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BARCELONA, Spain - Catalonia's defiant attempt to stage an independence referendum descended into chaos on Sunday, with hundreds injured in clashes with police in one of the gravest tests of Spain 's democracy since the end of the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s.

National police officers in riot gear, sent by the central government in Madrid from other parts of Spain, used rubber bullets and truncheons in some places as they fanned out across Catalonia, the restive northeastern region, to shut down polling stations and seize ballot boxes.

The clashes quickly spoiled what had been a festive, if expectant, atmosphere among voters, many of whom had camped inside polling stations and stayed on into late Sunday night, fearful that officers might seize ballot boxes.

By the day's end, both sides were claiming victory. Voting went ahead in many towns and cities, with men and women, young and old, singing and chanting as they lined up for hours to cast ballots. Just after midnight, the Catalan government said that the referendum had been approved by 90 percent of some 2.3 million voters. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

The Spanish government declared that the referendum had been disrupted.

More than 750 people were injured in the crackdown, Catalan officials said, while dozens of Spanish police officers were hurt, according to Spain's interior ministry.

The day's events left nothing clear except that the clashes over the status of the region - Spain's economic powerhouse, where yearnings for a separate nation have ebbed and flowed for generations - had left supporters on both sides more hardened and polarized than before.

The Madrid government, with the backing of Spanish courts, had declared the referendum unconstitutional and ordered the vote suspended. But that did not stop Catalans from gathering before sunrise on Sunday, massing on rain-slicked streets across the region.

"Spain has shown us today its ugliest and darkest face, that which we really thought had disappeared 40 years ago," said Mario Pulpillo, 54. "You simply can't use violence against people who just want to vote."

Despite the police threat, Mr. Pulpillo, who uses a wheelchair, said he went to vote "to make sure this was our feast of democracy, not our humiliation at the hands of a Spanish state that believes in repression."

Voters like him made the turnout an extraordinary show of determination in the face of a steady drumbeat of threats from Madrid.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, at a news conference Sunday evening, characterized the police actions as a proper and measured response to the acts of secessionists. "We did what we had to do," he said.

Proponents of the referendum immediately pointed to the heavy use of police force as a blight not only on Mr. Rajoy's conservative government, but also on Spain's still relatively young democracy.

"The image of the Spanish state has reached levels of shame that will stay with them forever," the leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, told a crowd in the town of Sant Julià de Ramis, the scene of clashes.

"Today, the Spanish state has lost a lot more than it had already lost, and Catalan citizens have won a lot more than they had won until now," he said.

He and other Catalan authorities maintained that balloting had proceeded in most of the polling stations and seemed determined to use the vote as further evidence of the legitimacy of their claim for a separate nation.

The Catalan vote has been watched with rising trepidation - and no sign of support - by a European Union wary of stoking forces of fragmentation already tugging at the bloc and many member states, where populist and nationalist parties have surged in recent elections.

Nationalism in Spain, a country with a long and painful 20th century history that included civil war and fascism, has been all but dormant since the coming of democracy after the death of the dictator Gen. Francisco Franco in 1975. There are already signs that Catalonia's threat to fracture the country is changing that.

Because of the tensions Sunday, F.C. Barcelona, the soccer club, played a match behind closed doors in its Camp Nou stadium, where the opposing Spanish team came with special uniforms emblazoned with the Spanish flag - something unusual here.

Yet none of the tensions or lack of support - Scotland and Venezuela were among the few backers of the referendum - has dimmed aspirations for independence in Catalonia, a prosperous region with a distinct language, history and culture.

Those separatist passions rose in recent years as Catalans complained that Madrid was unfairly siphoning off their wealth and denying them the right to choose their own political destiny.

Spanish authorities accuse the separatist government of irresponsibly encouraging voters to violate Spanish law.

"If there is something to conclude from today, it is the strength of Spain's democratic state," Mr. Rajoy said on Sunday. "We have acted with the law and only with the law and we have shown that our democratic state has resources to defend itself against such a serious attack."

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Spain's deputy prime minister, praised the Spanish police for blocking a vote that "couldn't be celebrated and wasn't celebrated."

She told a news conference that the Catalan government had acted "with absolute irresponsibility, which had to be overcome by the professionalism of the security forces."

