Newspaper headlines: 'Spain on the brink' and JFK files

BBC NewsStaff
News imageReuters People waving Catalan separatist flags in front of the Catalan regional government headquartersReuters

The Times has a picture of thousands of jubilant Catalans celebrating in Barcelona after the region's parliament declared independence from Spain.

But the headline is more sobering, warning that "Spain is on the brink".

The Spanish newspaper, El Pais, calls it the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced since it became a democracy 40 years ago.

The Daily Telegraph claims MPs have resisted attempts to protect their staff from sexual harassment amid allegations that young employees are being bullied and intimidated.

It accuses members of parliament of blocking a plan that would have seen them governed by the same "respect policy" that applies to people directly employed by the House of Commons.

A woman - who says she was sexually assaulted abroad by an MP - tells the Telegraph it was like "hitting a brick wall" when she tried to raise the matter with parliamentary officials.

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Most of the papers pore over the thousands of JFK files released by the US National Archives.

The Daily Mirror is particularly excited by the revelation that President John F Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, met a KGB agent in Mexico just weeks before the murder.

It points out that numerous government documents with potential bearing on the assassination have gone missing or were destroyed.

Finally, it's a hymn that's been sung for more than 100 years in memory of Britain's war dead, but several papers report that a vicar in Leicestershire has upset forces veterans by banning "Onward, Christian Soldiers" from a Remembrance Sunday parade in case it offends non-Christians who are taking part.

The Express says members of the Royal British Legion are now threatening to boycott the service in the small town of Oadby, while others say they'll defy the ban and sing the hymn anyway.