SPAIN: The number of people registered as unemployed rose by nearly 80,000 last month, bringing the total to 4.5 million.

It was the third consecutive monthly increase after the end of the summer tourism season.

Spain is recovering from two recessions, the last of which ended in late 2013, since when the economy has expanded in each of the past four quarters.

IRAN: Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital today at a major anti-US rally to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran.

Ties between Washington and Tehran were severed after the siege of the "nest of spies" and formal relations have not been restored since.

US and Iranian officials are scheduled to meet next week to discuss Tehran's civil nuclear power programme.

SAUDI ARABIA: Official sources confirmed the deaths of five Shi'ite worshippers today after masked gunmen opened fire on a shrine in the east of the country.

The massacre took place in the village of al-Dalwah, al-Ahsa province, which is one of the main centres for Saudi Arabia's minority Shi'ite community.

The official Saudi Press Agency said that the worshippers had been marking Ashoura, the commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein in the 7th century.

THAILAND: A Criminal Court judge sentenced university student Akkaradet Eiamsuwan to two-and-a-half years in prison today for posting a Facebook message judged insulting to the king.

Mr Akkaradet was convicted of violating the lese majeste law, which punishes anyone who defames, insults or threatens the monarchy.

The court said that it had reduced its original five-year sentence because the defendant, who posted under an alias, had confessed to the offence.

YEMEN: Shi'ite rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi dismissed the threat of UN security council sanctions against his group today, saying: "We are not afraid."

He delivered his speech after at least 30 people were killed in clashes between his forces and al-Qaida militants in the central town of Radda.

The UN security council urged Yemen's new government last month to expedite reforms in the army and warned of sanctions against groups threatening the country's peace, security and stability.

GERMANY: Social Democrats revealed today that an individual ballot of party members in Thuringia state showed 70 per cent favouring negotiations to join an administration led by Left party candidate Bodo Ramelow.

The Social Democrats finished third in an indecisive September election, but their decision will be crucial in the formation of a new state government.

President Joachim Gauck has agitated against the Left Party being treated like other parties on the grounds of its antecedents including the Socialist Unity Party that ruled the German Democratic Republic.

INDIA: Central government ordered today that New Delhi's municipal legislature be dissolved so that new elections can be held.

Delhi has been run by the federal government since Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party resigned in February in protest at his plan to set up an anti-corruption panel.

In last year's elections the Hindu chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party won 32 seats, but no party was willing to form a coalition government with it.

GERMANY: The GDL union gave notice yesterday that its train driver members will hold a four-day strike in a bitter contract dispute with the national railway operator.

Most drivers will walk out tomorrow morning, with freight train drivers stopping work this afternoon.

GDL wants a 5 per cent pay increase and shorter working hours, but it also wants to negotiate for other staff traditionally represented by a rival union.