After the extent of the crackdown became apparent, Ada Colau, the left-wing mayor of Barcelona, called on Mr. Rajoy to resign over his "cowardly" and unjustified police intervention.

"Today, we're not talking about independence or not, but about a breakup between Mariano Rajoy and his government with Catalonia," she told reporters.

Un presidente de gobierno cobarde ha inundado de policía nuestra ciudad. Barcelona ciutat de pau, no té por #MésDemocracia @marianorajoy
- Ada Colau (@AdaColau) Oct. 1, 2017

Overnight, Catalans had used tractors to block police access to some rural municipalities so that the vote could go on. In other places, residents removed the doors of polling stations to ensure that the police could not bolt them on Sunday.

As Sunday approached, the Madrid government tried everything it could to thwart the referendum: disabling the internet, confiscating ballots, detaining some officials and threatening scores more with prosecution.

The vote took place anyway in an atmosphere of cat and mouse and in improvised conditions, with a disputed census used as the voting list.

Catalan officials instead relied on privately printed ballots, and changed the voting rules an hour before polls were scheduled to open, to allow voters to cast a ballot at any poll station, without using an envelope and whether registered there or not.

Enric Millo, the Spanish government's representative in Catalonia, said the last-minute change turned what was already an illegal referendum into "a joke."

Mr. Millo deplored the fact the national police were forced to take over from Catalan police officers who failed to stop the voting. "We're being forced to do what we didn't want to do," he said.

Some videos posted on social media even showed arguments and some tussling between Spanish national police and the Catalan police.

The Catalan police also intervened in Barcelona's main downtown square to prevent clashes between separatists and a small group of far-right partisans of Spain.

A few outsiders had traveled to Catalonia from other countries to act as observers, saying they wanted to make sure that the police did not use force against voters.

Dimitrij Rupel, a former foreign minister of Slovenia, led a delegation of 35 foreign officials invited by the Catalan government. After watching the police intervene, he said that the "police have nothing to do with the democratic process - they shouldn't be here."

Recent opinion polls suggest that slightly less than half of Catalonia's 7.5 million people support separation from Spain, but separatist parties won a majority in the region's Parliament in 2015 and their influence has grown.

Many say Catalonia would face a perilous and uncertain future outside Spain, the market for most of the region's goods, and would not be assured of being readmitted to the European Union.

Others complained that the thrust for independence had deepened divisions within the region, whose vibrant economy has attracted families from inside and outside Spain.

Olga Noheda, a doctor in Centelles, said one of her patients, an older man, began crying in her examination room, and explained that his granddaughter had begun expressing dislike for Spaniards.

"He was very sad, because he didn't understand where it all came from," she said. "He migrated to Catalonia many years ago, from Seville, and he was wondering if his granddaughter was aware that he was a Spaniard."

In Barcelona's Placa de Catalunya late Sunday night, voters chanted and celebrated the referendum, even if it remained very unclear how the separatist leaders hope to enforce its outcome.

"We've shown our way of making politics and changing things is very different to that of Spain," said Marti Feliu, 21, a history student at Barcelona University. "It's our opportunity to create a different kind of country, even if we don't yet know exactly how and when."

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Catalonia's Independence Vote Descends Into Chaos and Clashes

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BARCELONA, Spain - Catalonia's defiant attempt to stage an independence referendum descended into chaos on Sunday, with hundreds injured in clashes with police in one of the gravest tests of Spain 's democracy since the end of the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s.

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The most reliable source for Las Vegas news, breaking news

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People walk past Toys R Us in Times Square the day after Christmas in the Manhattan borough of New York, US, December 26, 2015. Carlo Allegri, Reuters/File Photo

This summer, toy supplier Product Launchers delivered 100,000 specially ordered DC Comics fidget spinners to Toys 'R' Us, unaware that the biggest US toy store chain was in financial trouble.

Now Product Launchers, which supplies other novelty items like squishies from 5 toymakers to Toy 'R' Us, expects it will not be paid for the $500,000 fidget spinner order and other items following the chain's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Sept. 19, Product Launchers Chief Executive Linda Parry Murphy told Reuters.

"These toymakers were very reliant on Toys 'R' Us. It's their primary account, or the account that they were leaning on to make inroads in the toy industry, looking at the long term down the road," Parry Murphy said.

"But we've made a decision not to sell to Toys moving forward."

