MADRID, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Spain's unemployment rose 2.61 percent in January from a month earlier, or 83,464 people, as employers cut temporary jobs for the Christmas season, official data showed Monday.

The end of the Christmas and New Year period had its traditional negative effect on the job market in Spain. This is the steepest January rise in unemployment since 2009 when the economic crisis shed around 200,000 jobs. The figure is well above the 63,747 rise in unemployment seen in 2018 or the 57,257 increase in 2017.

04 Feb 2019; DW: A major inquiry into scandals at Australia's banking and financial services firms has referred more than 20 cases to regulators for possible prosecution, and called for substantial changes in the sector.

The wide-ranging Royal Commission was called in late 2017 as public outrage mounted over allegations of dodgy financial advice, life insurance and mortgage fraud involving lenders, including the "big four" Australian banks.

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) The government plans to auction three mineral blocks having reserves of 280.295 million tonne in the current and next month.

Of the mines to be auctioned, two are limestone blocks while one is graphite mine, according to latest data of mines ministry.

MOSCOW (AP) — Following in the footsteps of the U.S., Russia will abandon a centerpiece nuclear arms treaty but will only deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles if Washington does so, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday.

President Donald Trump accused Moscow on Friday of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with “impunity” by deploying banned missiles.

Moscow has strongly denied any breaches and accused Washington of making false accusations in order to justify its pullout.

ANKARA; 03 Feb 2019; AA: The Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) will host an international conference at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City on Feb. 8 and 9.

The two-day conference, with the participation of world renowned scholars, UN envoys, activists and refugees, will call for accountability and protection for national minorities in Burma, also known as Myanmar, the FRC said in a statement on Friday.

Caracas, January 31; GANASHAKTI: On Thursday the Italian Government withdrew from the position assumed by the European Parliament and informed that it does not recognize Juan Guaido as "president in charge" of Venezuela.

"Italy does not recognize the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido," Italy's Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Manlio Di Stefano, said.

The senior official explained that Italy is "totally against" that a country or a group of countries "can determine the internal policies" of a sovereign State.

CARACAS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Saturday proposed holding early elections for the National Assembly as a possible solution to the country's political crisis.

Maduro said before thousands of supporters who had gathered on Bolivar Avenue in Caracas that the government-controlled Constituent National Assembly would decide whether or not to call early elections for the opposition-held National Assembly.

HAVANA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Saturday called for mobilization to defend Venezuela and "stop the imperialist intervention in Latin America."

"The U.S. government, the true mastermind behind the coup d'etat vs. Venezuela, is threatening to launch a military aggression against that sister nation. It is putting pressure on Europe to become its accomplice," Rodriguez tweeted.

"Let's all mobilize to stop the imperialist intervention in Latin America," he added.

03 Feb 2019; DW: Germany's Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said on Sunday that the idea of the UK avoiding Brexit was unlikely. Maas told German media group Funke that he would liked to have seen an "exit from Brexit," but that he held no hopes of it happening.

Brussels and London find themselves at an impasse over the final agreement to the UK's exit from the EU, with the most recent deal having failed in the British Parliament, as the deadline of March 29 looms.

ISTANBUL; 03 Feb 2019; AA: Egyptian opponents have launched an online campaign to reject proposed amendments to the country's constitution.

The move came shortly after the largest bloc in parliament, Support Egypt Coalition which holds 317 seats in the 596-member assembly, said it will ask parliament to amend the constitution.

According to local media, the proposed constitutional amendments include increasing the presidential term from four to six years.

03 Feb 2019; AFP: Hundreds of people demonstrated Saturday in Stuttgart, the bastion of Germany's car industry, against a recent driving ban on older diesels, wearing yellow vests to match protesters in France whose movement began as a reaction to proposed fuel hikes.

Since January 1, only diesel vehicles meeting the Euro 5 emissions standard are allowed into Stuttgart, home of Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler, Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche and the world's biggest car parts supplier Bosch.

PARIS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- For the 12th straight weekend of protests, thousands of "Yellow Vest" protesters marched in Paris and other French cities on Saturday in relatively calm rallies, but some sporadic incidents led to 30 arrests in the French capital.

As previous demonstrations, discontent people chanted the national anthem and anti-President Emmanuel Macron's leadership slogans. Some of them had put plasters and others wore eye patches to pay tribute to those wounded in the months-long protests.