The current crisis in Catalonia is just one of a number of separatist issues being looked on with disfavour and alarm in Europe’s corridors of power, writes John Lloyd    

An Indian government minister promised to co-operate in a probe into the death of his wife days after she accused him of adultery in a case that has become an embarrassment for the ruling Congress in an election year.

A gang of men who raped a woman on a bus in New Delhi last month tried to run her over after the attack which left her fatally injured, reports said, citing a police account.

South Korea’s foreign minister cemented his position as favourite to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he became the only candidate to escape a veto during an informal Security Council ballot.