Meanwhile Barbie maker Mattel Inc, toy and board game company Hasbro Inc and other large vendors like Lego could get full payment after Toys 'R' Us asked a bankruptcy judge to approve $325 million of special financing to pay top suppliers owed before the Chapter 11 filing.

The unequal vendor treatment is not unusual in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but it shows the tough decisions vendors face when retailers file for bankruptcy, as dozens have in recent years, succumbing to competition on price and convenience from Amazon.com Inc.

The beneficiaries of the financing package are still unknown, but smaller vendors like Product Launchers do not expect to make the list. Its claim tops $1 million but the amount is well below the $2.5 million to $135 million listed as Toys 'R' Us' 50 largest claims.

Toy 'R' Us declined to comment on specifics about its relationship with Product Launchers or its other vendors.

Toys 'R' Us spokeswoman Nicole Hayes said in an email: "So far, we have seen great support from our vendors and look forward to continuing working with them for many years to come."

She said the company would rely on $2 billion in new financing to fund operations.
TOUGH CHOICES
Hundreds of vendors have faced similar concerns in their dealings with bankrupt retailers such as Sports Authority and hhgregg, which ended up going out of business. Toys 'R' Us is an extraordinary case, retail consultants said, because of the large number of toy vendors it relies on to fill its big-box stores.

Typically in bankruptcy proceedings, even small vendors like Product Launchers can expect to receive payment for orders made after a bankruptcy filing, but not for past-due bills. As a result, Product Launchers is ending ties with the toy chain.

"We've taken down all connections to them," said Parry Murphy. "I would rather focus on retailers that have strong financials and that we have a good comfort level about doing long-term business with."

At this point, she thinks Toys 'R' Us is too far behind the curve to catch up with deep-pocketed competitors like Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
HOT ITEMS
The loss of Product Launchers and other vendors, coming on the verge of the holiday season when Toys 'R' Us generates about 40 percent of annual sales, shows one of the risks facing the big toy retailer during bankruptcy.

If consumers discover the chain is not stocking a hot seasonal item, they will not visit its stores or website, Toys 'R' Us said in court filings.

Toys 'R' Us relies on hundreds of small vendors to give its stores the appearance of plenty.

"Your store won't be attractive with just Mattel and Lego," said Israel Shaked of the Michel-Shaked Group consultancy.

Retail specialists agreed that the 2017 holiday season could determine the fate of many brick-and-mortar retailers that have struggled to remain relevant in a growing era of e-commerce.

"This holiday season will be a true litmus test for the in-store experience," said bankruptcy lawyer Corali Lopez-Castro. "The products have to be exciting and worthy of visiting the store or online. But really you want people in the store. That's where they can pick up the widget, the Lego, and the Barbie."

Toys 'R' Us' success in retaining vendors likely will hinge on confidence in its turnaround plan, dubbed "Project Sunrise," which envisions improved and integrated online and in-store shopping experiences.

Michael Araten, the chief executive of creative construction company K'NEX, is optimistic.

"The potential upside is massive," Araten said, adding that Toys 'R' Us would emerge from bankruptcy a "nimbler and stronger company that delights kids for generations."

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toys 'r' us bankruptcy catches us toymakers flatfooted | abs-cbn news

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Toys 'R' Us bankruptcy catches US toymakers flatfooted

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This summer, toy supplier Product Launchers delivered 100,000 specially ordered DC Comics fidget spinners to Toys 'R' Us, unaware that the biggest US toy store chain was in financial trouble.

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At least six mortar rounds landed in or around part of the Kabul international airport just as U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis is in Afghanistan for a visit, Afghan officials say.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter.

The attack took place Wednesday in the eastern part of the airport. A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Najib Danish, said there were no reports of any casualties.

All flights in and out of the airport were delayed, airport Director Tumor Shah Hamedi said.

Mattis and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg are in Afghanistan to hold a news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mortar rounds land at Kabul airport just after Mattis arrival

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At least six mortar rounds landed in or around part of the Kabul international airport just as U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis is in Afghanistan for a visit, Afghan officials say. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. The attack took place Wednesday in the eastern part of the airport.

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Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the oppression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.

The change, which will take effect in June 2018, was announced in a royal decree read live on state television and in a simultaneous media event in Washington. The decision highlights the damage that the ban on women driving has done to the kingdom's international reputation and its hopes for a public relations benefit from the reform.

