BREAKING NEWS BREAKING: Madrid fires Catalonia’s regional police . AFP

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gives a press conference after a cabinet meeting at La Moncloa Palace in Madrid.

Madrid on Saturday dismissed the chief of Catalonia’s regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, a day after imposing direct control on the region over a bid to break away from Spain.

The firing of Josep Lluis Trapero, Catalonia’s highest-ranking policeman, was published in the official government gazette as Spain perched on a knife’s edge in its worst political crisis in decades.

AFP