Newbie, nang sa Star Magi

TATLONG Kapuso stars ang dumalo sa Star Magic Ball 2017. Sina Heart Evangelista with husband Senator Chiz Escudero, Megan Young with Mikael Daez, and Janine Gutierrez with Rayver Cruz.

Just curious, nagkita kaya si Janine and her ex-boyfriend, Elmo Magalona na si Janella Salvador ang date sa SMB? What about Jericho Rosales and Heart? Nasa Paris ang wife niyang si Kim Jones, kaya hindi niya ito kasama sa SMB.

Sina Kristine Hermosa at Diether Ocampo, nagkita kaya? Kasama ni Kristine ang husband niyang si Oyo Sotto. Sino naman kaya ang date ni Diether?

Kabog

Kinabog ni Kisses Delavin ang ibang Star Magic talents dahil siya ang tinanghal na female best dressed sa SMB 2017. Ang kalove team niyang si Marco Gallo ang male best dressed. Si Francis Libiran ang designer ng gown ni Kisses na aniya, four months ginawa at pinag-isipan nila ni Libiran ang disenyo ng kanyang gown. Ito rin ang gumawa ng gown na isinuot ni Kisses noong debut party niya a few months ago.

Bet namin ang white gown ni Julia Barretto na si Mark Bumgarner ang designer. Simple and elegant ang dating na bumagay sa simpleng

hairstyle ni Julia.

Bonggacious din ang gowns nina Kim Chiu, Maymay Entrata at Elisse Joson na si Michael Leyva ang designer, Liza Soberano by Christian Dior, Kathryn Bernardo by Patricia Santos. Sa coverage ng ANC sa Star Magic Ball, nahagip ng kamera ‘yung pag-ayos ni Daniel Padilla ng gown ni Kathryn sa kanilang photo op. ‘Kaaliw panoorin. Si Kathryn ang tinanghal na Pond’s Brightest Star of the Night, si Julia Barretto

ang Pond’s Belle of the Ball, Couple of the Night sina Luis Manzano at Jessy Mendiola, Enrique Gil at Liza Soberano na sila rin ang Close-Up Couple of the Night.

Umiwas

Dumating si John Lloyd Cruz sa SMB, pero hindi siya rumampa sa red carpet. Dumiretso na siya sa ball room ng Makati Shangri-La Hotel at umiwas magpainterbyu. Nakita lang namin sa PEP.ph lumabas ang mga picture niya kasama ang maginang Lily at Roselle Monteverde. Meron ding kasama ni JLC sina Maja Salvador at Martin Nievera at ‘yung magkayakap sina JLC at Bea Alonzo.

Naka-shades pa si John Lloyd, eh gabi ang affair. Nowhere in sight si Ellen Adarna. Nagkita kaya si JLC and his two ex-GF’s na sina Angelica Panganiban at Shaina Magdayao?

Black tea’s journey from the mountains of Fujian

Nestled in a remote part of northern Fujian province, close to the borders of Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, is the mountain range of Wuyi, with its dramatic scenery and some of China’s best tea.

The mountain range is popular among Chinese tourists but little known internationally.

The teas grown here are mostly of the Oolong variety. If you are a tea drinker, you may have come across the name Bohea tea, which is actually derived from how Wuyi is pronounced in the local dialect.

The area has been producing tea for hundreds of years, although initially green tea was produced here and its scope was limited. This all changed in the most unlikely of ways.

Nowadays, black tea is the most commonly drunk tea in the world. But few realize it had its humble beginnings as an accidental creation in these very mountains.

In the village of Tongmu, people had been producing green tea for centuries.

However, during one particular harvest, a general who was involved in skirmish in Jiangxi crossed the border into Fujian and brought his troops to hide in the Wuyi Mountain.

They took over the village, and the villagers fled. During this time, the battle-worn soldiers used the freshly harvested tea to make bedding and take rest. After a few days they left.

When the villagers returned, they found all their tea in bad shape; the leaves were broken and squashed, and had begun to oxidize, turning brown. On top of that, the unbathed soldiers had left a foul odor that had seeped into the leaves.

Initially, the villagers thought their harvest was ruined, and planned to throw the tea away. But one innovative villager had an idea. He decided to roast the tea with pinewood, which produced a strong and fragrant smoke.

This, combined with the oxidization that had taken place produced a very different kind of tea.