Saudi leaders also hope the new policy will help the economy by increasing women's participation in the workplace. Many working Saudi women spend much of their salaries on drivers or must be driven to work by male relatives.

"It is amazing," said Fawziah al-Bakr, a Saudi university professor who was among 47 women who participated in the kingdom's first protest against the ban - in 1990. After driving around the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the women were arrested and some lost their jobs.

"Since that day, Saudi women have been asking for the right to drive, and finally it arrived," she said by phone. "We have been waiting for a very long time."

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, is an absolute monarchy ruled according to Shariah law. Saudi officials and clerics have provided numerous explanations for the ban over the years.

Some said that it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle having women in cars next to them. Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family. One cleric claimed - with no evidence - that driving harmed women's ovaries.

Rights groups and Saudi activists have long campaigned for the ban to be overturned, and some women have been arrested and jailed for defying the prohibition and taking the wheel.

In 2014, Loujain Hathloul was arrested after trying to cross the border from the United Arab Emirates into Saudi Arabia and detained for 73 days.

Ms. Hathloul tweeted a simple reaction to the news: "Thank god."

The ban has long marred the image of Saudi Arabia, even among its closest allies, like the United States, whose officials sometimes chafed at a policy shared only by the jihadists of the Islamic State and the Taliban.

The decision won near universal praise in Washington. Heather Nauert, the State Department's spokeswoman, called it "a great step in the right direction for that country."

The momentum to change the policy picked up in recent years with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king's 32-year-old son, who has laid out a far-reaching plan to overhaul the kingdom's economy and society.

Increasing numbers of women are working in a growing number of professions, and in 2015, women were allowed to vote and to run for seats on the kingdom's local councils.

Under these laws, women cannot travel abroad, work or undergo some medical procedures without the consent of their male "guardian," often a father, a husband or even a son. While the enforcement of guardianship laws has loosened in recent years, there is little to stop Saudi men from greatly limiting the movements of their wives or daughters.

The ambassador, who is a son of the king, said that women would be able to drive alone but that the Interior Ministry would decide whether they could work as professional drivers.

He said he did not expect the change in policy to face significant resistance.

"I think our society is ready," he said.

That remains an open question. Many Saudis remain deeply conservative, and social strictures like the driving ban have been reinforced over the years by the kingdom's top clerics, many of them on the government payroll.

But there was little public dissent on Tuesday, likely because the Saudi government often exerts pressure on prominent voices to make sure they either back the government line or keep quiet. In recent weeks it has arrested more than two dozens clerics, academics and others, accusing them of being foreign-funded dissidents.

After the change on the driving ban was announced, an anonymous text circulated through What's App in the kingdom calling on the "virtuous ones" to work against its implementation, to protect against epidemics, adultery and other disasters.

At the news conference, the ambassador insisted that the decision would not be reversed or seriously opposed.

Beyond the effects it could have on Saudi Arabia's image abroad, letting women drive could help the Saudi economy.

Low oil prices have limited the government jobs that many Saudis have long relied on, and the kingdom is trying to push more citizens, including women, into private sector employment. But some working Saudi women say hiring private drivers to get them to and from work eats up much of their pay, diminishing the incentive to work.

In recent years, many women have come to rely on ride-sharing apps like Uber and Careem to gain some freedom of movement.

Many of the kingdom's professionals and young people will welcome the change, viewing it as a step to making life in the country a bit more like life elsewhere.

Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi women's rights advocate who filmed herself driving in 2011 and posted the footage to YouTube to protest the law, celebrated the announcement on Tuesday.

Gardiner Harris and Megan Specia contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Saudi Arabia to Rescind Ban on Female Drivers. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the oppression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom. The change, which will take effect in June 2018, was announced in a royal decree read live on state television and in a simultaneous media event in Washington.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump warned North Korea on Tuesday that any U.S. military option would be "devastating" for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington's first option to deal with the North's ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

"We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option," Trump said at a White House news conference, referring to military force. "But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That's called the military option. If we have to take it, we will."

Bellicose statements by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks have created fears that a miscalculation could lead to action with untold ramifications, particularly since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3.

Despite the escalation in tensions, the United States has not detected any change in North Korea's military posture reflecting an increased threat, the top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.

