Spain's troubled lender Bankia plummeted 28.66 percent on the Madrid stock market on Monday after the bank sought a record 19-billion-euro ($24-billion) state bailout.

Bankia shares dived 45 cents to 1.12 euros when trading was resumed after a suspension.

At least six people have been killed in overnight battles in Yemen's war-torn southern Abyan province as troops inched closer to the al-Qaida stronghold of Jaar, military and local officials said on Monday.

"Five al-Qaida militants...and one civilian was killed," a military official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with top officials, Syria's pro-government al-Ikhbariya television reported.

The former U.N. chief was to meet Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later on Monday ahead of talks with President Bashar Assad on Tuesday, a Syrian official source said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity.

French smokers have formed a lobby to "defend their rights" against what they perceive as unfair curbs imposed by the state, the group's leaders said Sunday.

The Union for the Rights of Adult Smokers (UDFA) says it represents a potential 12.5 million voters and intends to fight against the spread of no-smoking zones or rising cigarette prices.

The United States can deal with al-Qaida's spreading presence in Yemen without US forces on the ground, relying instead on targeted operations, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday.

Panetta, in an interview with ABC television's "This Week," defended the use of drones as "the most precise weapon we have" in the campaign against al-Qaida.

One of the fiercest critics of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was voted back in by lawmakers on Monday as speaker of Iran's new parliament formed from elections held in March and May.

Ali Larijani, a loquacious 55-year-old regime insider whose brothers also hold key posts, fought off a challenge from Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a 67-year-old former speaker who advocated a more moderate approach to Ahmadinejad's government.

Greek web users waged Facebook war against IMF head Christine Lagarde on Sunday after she accused their countrymen of dodging taxes.

The French managing director of the International Monetary Fund received more than 10,000 messages, many of them obscene, on her page on the online social network -- where her postings typically draw a couple of hundred comments.

Oil prices edged higher in Asian trade Monday as major crude producer Iran and Western powers failed to reach agreement over Tehran's nuclear programme, analysts said.

Markets were also supported by signs Greeks would elect a pro-austerity government in upcoming polls, easing concerns the debt-wracked country would exit the eurozone and trigger a global economic crisis.

The third installment in the successful "Men in Black" sci-fi adventure franchise blasted away competition to take the top spot at the North American box office, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The blockbuster stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprising their roles as secret agents battling alien species living on Earth, this time joined by Josh Brolin when the adventures goes back in time to 1969.

Two Tibetan men have set themselves on fire outside a temple in Lhasa and one has died, reports said Monday, as a wave of self-immolations in China's Tibetan areas spread to the heavily guarded city.

Sunday's incident marked the first time such protests have taken place in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, which has been under tight security since deadly anti-Chinese government riots broke out there in 2008.