The villagers carried the tea into town and begged a merchant from Fuzhou to take it to the ports and have it exported to Indonesia, from where it would go on to Europe.

They thought the tea was a disaster, and never imagined that the next year, the same merchant would return to ask for more.

This first black tea went by the name Lapsang Souchong, or Zhengshan Xiaozhong, in modern Mandarin.

Once the port of Amoy (now Xiamen) was opened up for trade during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the demand for this new tea increased, and Wuyi Mountain black tea became the most sought after.

It’s ironic that this tea is now fairly rare in China. The strong, smoky taste doesn’t suit the Chinese palate, and as such, this tea is mostly made for export.

Things changed when in 2007, a Fujian provincial official asked Tongmu village to make some black tea without using the traditional smoking process.

The result was a light and slightly sweet tea, which was named Jin Jun Mei, or “golden eyebrows”, and was given by this official as a gift.

It became a hit, and pretty soon was selling all over China, becoming one of the bestknown and most popular teas in the country.

At least 50 dead, more than 200 wounded in Las Vegas shooting

A gunman killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 200 at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday, raining down rapid fire from the 32nd floor of a hotel for several minutes before he was shot dead by police.

The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary and tentative, would make the attack the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, eclipsing last year's massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club. 

Police identified the gunman as area resident Stephen Paddock, 64, but said they had no information yet about his motive. He was not believed to be connected to any militant group, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters. But authorities were seeking an Asian female who police described as a companion of the suspect, he said.

They said that rumours of other shootings in the area were false.

Witnesses on social media said the shooting broke out on the last night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest festival, a sold-out event attended by thousands and featuring top acts such as Eric Church, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean.

Police had earlier said they were investigating reports of an active shooter near the Mandalay Bay Casino.

Videos on social media showed hundreds of people fleeing from the scene. The sound of what appears to be automatic gunfire can be heard in some clips.



People react at gunshots heard at music festival in Las Vegas
Live footage from the scene showed a heavily armed police presence.

Witnesses heard numerous gunshots at the hotel, where police tactical teams were searching for the attacker, according to reports on CNN and in the New York Times.

Meanwhile, flights at Mccarran International Airport were temporarily halted after the reported shooting.

HOW TO PROTECT ANDROID PHONES FROM MALWARE AND HACKERS

With Android system-based mobile phones coming under hacker attacks increasingly, users must use quality security apps to ward off risks, cybersecurity experts said.

Li Tiejun, a security engineer at Beijing-based Cheetah Mobile Inc, said, “In developed countries, Google Play commands a dominant position as a trustworthy marketplace for apps that help keep users’ systems safe. However, China’s Android app stores are dominated by different local players and these third-party marketplaces are often riddled with malicious software.”

Thus, compared with Android users in developed countries, Chinese users have a greater need for security apps, he said.

Li said as iPhone users can download apps from only Apple Inc’s official App Store, there is not much room for viruses to infect Apple devices, obviating the need for security apps in them.

A report released in May by the Internet Society of China and the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/ Coordination Center of China revealed that among a total of over 2 million mobile internet malicious programs spotted in 2016, 99.9 percent targeted Android devices.

Another report published in March by internet research firm iiMedia Research showed that China had 539 million security app users by the fourth quarter last year.

According to the report, 97.3 percent of surveyed mobile users said they were concerned about their mobile phone security.

Cheng Xiao, 27, an architect based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, owns an Android-based madein-China smartphone. Cheng once used a wide range of third-party security apps, but now he uses only built-in security app offered by the manufacturer.

“When I began to use the Androidbased mobile phone, I was really concerned about the security. Then I found the risks are usually from the installation software introduced by some downloaded apps, and basically what I need to do is recognize secure apps and download them from trustworthy channels.”

Li said in order to have better protection over the mobile phones, security apps will often ask for a lot of permissions and some even require root permissions to have access to the entire operating system.

“Root access will bring security risks. I suggest people should not offer the root permission. If users download knockoff apps, the root permission will allow the malware to have access to all personal information on the smartphones.”

According to app tracker Analysys Qianfan, Tencent Mobile Manager, from the company of the same name, has become the most popular security app on the market with 175 million active users in July this year, taking a market share of 48.47 percent.

And 360 Mobile Security by technology major Qihoo 360 Technology Co is the second most popular securi-ty a pp being run with a 40.19 percent share, with Baidu’s Mobile Guard in third slot with 43.62 million active users in July,grasping a market share of 12.07 percent.