The assessment by Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, about Pyongyang's military stance was in contrast to a South Korean lawmaker who said Pyongyang had boosted defenses on its east coast.

"While the political space is clearly very charged right now, we haven't seen a change in the posture of North Korean forces, and we watch that very closely," Dunford told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his reappointment to his post.

In terms of a sense of urgency, "North Korea certainly poses the greatest threat today," Dunford testified.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Monday accused Trump of declaring war on the North and threatened that Pyongyang would shoot down U.S. warplanes flying near the peninsula after American bombers flew close to the Korean peninsula last weekend. Ri was reacting to Trump's Twitter comments that Kim and Ri "won't be around much longer" if they acted on their threats toward the United States.

North Korea has been working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, which Trump has said he will never allow. Dunford said Pyongyang will have a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile "soon," and it was only a matter of a "very short time".

"We clearly have postured our forces to respond in the event of a provocation or a conflict," the general said, adding that the United States has taken "all proper measures to protect our allies" including South Korean and Japan.

"It would be an incredibly provocative thing for them to conduct a nuclear test in the Pacific as they have suggested, and I think the North Korean people would have to realize how serious that would be, not only for the United States but for the international community," Dunford said.

South Korean lawmaker Lee Cheol-uoo, briefed by the country's spy agency, said North Korea was bolstering its defenses by moving aircraft to its east coast and taking other measures after the flight of the U.S. bombers. Lee said the United States appeared to have disclosed the flight route of the bombers intentionally because North Korea seemed to be unaware.

The United States has imposed sanctions on 26 individuals as part of its non-proliferation designations for North Korea as well as nine banks, including some with ties to China, according to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office Of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions.

The U.S. sanctions target individuals in North Korea as well as some North Korean nationals in China, Russia, Libya and Dubai.

'CAPABILITY TO DETER'

During a visit to India, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said diplomatic efforts continued.

"You have seen unanimous United Nations Security Council resolutions passed that have increased the pressure, economic pressure and diplomatic pressure, on the North, and at the same time, we maintain the capability to deter North Korea's most dangerous threats," he told reporters in the Indian capital.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said war on the Korean peninsula would have no winner.

"We hope the U.S. and North Korean politicians have sufficient political judgment to realize that resorting to military force will never be a viable way to resolve the peninsula issue and their own concerns," Lu said.

"War on the peninsula will have no winner."

South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged Kim Jong Un to resume military talks and reunions of families split by the 1950-53 Korean War to ease tension.

"Like I've said multiple times before, if North Korea stops its reckless choices, the table for talks and negotiations always remains open," Moon said.

In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it was working behind the scenes to find a political solution and that it plans to hold talks with a representative of North Korea's foreign ministry who is due to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday, the RIA news agency cited the North's embassy to Russia as saying.

U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers, escorted by fighter jets, flew east of North Korea in a show of force after the heated exchange of rhetoric between Trump and Kim.

The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.

Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS, Dmitry Solovyov in MOSCOW and Malini Menon in NEW DELHI, Doina Chiacu, David Alexander, Susan Heavey and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Will Dunham

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nuclear armaments / nuclear proliferation

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industrial machinery / equipment (legacy)

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Trump: military option for North Korea not preferred, but would be 'devastating'

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump warned North Korea on Tuesday that any U.S. military option would be "devastating" for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington's first option to deal with the North's ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

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Associated Press 1 day ago Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - Former Rep. Anthony Weiner was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison for sexting with a 15-year-old girl in a case that rocked Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House in the closing days of the race and may have cost her the presidency. Weiner, 53, dropped his head into his hand and wept as the sentence was announced by Judge Denise Cote.

He must surrender to prison officials by Nov. 6. The sentencing completed the sordid downfall of the New York Democrat, whose penchant for exchanging lewd messages and photos with young women online destroyed his career in Congress in 2011, doomed his bid for mayor of New York in 2013, wrecked his marriage to Clinton's closest aide, Huma Abedin, and became entangled in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Admitting "I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse," Weiner pleaded guilty in May to transferring obscene material to a minor, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for illicit contact with a North Carolina teenager. He sought to be spared from prison, tearfully telling Cote on Monday that he was "a very sick man for a very long time."

