Law-enforcement officials in several countries said on Wednesday they had arrested hundreds of people around the world for participating in a child-pornography network that used sophisticated technology to hide its users' identities.

A district judge who says she was bullied, victimised and suffered a breakdown after raising concerns about the dangers of government cuts to legal services has won a landmark London whistleblowing case at the highest court in the land.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam had to abandon her policy speech because of jeering lawmakers on Wednesday but later offered no direct olive branch to pro-democracy protesters, hoping instead to ease resentment by building more public housing.

Pro-independence groups began protest marches in Catalonia on Wednesday against the jailing of nine separatist leaders, despite a new warning by the Spanish government that it will step in if needed to guarantee security.

A man who paid the rent on a Dutch farmhouse where six members of a family were found locked away in a secret room will appear in court on Thursday on charges of unlawful detention and harming others' health, prosecutors said.

Aides to Kim Jong Un are convinced the North Korean leader plans "a great operation", state media said on Wednesday in a report that included lavish descriptions and images of the leader riding a white horse up North Korea's most sacred mountain.