Gong Wei, chief security officer of Shanghai Lantern Network Technology, a free Wi-Fi access provider, said currently Android users still need to install security apps, and in the

Root access will bring security risks. I suggest people should not offer the root permission. Li Tiejun, a security engineer at Beijing-based Cheetah Mobile Inc

future the situation will gradually change.

“As time changes, users will be wary of offering permissions for security apps. I also believe phone manufacturers will gradually improve their products to offer a safer environment,” Gong said.

Talking about my generation is profitable

Liu Xinfang works as a barista at Starbucks and used to worry about health insurance for her aging parents.

Her father was a farmer from Weinan city of Shaanxi province while her mother worked in a factory before they retired.

In her late 20s, Liu is employed by the world’s leading coffershop chain in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province in West China.

Earlier this year, she was delighted when Starbucks Corp rolled out a parent care program, which covers health insurance.

“My father is very happy to hear such good news,” said Liu. “Before the scheme, I tried to purchase insurance for my father but he refused.”

Starbucks has already financed critical illness insurance for more than 12,000 parents of employees.

“It’s a great relief that the company has taken a leadership position to support the health and care of our aging parents,” Liu said.

Staff such as her were born during the single child era and face huge financial pressure when looking after aging parents.

Hardly surprising then that employment packages with healthcare and family care benefits help retain employees in a cutthroat retail sector.

Starbucks, for example, has more than 2,800 stores in China, across about 130 cities. The company also has nearly 40,000 “partners” with the aim to “create a welcoming environment” where staff feel “a warm sense of belonging”.

“Supporting critical illnesses for aging parents exemplifies what we believe is our responsibility as a global public company and honors the family values deeplyrooted in the Chinese culture,” said Howard Schultz, executive chairman of Starbucks, who announced the scheme.

Another initiative rolled out is the “Bean Stock” program. Benefits include housing allowances for full-time baristas and shift supervisors.

The Career Coffee Break scheme also recognizes long-serving partners. They have the option of taking 12 months unpaid leave after 10 consecutive years of service.

Staying competitive when it comes to hiring staff is crucial as China has become Starbucks’ largest and fastest growing international market since it opened its first store in 1999.

By 2021, the coffeehouse chain expects to operate 5,000 outlets in the country.

Simply put, that means in the next few years, Starbucks will open more than 500 cafes and create over 10,000 new jobs annually.

“To support this unprecedented growth agenda, we will need a store manager every 15 hours,” said Wei Chen, vicepresident of Starbucks China. “And a district manager every week.”

At the Seattle-based company, employees can progress from barista to coffee master to coffee ambassador, while the Starbucks China University offers courses in retail management and leadership.

Programs likes these helped Starbucks win the Aon Best Employers – China 2017 award in August for market-leading practices after a comprehensive study of 113 businesses here.

Millennials, people born between the 1980s and the late 1990s, have officially become the largest generation in the workforce, according to Aon Hewitt, the management consulting services.

“As companies grow, they will also need to consider how their consumer base is changing as well,” Aon Hewitt stated. “This means that understanding the desires of this segment is essential to recognizing future workforce trends.”

By 2020, they will make up 50 percent of the workforce, so it is crucial to find out their career ambitions and their consumer habits.

“Trust is very important when managing this younger generation,” said Melissa Lam, general manager and chief representative at EF Education First China. EF Education First is the world leading private educational institute based in Sweden.

For example, the institute’s social platform here is managed by Alison Wang, who is just 25.

The reason behind this is that most of the users are roughly the same age.

“We think the main audience on social media sites is the post-1990s generation,” said Lam. “Younger people of a similar age, who use similar language.

“They communicate on the same level and Alison actually did a great job,” she added.

The average age of staff at Education First is 29 with 66 percent from Generation Y or the under 30s.

Known as EF, the international institute specializes in language training, educational travel, degree programs and cultural exchange.

“The Y generation is active on social media platforms,” Lam said. “They are keen to share their experiences with friends.”

To cater for this, EF has launched BFF to EFF or “Best Friend Forever to EF Friend Forever”. The company has also rolled out summer parties for its staff in China.

These events help employees to “relax and talk” with colleagues.

“Every year our branches across the country hold summer breakfast parties, where we gather all the staff from that region,” said Lam.

