Clashes in east Ukraine leave 12 dead
KIEV, Ukraine -- Eastern Ukraine has suffered the worst violence in more than a week as fighting between pro-Russia rebels and government troops in the region killed at least 12 people and wounded 32, officials said Monday.
Col. Andriy Lysenko told journalists in a briefing Monday in Kiev that at least nine soldiers had been killed in a day and 27 had been wounded.
Meanwhile, the Donetsk City Council said in a statement published online that at least three civilians were killed and five wounded in overnight shelling of a residential area in the northern part of the city, where fighting has centered on the government-held airport. Throughout the day in Donetsk, regular explosions could be heard coming from the north of the city.
Violence has continued despite a cease-fire declared Sept. 5. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been at pains to insist to a skeptical audience at home that his peace plan is working and said last week that he believed "the most dangerous part of the war" is over.
Catalonia's independence vote stayed
MADRID -- An independence vote set for November in Spain's powerful Catalonia region was halted Monday by the nation's constitutional court after the central government mounted a legal case calling the planned referendum illegal.
The court's unanimous decision to hear the government's case automatically suspended the Nov. 9 vote from going forward until the court hears arguments and makes a decision, a process that could take months or years, a court spokesman said.
Spain's central government contends that the vote approved Saturday by Catalan regional leader Artur Mas is unconstitutional.
The court acted hours after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the referendum decree represents "a grave attack on the rights of all Spaniards."
Under Spain's 1979 Constitution, Rajoy said, all Spaniards must vote on issues of sovereignty -- not just the 5 million Catalans who would be eligible to vote under Mas' planned vote.
Unhappy at Spain's refusal to give it more autonomy and fiscal powers, Catalan politicians have been pushing for the referendum for months.
Polls suggest most Catalans favor holding the vote but are roughly evenly split on independence.
U.N. envoy says Libya talks 'brotherly'
CAIRO -- Rival Libyan lawmakers held talks brokered by a United Nations envoy Monday, in the first attempt to bridge the gap between warring groups that has left the North African nation torn between two governments and parliaments.
In a news conference held in the western city of Ghadamis, Libya, Bernardino Leon said the goal of the talks is to reach a "complete ceasefire." He described Monday's round of talks as "historic" and said that the two parties were sitting together "in brotherly atmosphere" and engaging to "overcome their differences through a political dialogue."
The talks included lawmakers from the two parliaments.
Libya witnessed a spasm of violence this summer when militias mainly from the western city of Misrata and groups allied to Islamists swept through the capital.
Leon said that the two sides agreed to discuss airports that have been closed and work toward opening all of them.
Scrutinize 22 deaths, U.N. urges Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- A United Nations special rapporteur for human rights called Monday for the Mexican government to conduct a thorough probe of an army killing of 22 suspected gang members as a possible case of "summary executions."
Christof Heyns, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, applauded the detention of seven soldiers and an officer last week in the June 30 slayings in San Pedro Limon in a rural area of the southern state of Mexico.
The army initially reported that the 22 died in a fierce shootout with soldiers. But The Associated Press reported no evidence of a shootout at the scene, and bullet holes and bloodstains indicated some were shot against a wall at close range. A witness later said that 21 were killed after they had surrendered.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 09/30/2014