Weiner, weeping as he read from a written statement on a page he held in front of him, called his crime his "rock bottom." Prosecutors said he sent her porn and got her to take her clothes off and touch herself on Skype. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kramer on Monday urged Cote to give Weiner a significant prison sentence to end his "tragic cycle" of sexting.

© The Associated Press

The FBI was investigating Weiner's contact with the high school student when it came across emails on his laptop between Abedin and Clinton, prompting then-FBI Director James Comey to announce in late October 2016 that he was reopening the probe of Clinton's use of a private computer server.

Two days before Election Day, the FBI announced there was nothing new in the emails. But Clinton has blamed Comey's handling of the episode more than any other factor for her loss to Donald Trump.

In a recent NBC interview, she called the FBI director's intervention "the determining factor" in her defeat. Weiner's lawyers had argued in court papers that he was undergoing treatment and was profoundly sorry for subjecting the girl to his "deep sickness." They also portrayed her as an instigator, saying she wanted to generate material for a book and possibly influence the presidential election.

Prosecutors responded by arguing the victim's motives were irrelevant to the punishment and said Weiner's habit of getting caught sexting "suggests a dangerous level of denial and lack of self-control." Weiner, wearing his wedding ring, seemed pensive just before Monnday's hearing began.

His parents were in the courtroom but not his wife. He and Abedin are currently going through divorce proceedings. Weiner's behavior in all its lurid detail - including his online alias "Carlos Danger" and a selfie of his bulging underwear - turned him and his last name into an irresistible punchline for late-night comics and mortified his wife again and again.

The couple, who have a 5-year-old, are getting divorced. In her new memoir, "What Happened," Clinton revealed that Weiner's wife "looked stricken" and burst into tears upon learning her husband had triggered Comey's "October surprise." "This man is going to be the death of me," Abedin was quoted as saying.

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Anthony Weiner sentenced to 21 months in sexting case

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Former Rep. Anthony Weiner was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison for sexting with a 15-year-old girl in a case that rocked Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House in the closing days of the race and may have cost her the presidency.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Hurricane Maria's destruction has set Puerto Rico back decades, even as authorities worked to assess the extent of the damage, Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress said Sunday.

"The devastation in Puerto Rico has set us back nearly 20 to 30 years," said Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez. "I can't deny that the Puerto Rico of now is different from that of a week ago. The destruction of properties, of flattened structures, of families without homes, of debris everywhere. The island's greenery is gone."

Engineers on Sunday planned to inspect the roughly 90-year-old Guajataca Dam, which holds back a reservoir covering about 2 square miles in northwest Puerto Rico. The government said it suffered a large crack after Maria dumped 15 inches of rain on the surrounding mountains and that it "will collapse at any minute." Nearby residents had been evacuated, but began returning to their homes Saturday after a spillway eased pressure on the dam.

Puerto Rico's National Guard diverted an oil tanker that broke free and threatened to crash into the southeast coast, said Gov. Ricardo Rossello, and officials still had not had communication with nine of 78 municipalities.

"This is a major disaster," he said. "We've had extensive damage. This is going to take some time."

Hurricane Maria: Category 1 storm -- latest path, forecast

The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) released its Sunday evening advisory to report that Hurricane Maria slightly weakened into a Category 1 storm as the maximum sustained winds decreased to 90 mph as it moves north at 8 mph. NHC says that Maria's core will move well east of the southeast coast of the United States during the next day or so.

Tropical storm and storm surge watches are in effect for a portion of the coast of North Carolina.

As of 11 p.m. ET, Hurricane Maria is about 385 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras. NHC says Maria is a large hurricane and hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles from the center.

U.S. National Hurricane Center

The death toll from Maria in Puerto Rico was at least 10, including two police officers who drowned in floodwaters in the western town of Aguada. That number was expected to climb as officials from remote towns continued to check in with officials in San Juan. Authorities in the town of Vega Alta on the north coast said they had been unable to reach an entire neighborhood called Fatima, and were particularly worried about residents of a nursing home.

Across the Caribbean, Maria had claimed at least 31 lives, including at least 15 on hard-hit Dominica.

Mike Hyland, a spokesman for the American Public Power Association, which represents the Puerto Rican power agency, said Sunday that restoration is a long ways off. The organization is working with U.S. Energy Department crews as well as New York Power Authority workers sent down by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fly over the island and assess damage.