“Free breakfast and coffee creates a positive feeling among employees,” she added. “Breakfast is a great occasion to relax and talk.”

Making sure staff are given the opportunity to enhance their skills and creativity is crucial at the Shanghai Disney Resort, where more than 10,000 “cast members”, or personnel, entertain and serve customers.

Most of them are Millennials and many are looking for a career path inside one of the world’s leading entertainment companies.

“The resort has created a variety of HR measures and programs to help cast (staff) and enhance their sense of belonging,” said Lara Tiam, vice-president of human resources at Shanghai Disney Resort and Walt Disney International’s Greater China.

“This in turn boosts their sense of belonging, builds enthusiasm and encourages them to achieve personal career goals, while at the same time delivering Disney’s signature quality service to all guests,” she added.

Disney’s staff scheme covers healthcare, as well as a mentoring program to support employees.

The resort also provides consultations for “cast members” who face problems or challenges at work and during their daily lives.

“Be Well” is another project which helps employees build a healthier lifestyle through talks and group activities.

Naturally, while “cast members” are encouraged to create “Magical Moments” for guests, a tradition at any Disney destination, they also take part in spellbinding events.

“Backstage Magic” appreciation shows reward “cast members” for their efforts and dedication.

“We organize a wide range of leisure activities, from singing concerts to sports games, for our cast members to enrich their personal lives,” Tiam said. “This also helps them better know their fellow (employees) who they work with every day,” she added.

It’s a great relief that the company has taken a leadership position to support the health and care of our aging parents.” Liu Xinfang , a barista at Starbucks

Amid city babble, an old tongue sings again

Zhang Fushan, 15, was born to parents who are both Shanghai natives. However, he could not speak Shanghainese properly until in recent years when he started attending middle school.

Even though Shanghai dialect is his mother tongue, “my pronunciation was bad”, Zhang says, referring to when he was enrolled in Huimin Middle School, Yangpu district, four years ago.

He said he thinks this was the result of a lack of practice once he started going to kindergarten and later school, where speaking standard Chinese is compulsory. The less he spoke the dialect, the worse his pronunciation became, he said.

He had thought he might eventually abandon using the dialect when he entered middle school, but it has a club that helps students learn and practice the most authentic Shanghai dialect.

The club, called Shanghai Culture Experience Innovation Laboratory, gives students the chance to learn and practice through interactive multimedia programs or from linguists who teach folktales, rhymes, riddles and even operas in Shanghainese.

Zhang is an active member and can now recite many folktales in dialect. Being able to speak his mother tongue properly has given him “a great sense of relief and belonging”, he said.

Zhang is typical of many young people in Shanghai whose limited ability to speak dialect has become the norm and raised concerns that the country’s financial center will lose its native tongue. Linguists, scholars, political advisers and residents have rallied to rescue the dialect from extinction, but their success in that endeavor remains far from assured.

Shanghai dialect can trace its roots to the Wu dialect, one of China’s oldest spoken languages, in use for more than 3,200 years. It has about 70 million speakers in areas around Shanghai and has its own grammar and vocabulary. Before the 1990s the dialect was widely used as the major language in Shanghai, equivalent to Cantonese in Hong Kong. Anyone speaking Mandarin in Shanghai was looked down on as provincial.

However, in recent decades, as the country’s commercial capital has grown, the huge influx of people from other cities and countries has marginalized the city’s native tongue. About 40 percent of the city’s 24 million population were born other than in Shanghai.

The use of Mandarin has expanded not only among the migrant population but also among natives since the country began a nationwide campaign in 1992 to encourage its use in classrooms. In Shanghai, the campaign reached its peak between 1998 and 2008, when many schools banned the use of dialects, says Ding Dimeng, a retired professor of linguistics at Shanghai University who is keen on reviving Shanghainese.

Li Mengqian, 27, says that when she was in primary school in about 2000 “we were not allowed to speak Shanghai dialect at school”.

There were even students and teachers who monitored their use of language at school. If anyone was found speaking Culturally the Shanghai dialect is the only character that binds them together.” Qian Nairong, director of the Research Center of Linguistics at Shanghai University dialect they were ordered to desist, Li says.

The result is that those born in the 1980s and the 1990s have got used to speaking Mandarin and barely speak Shanghainese at school.

Li said her daughter, 4, knows how to speak the dialect because she has been raised by her grandparents whose primary language in daily communication is Shanghainese. However, things began to change last year when her daughter started kindergarten.

