BBC News with Neil Nunes.
King Juan Carlos who helped secure Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy is abdicating after nearly 40 years on the throne. In a televised address, he said that when he turned to 76 in January, he decided the moment was right to pass on the role to his son Crown Prince Felipe. He said the deep financial crisis had stirred up and an impulse for renewal in Spain and that a new generation was demanding the main role in preparing that future. Tom Burridge reports from the capital Madrid.
It was, according to royal officials, a personal decision, but King Juan Carlos's surprise announcement that he will abdicate in favor of this son comes after a difficult few years for the king. His youngest daughter has been implicated in a major corruption investigation, and he was heavily criticized for hunting elephants in Botswana while Spain was suffering the effect of the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, thousands of anti-monarchist demonstrators have gathered in Madrid to call for a referendum on whether Spain should become a Republic. There are similar peaceful rallies in other Spanish cities. The BBC's correspondent in Madrid says republicanism is a potent mainstream force in Spain and the monarchy has seen a decline in popularity.
Hundreds of heavily armed insurgents in eastern Ukraine have resumed a sustained assault on a border guards command post near the city of Luhansk. Five insurgents were reportedly killed, and at least 7 Ukrainian guards were injured. Meanwhile, Russia has requested an emergency meeting of United Nations Security Council to call for an immediate end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, something Ukraine's ambassador to the UN Yuriy Sergeyev told the BBC he finds distasteful.
The very fact that there is resolution on Ukraine is tabled by the Russian federation, for me, it's very cynical and immoral. Because the country that has recently occupied and annexed a part of the territory of Ukraine, a country sponsored the terrorism and unrest in the eastern regions of Ukraine now offers a settlement plan.
Police in the Nigerian capital Abuja have banned the protests by supporters of more than 200 school girls abducted by Boko Haram militants in April. The police say the protests are being banned because they posed a serious threat to residents, here is Tomi Oladipo.
The "Bring back our girls" campaign both in and outside the country have come as huge embarrassment to the Nigerian government. Protesters in Abuja have met daily in public with an aim of increasing pressure on the government to work toward the safe reture of the kidnapped girls. The police now say these protests pose a serious security threat to people in Abuja, but the "Bring back our girls" campaigners see these latest events as part of a government ploy to silence them and are now seeking a court order to allow protests to continue.
World News from the BBC.
The United States says it has led an international operation to disrupt an internet fraud that has stolen millions of dollars. The US justice department says it's targeted a botnet or network of infected computers hold Gameover Zeus which focuses on taking financial information. It says up to a million computers worldwide are thought to be infected.
The Obama administration has set out its most ambitious plan yet for cutting pollution in the United States. Under the proposals, carbon dioxide emissions from US power stations will be cut by 30% by 2030. Individual state will be left to decide how they meet the targets. The head of the environmental protection agency Gina McCarthy said flexibility was key to the plan.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution. States can pick from a portfolio of options to meet regional state and community needs, it's up to states to mix and match to get their goals. And if states don't want to go alone, they can hang out with other states, we can do multi-state market based programs under our proposal.
The United States has said it intends to work with the new Palestinian unity government that was sworn in earlier today. The State Department said it would judge the government by its actions. Israel has expressed disappointment at the US decision. Israeli cabinet has ruled out negotiations with the government.
Scientists in the United States say they've discovered a new kind of potentially life-bearing rocky planet in a distant star system known as Kepler 10C. It has 17 times the mass of the earth and a diameter more than twice that of our planet. Astronomers say they were surprised that this heavy, much denser planet had managed to remain solid without losing atmosphere and ballooning into a gaseous giant like Jupiter.