Crews hoped to get helicopters and drones in the air over the next two days to assess the damage, but Hyland said they need to be patient and let the military continue rescuing people before focusing on restoring power.

"We are trying to get an understanding of the extent of the damage over the next 48 hours to then begin to work with our federal partners to get the right crews and equipment down to Puerto Rico," Hyland said.

Large amounts of federal aid have begun moving into Puerto Rico, welcomed by local officials who praised the Trump administration's response but called for the emergency loosening of rules long blamed for condemning the U.S. territory to second-class status.

The opening of the island's main port in the capital allowed 11 ships to bring in 1.6 million gallons of water, 23,000 cots, dozens of generators and food. Dozens more shipments are expected in upcoming days.

The federal aid effort is racing to stem a growing humanitarian crisis in towns left without fresh water, fuel, electricity or phone service. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is in charge of the relief effort, said they would take satellite phones to all of Puerto Rico's towns and cities, more than half of which were cut off following Maria's devastating crossing of Puerto Rico on Wednesday.

The island's infrastructure was in sorry shape long before Maria struck. A $73 billion debt crisis has left agencies like the state power company broke. As a result the power company abandoned most basic maintenance in recent years, leaving the island subject to regular blackouts.

A federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico's finances authorized up to $1 billion in local funds to be used for hurricane response, but the governor said he would ask for more.

"We're going to request waivers and other mechanisms so Puerto Rico can respond to this crisis," Rossello said. "Puerto Rico will practically collect no taxes in the next month."

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York said she will request a one-year waiver from the Jones Act, a federal law blamed for driving up prices on Puerto Rico by requiring cargo shipments there to move only on U.S. vessels as a means of supporting the U.S. maritime industry.

"We will use all our resources," Velazquez said. "We need to make Puerto Rico whole again. These are American citizens."

A group of anxious mayors traveled to the capital to meet with Rossello to present a long list of items they urgently need. The north coastal town of Manati had run out of fuel and fresh water, Mayor Jose Sanchez Gonzalez said.

"Hysteria is starting to spread. The hospital is about to collapse. It's at capacity," he said, crying. "We need someone to help us immediately."

Across Puerto Rico, more than 15,000 people were in shelters, including some 2,000 rescued from the north coastal town of Toa Baja. Many Puerto Ricans planned to head to the mainland to temporarily escape the devastation.

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Destructive Hurricane Maria sets Puerto Rico back decades, official says

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Hurricane Maria's destruction has set Puerto Rico back decades, even as authorities worked to assess the extent of the damage, Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress said Sunday. "The devastation in Puerto Rico has set us back nearly 20 to 30 years," said Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez.

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Current Event 10

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But the acts of defiance received a far more mixed reception from fans, both in the stadiums and on social media, suggesting that what were promoted as acts of unity might have exacerbated a divide and dragged yet another of the country's institutions into the turbulent cross currents of race and politics.

At Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, videos posted on social media showed some Eagles fans yelling at anti-Trump protesters holding placards. At MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., before the Jets played the Dolphins, many fans, a majority of them white, said they did not support the anthem protests but also did not agree with the president's view that players should be fired because of them.

"I'm a Republican who voted for him, but I think this is a battle he doesn't need to get into," said Greg Zaccaria, 61, from White Plains, who said he had been a Jets season-ticket holder since 1978. Yet he objected to the anthem protests, saying, "I understand what they're trying to get at, I just think there are better ways of expressing yourself."

Mr. Trump, in a speech on Friday and a weekend-long series of tweets, had all but baited athletes and the league to respond by saying that those who do not stand for the anthem should be fired. He added that the league was in decline for tolerating the protests and for taking steps to reduce brain damage among players.

As the sideline demonstrations unfolded on Sunday, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter: "Great solidarity for our national anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!"

And before boarding Air Force One in the evening, Mr. Trump told reporters that his comments had "nothing to do with race or anything else - this has to do with respect for our country and respect for our flag."

Still, players and team officials said they had made the gestures, including locking arms, in solidarity with players who had demonstrated during the anthem, not to support Mr. Trump.

There was a variety of protests on the sidelines Sunday. All but one player from the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the league's most celebrated teams, refused to go out for the anthem. The lone exception was Alejandro Villanueva, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

The Steelers, who were playing the Bears, were booed heavily by fans in Chicago when they ran onto the field after the anthem.