“She quickly picked up Mandarin and switched to that. My parents also started to talk to her in Mandarin.”

Li does not consider this a problem because Mandarin needs to be mastered for both education and work. English is also important, she said.

Experts believe parents have plumped for Mandarin and even English over local dialects much as people prefer cash crops over weeds, as Tan Dan Feng, a language historian in Singapore, was quoted as saying in The New York Times recently.

The decline of Shanghai dialect in today’s globalization is neither new nor unusual. It has many predecessors or contemporaries such as the Hokkien dialect in Singapore.

Hokkien, once spoken by at least three quarters of the city state’s population, has given way to the more internationally communicable Mandarin and English among younger people. It has created not only a sense of loss among older people, but also a communication barrier between the young and the old.

Kuo Jian Hong, an artistic director, said the loss of the mother tongue is one basis for the claim that “Singaporeans aren’t too expressive”, The New York Times said.

Any dialect that has survived for at least hundreds of years is more than a communication tool, linguists say.

Ding, the retired professor from Shanghai University, said Shanghai dialect has many expressions so unique that they cannot be translated into any other language.

“They wouldn’t sound right or Shanghainese,” she said.

Sharing this unique Shanghainese flavor through dialect creates a sense of belonging to the same community, Ding said.

Qian Nairong, a Shanghai dialect expert and the director of the Research Center of Linguistics at Shanghai University, said the dialect embodies Shanghai culture, an essential tag of being Shanghainese.

“Shanghai people are known for minding mainly their own business,” Qian wrote in 2005. “Culturally the Shanghai dialect is the only character that binds them together, relating them to each other.”

Bu Wenshan, who grew up in the city, is a saleswoman for a real estate developer. As her clients come from different parts of the country, Mandarin is her primary working language. However, she said, she would automatically shift to Shanghai dialect if she finds that the dialect is also her client’s native tongue.

CBS bid threat to rival shares

THE sale of the Ten Network to US media goliath CBS would likely cause havoc for rival broadcasters Seven West Media and Nine Entertainment, an analyst has warned.

Morningstar senior equity analyst Brian Han believes a CBS- controlled Ten could hit revenue share and margins at the two bigger free- to- air networks.

CBS, Ten’s biggest creditor, in August launched a surprise bid for the failing broadcaster, which entered administration in June when major shareholders Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch pulled their support after an existing funding deal expired.

Ten’s creditors last month voted overwhelmingly in favour of the CBS takeover, which included the acquisition of Ten’s digital channels and online platform, spurning an advance from Mr Gordon and Mr Murdoch, co- chairman of Townsville Bulletin publisher News Corp.

The Supreme Court dismissed an attempt by Mr Gordon to derail the CBS bid, although the pair indicated they intended to appeal the court decision and have yet to decide whether to block a final transfer of Ten shares to CBS.

Mr Han said CBS’s annual $ US3 billion ($ 3.8 billion) earnings and $ US2 billion free cash flow would help Ten retain existing rights such as Big Bash cricket, develop more premium local content and apply for marquee sports rights as they went up for renewal.

If CBS took control of Ten and succeeded in lifting the network’s share of the $ 2.8 billion capital city free- to- air advertising market, Nine and Seven’s valuation could fall by between 15 per cent and 27 per cent due to falling share values and lower margins, he said.

“While they may not mean much in Australia, where viewers increasingly favour local content over US shows, CBS’s general programming nous cannot be doubted,” Mr Han said in a note to investors.

He also noted CBS’s presence could further increase competitive intensity and boost programming costs across the industry.

“Such a step- up in competitive dynamic is the last thing the free- to- air TV market needs, given the structural pressures already decimating the industry,” Mr Han said.

He said TV’s share of Australian advertising had fallen from 32 per cent to 24 per cent in the past decade as advertisers shifted to digital.

Morningstar has for now maintained its $ 1.50 fair value estimate of Nine and 73c valuation for Seven.

Google to ditch controversial 'first click free' policy

Google is to abandon its controversial policy of forcing news providers to offer free articles in order to appear on its search engine as part of a collection of measures designed to support the growth of digital subscriptions.

The US company will replace its so-called “first click free” policy, which requires publishers to offer three free articles a day before readers come across a pay wall.

Instead Google will offer a flexible sampling model that allows news organisations to decide how many, if any, articles it offers for free.

The “first click free” model has been described as “toxic” by publishers such as Axel Springer and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, which publishes the Times and the Sun, revealed at a conference last month that Google was considering getting rid of “first click free”, adding that it would “fundamentally change the content ecosystem”.

He said: “If you don’t sign up for ‘first click free’, you virtually disappear from a search. Given the power of that Google platform, that is disadvantaging premium content of great provenance.”

Google is making the move after feedback from publishers and readers and after tests with the New York Times and the Financial Times. It is also a recognition of the growth of subscription services and the fact a “one size fits all” approach was not appropriate.

In a blog, Richard Gingras, vicepresident of news at Google, said: “Journalism provides accurate and timely information when it matters most, shaping our understanding of important issues and pushing us to learn more in search of the truth. People come to Google looking for high-quality content, and our job is to help them find it. However, sometimes that content is behind a paywall.

“While research has shown that people are becoming more accustomed to paying for news, the sometimes painful process of signing up for a subscription can be a turn off. That’s not great for users or for news publishers who see subscriptions as an increasingly important source of revenue.

“To address these problems we’ve been talking to news publishers about how to support their subscription businesses.”

As well as dropping “first click free”, Google will make it easier for users to subscribe to services. For example, people will be able to subscribe to news providers with one click through Google’s existing payment technology.

Catalonia has ‘won the right’ to secede

Catalonia’s leader Carles Puigdemont said the region had won the right to break away from Spain after 90 per cent of voters taking part in a banned referendum voted for independence, defying a sometimes violent police crackdown and fierce opposition from Madrid.

His declaration appeared to set the restive region on course for a deeper split with the Spanish government, after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated his government’s position that the vote was an illegal act, to which the state had reacted “with firmness and serenity”.

Any attempt to unilaterally declare independence is almost certain to be opposed not just by Madrid but also by a large section of the Catalan population, which is deeply split on the issue.

The regional government said 2.26 million people took part in Sunday’s referendum, or 42.3 per cent of the electorate.

Mr Puigdemont said his people had “won the right to an independent state” and urged the EU to stop “looking the other way”.

He has said that in the event of a Yes victory he would declare independence for Catalonia, which accounts for 19 per cent of Spain’s economic output.

At least 92 people were confirmed injured from a total of 844 who needed medical attention, Catalan authorities said.

Further adding to tensions, unions and Catalan associations called a region-wide strike for today to protest against “the grave violation of rights and freedoms,” urging people to take to the streets.

Helmeted police armed with batons moved in en masse early on Sunday to seal off polling stations and seize ballot boxes, sparking clashes. Police dragged voters from polling stations by their hair, threw people down stairs and attacked Catalan firefighters protecting polling stations.

The interior ministry said 33 police required treatment.

Mr Rajoy declared the plebiscite had been blocked, and called the vote a process that “only served to sow division, push citizens to confrontation and the streets to revolt”, but left the door potentially open to negotiations on greater autonomy for the region.

The referendum was organised under the threat of reprisals and criminal charges but thousands of Catalans stood in defiance of the central government, crying “Votarem” ( “We will vote”).

Mr Puigdemont said in an address after polls closed: “With this day of hope and suffering. The citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form of a republic.”

The referendum law foresees a declaration of independence soon after a Yes vote but it remains unclear if the regional government will actually do so.

Even before the vote, judicial officials ordered police to seize ballot papers, detain key organisers and shut down websites promoting the referendum after Madrid and the courts deemed it unconstitutional. Thousands of people gathered outside polling stations before dawn, joining those who had spent the night camped inside to ensure stations would be open on the day.

In central Barcelona, riot police charged at protesters sitting on the ground at a polling station, and fired rubber bullets, witnesses said.

Riot police also stormed a polling station near Girona, smashing the glass doors of the sports centre where Mr Puigdemont was due to vote and cutting a chain to force their way in. But Mr Puigdemont managed to vote anyway in nearby Cornella del Terri.

The crackdown drew a sharp rebuke from Catalan leaders and others including Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party.

The trouble caused Barcelona football club to play its La Liga match against Las Palmas behind closed doors after the Spanish league refused to postpone the match.

But in several areas, voting was peaceful.

Although Catalans are divided over independence, most want to vote on the matter in a legal and binding plebiscite. Catalonia already has significant control over education, healthcare and welfare, but the region says it pays more in taxes than it receives from Madrid.