Russia 'interfered in Catalonia vote'

BRUSSELS • Madrid believes Russian-based groups used social media to heavily promote Catalonia's independence referendum last month in a bid to destabilise Spain, Spanish ministers have said.

Its defence and foreign ministers said on Monday they had evidence that Russian groups used the Internet to swing public opinion behind the separatist cause.

REUTERS

Lebanon's ex-PM to return home

BEIRUT • Lebanon's former prime minister, Mr Saad al-Hariri, who resigned from his post earlier this month from Saudi Arabia, said he is fine and will return to Lebanon in the next two days. Writing on Twitter, Mr Hariri urged Lebanese to remain calm, adding that his family would "stay in its country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", he said.

REUTERS

Senate candidate urged to quit race

WASHINGTON • US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led establishment Republicans in urging Mr Roy Moore, the party's Senate candidate in Alabama, to quit the race as a fifth woman came forward with allegations he had sexual contact with teenage girls decades ago.

Ms Beverly Young Nelson said he had sexually assaulted her when she was 16. Separately, another woman, Ms Rosyln Corrigan, has alleged that former US president George H. W. Bush groped her in 2003 when she was just 16, according to Time magazine.

REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST