Despite criticism from rights groups that the EU is violating international humanitarian law by striving to curb immigration, the bloc has applauded itself for reducing arrivals by more than 70 percent in 2016 from the peak in 2015 when more than a million people entered in an uncontrolled flow.

The Spanish government said Thursday it would begin the process to impose direct rule on Catalonia in an unprecedented move to crush the region's independence bid.

In a statement from Madrid, the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said it would invoke Article 155 of the constitution, a provision that allows the central government to suspend the autonomy of the Catalan regional administration.

Business mogul Richard Branson explained a recent blog post in which he detailed being nearly conned out of $5 million. “I got a call from the minister of defense in England, who I know. And he sounded like the minister of defense. And he said that a British diplomat had been kidnapped, and they were not legally allowed — the government wasn’t allowed to put up the money. And they said they needed $5 million from me.”

The British banking groups HSBC and Standard Chartered are likely to be investigated over new claims that they may have been used to launder money stolen from the South African state.
The British Finance Ministry has referred allegations, raised by the former cabinet minister and anti-apartheid activist, Lord Hain, to the Serious Fraud Office.

The World Bank has raised the alarm that efforts to eradicate poverty had remained stagnant as some alleviation indices have remained unchanged since the 1960s. At an event to mark the 25th Anniversary of the International Day to Eradicate Poverty, the World Apex Bank said that education which was a major determinant of poverty alleviation had stalled for decades.

The Milan Public Prosecutor’s office has charged several senior Royal Dutch Shell executives in Italy for their role in a wide spread bribery scheme to acquire oil exploration rights in Nigeria. Those facing trial include Malcolm Brinded CBE, the former executive director for Upstream International and the second most powerful person in the company when the deal was struck.