The Steelers, along with the Tennessee Titans and the Seattle Seahawks, who were playing each other and similarly skipped the anthem, broke a league rule requiring athletes to be present for the anthem, though a league executive said they would not be penalized.

"We will not stand for the injustice that has plagued people of color in this country," Seahawks players said in a statement before the game. "Out of love for our country and in honor of the sacrifices made on our behalf, we unite to oppose those that would deny our most basic freedoms."

Even stars who normally shy from controversy took a stand.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers posted a photograph of himself kneeling with three of his teammates during warm-ups before the game, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, a supporter of the president, "liked" Rodgers's photo. Later, before the Patriots' game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass., Brady locked arms with a teammate on the field and placed his hand over his heart during the anthem. Rodgers stood during the anthem, but three of his teammates sat on the bench.

A dozen or so Patriots knelt during the anthem, prompting some fans at Gillette Stadium to boo.

Still, one of the more surprising reactions came from the Patriots' owner, Robert K. Kraft, a friend and campaign donor of the president who has invited Mr. Trump to sit with him at home games, as well as from other owners who were considered bedrock supporters of the president.

"I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the President on Friday," Kraft said in a statement hours before the New England game, adding that he supported players' "right to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner that they feel is most impactful."

E. Stanley Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, and Martha Firestone Ford, the owner of the Detroit Lions, both of whom lean to the right politically, also scolded the president.

Ford said "negative and disrespectful comments" were "contrary to the founding principles of our country, and we do not support those comments or opinions."

She and the Atlanta Falcons' owner, Arthur M. Blank, who donates to many Democratic causes, linked arms with players during the anthem before the Falcons-Lions game in Detroit. The singer Rico LaVelle went down on one knee as he finished singing the anthem.

The demonstrations intensified what was already a divisive debate that began last season when Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, to highlight, he has said, police brutality and racial injustice.

He left the team after last season and has not played in the league since, inspiring questions over whether teams are punishing him, while many other players have knelt or made gestures in support of him or other social causes during the anthem.

Kaepernick has not commented, and his social media accounts were largely quiet on the president and the new round of protests.

But the fallout from Mr. Trump's remarks spilled over into other sports.

In a tweet Friday, Mr. Trump disinvited the Golden State Warriors, the N.B.A. champions, to any traditional White House visit, after members of the team, including its biggest star, Stephen Curry, were critical of him. But on Sunday, the N.H.L. champion Pittsburgh Penguins said they would go to the White House, and declared such visits to be free of politics.

Nascar team owners went a step further, saying they would not tolerate drivers who protested during the anthem.

To promote the idea of the N.F.L. as a unifying force, the league was planning to replay a television ad called "Inside These Lines" on NBC on Sunday night when the Oakland Raiders played the Washington Redskins outside the nation's capital.

While none of the Jets' players knelt during the playing of the anthem, they locked arms on the sideline and were joined by some of the team's administrators. On the other side of the field, four Miami Dolphins players - Maurice Smith, Kenny Stills, Thomas and Laremy Tunsil - knelt, while the team's owner, Stephen M. Ross, locked arms with two of his players.

Two years ago, Mr. Ross started a nonprofit organization to combat racism and discrimination.

Outside the stadium in East Rutherford, Julie and Vin Santomero, who brought their sons to the game, said they also did not want to see protests at a sporting event because they attended games to get away from politics. "It's a football game," Mrs. Santomero said. "They're here to play the game."

Jesse Melendez, 29, of Dix Hills, N.Y.; Je'anna Pulistar, 29, of Lindenhurst, N.Y.; Roger Guevara, 29, of Yonkers; and Genesis Pineda, 27, of Yonkers, took the opposing view by supporting the N.F.L. players' right to protest during the anthem.

"People don't get mad when people are shot or killed, but they're getting mad because a football player is kneeling or raising a fist," said Melendez, who is African-American. "The double standard is crazy."

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Fueled by Trump's Tweets, Anthem Protests Grow to a Nationwide Rebuke

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But the acts of defiance received a far more mixed reception from fans, both in the stadiums and on social media, suggesting that what were promoted as acts of unity might have exacerbated a divide and dragged yet another of the country's institutions into the turbulent cross currents of race and politics.