Voters in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto were voting Sunday in referendums on autonomy, against the backdrop of Catalonia's push for independence from Spain.

The consultative votes are only the beginning of a process which could over time lead to powers being devolved from Rome.

Thousands of demonstrators marched Sunday in Berlin, in protest against the far-right Alternative for Germany's debut in parliament next week.

The head of the World Health Organization on Sunday reversed his decision to name Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, following widespread uproar.

Indonesia said Sunday its military chief had been refused entry to the United States and asked Washington for an explanation.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swept to a resounding victory in a snap election Sunday, winning a mandate to harden his already hawkish stance on North Korea and re-energize the world's number-three economy.

Spain has taken drastic measures to stop Catalonia from breaking away, announcing plans to dismiss its separatist government and call fresh elections in a move the region's leader compared to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and his ministers -- who sparked Spain's worst political crisis in decades by holding a banned independence referendum -- will be stripped of their jobs and their ministries taken over under measures laid out by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Sunday he had been released from the Moscow detention centre where he had served a 20-day term for organizing unauthorised protests.

Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday called for the immediate release of South Korea's ousted president Park Geun-Hye whose corruption trial has been put on hold following mass resignations by her lawyers.

A United Nations torture prevention panel has suspended a trip to Rwanda, citing obstruction by the authorities and fears that interviewees would suffer "reprisals", a statement from the UN rights office said.  

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has offered to shoot criminals himself, while warning he may bring police back to the frontlines of his deadly war on drugs.