Poll piles misery on Spain's embattled PM

Spain’s beleaguered prime minister suffered an embarrassing election setback as a poll showed his party trailing ever further behind the opposition conservatives at the national level.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s hand-picked candidate to be the Socialist contender in next year’s race for the presidency of the Madrid regional government lost a primary election to a rebel candidate that Mr Zapatero had specifically asked not to run.