however was not among the final 15 chosen to advance in the contest. The most storied of US beauty pageants, Miss America earned some of the country’s highest TV ratings during its heyday in 1950s. More recently, it and other beauty pageants have been criticized as sexist and QUEEN. Miss Arkansas Savvy Shields, crowned 2017 Miss America, appears onstage during the competition at Boardwalk Hall Arena on Sunday in Atlantic City, New Jersey. AFP outdated. AFP
Beckham spices up New York fashion week NEW YORK—Victoria Beckham served up velvet and a lingerie-look. Joseph Altuzarra went flirty with gingham, cherries and snakeskin: New York Fashion Week got daring and playful Sunday after paying tribute to the 9/11 anniversary. Politics and tragedy clung like a shadow to day four of the bi-annual style bonanza with moments of silence to honor the September 11, 2001 attacks at Beckham’s show and a note of remembrance from Altuzarra and up-and-coming label Pyer Moss delving into
the world of politics, corruption and the economy. Here are the catwalk highlights of the day: The former Spice Girl unveiled an experimental and daring spring/summer 2017 collection with her football legend husband David and their eldest son Brooklyn sitting front row next to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Moments of silence were observed at 9:59 am, the time when the World Trade Center’s South Tower collapsed, and at 10:28 am, when the North Tower gave
way in the Al-Qaeda attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. She showcased lingerie-esque dresses, crushed velvet and Wellington-style wide boots to showcase Beckham’s evolving maturity as a designer. “I really think I’ve come into my own this season. I really do. It’s a lot about fabric development,” she told reporters backstage. “Velvet is normally something that’s quite heavy, quite wintery,” she admitted. “But this is really, really light, buttery, and feels
beautiful on the skin and great to wear in the summer.” Beckham, who has a boutique in London and who opened a second store in Hong Kong in March, said it was “just so great” to “get into the fitting room and get to know my customers. Ultimately, that’s why I’m doing this.” Altuzarra wowed the fashion pack with a fun, flirty and sexy spring/summer collection inspired by David Lynch’s 1990 film “Wild at Heart” and by exploring what he called “a modern take on romance and kitsch.” AFP
CHIC. A model walks the runway at the Custo Barcelona fashion show during New York Fashion Week September 2016 at Pier 59 Studios on Sunday in New York City. AFP
Hillary diagnosed with pneumonia NEW YORK--Hillary Clinton cancelled a California fundraising trip after being diagnosed with pneumonia and falling ill Sunday at a 9/11 ceremony, renewing speculation about the Democratic presidential candidate’s health barely eight weeks from Election Day. “Secretary Clinton will not be traveling to California tomorrow or Tuesday,” spokesman Nick Merrill said, hours after the 68-year-old candidate abruptly left the Ground Zero memorial in New York suffering from dehydration. The incident, in which a wobbly Clinton appeared to lose her footing as she was helped into her vehicle, offered Republican Donald Trump a new opening to attack his White House rival with just 15 days before their first high-pressure presidential debate. Clinton had been seeking to bounce back from a blunder Friday, when she told donors that half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables” -- so Sunday’s episode was certainly ill-timed. The former secretary of state spent 90 minutes at the ceremony in lower Manhattan, greeting some relatives of those killed in the terror strikes 15 years ago, her campaign said in a statement. Clinton was a US senator for New York at the time of the attacks. “During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter’s apartment, and is
feeling much better,” the statement said. Later, the campaign released a statement from her personal doctor, Lisa Bardack, who revealed that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia Friday and was suffering from dehydration. “She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning’s event, she became overheated and dehydrated,” according to Bardack. “I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.” A video posted on Twitter showed Clinton appearing unsteady as she waited to get into a black van to leave the 9/11 service. She appeared to stumble as she was helped into the vehicle, and had to be held up on either side by members of her entourage. It was a humid day in New York, with temperatures around 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 Celsius). “Many of us (had) a sigh of relief when a gust of wind would come by because it was incredibly stifling,” Democratic congressman Joe Crowley, who stood near Clinton for about an hour at the ceremony, told MSNBC. Clinton walked out of her daughter Chelsea’s home a few hours later, smiling and posing for pictures with a young girl before departing for her home in Chappaqua, just northeast of Manhattan. AFP
US has 3rd-World cops, says novelist PARIS—The United States is cursed with “Third World police” which has led to “almost statesanctioned” killings of people from minority groups, one of the country’s leading black writers said Sunday. Marlon James, who won the prestigious Man Booker Prize last year for his epic novel “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, told a literary festival in Paris that some officers thought themselves above the law, comparing them to death squads during the “dirty war” run by Argentina’s military rulers in the 1970s. “What people like me find alarming is there is almost statesanctioned violence in America, particularly with the police,” said the Jamaican-born novelist, who has lived in the US for more than two decades. “America has developed a weird kind of Third World police, which horrifies people like me and my friends from Kenya or Nigeria. “The whole idea that you are beyond the law you are serving and protecting, and that killing people will not have consequences, is something that we who migrated to America thought we had got away from,” he told an
audience at Festival America. “This sort of unquestioned authority, straight up killing people is why Black Lives Matter happened,” he added, referring to the protest movement that sprung up out of a series of high-profile police killings of black men. “The way that kind of violence is protected... means it is statesanctioned violence and that is no different to Argentina during the dirty war.” James, 45, whose parents were both police officers in Jamaica, said Americans had to look hard at themselves as well as at their police. “I don’t think it is something that Americans realise because it is mostly a minority that is victimised by it. We are naive in that we never pay attention to violence until it affects us. “And that is a problem because when it finally does come to us nobody is going to be protecting us. It will end up endlessly repeating itself unless we stop it at some point,” he warned. James’ virtuoso Man Bookerwinning novel follows a group of people involved in the attempted assassination of the reggae legend Bob Marley in Kingston just before he was to appear at a political rally. AFP