Europe News

PARIS (Reuters) - Socialist President Francois Hollande has defied critics who considered him an inexperienced lightweight by starting with a burst of globetrotting activity and standing up to Berlin and Washington on euro and foreign policy. Placid and slow-paced by nature, Hollande has packed in visits to Berlin, Washington, …

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Russian cargo ship loaded with weapons is en route to Syria and due to arrive at a Syrian port this weekend, Al Arabiya television said in a report that Western diplomats in New York described on Friday as credible. Syria is one of Russia's top weapons customers. The United States and European …

PARIS (Reuters) - The French left will comfortably beat the conservative UMP party in next month's parliamentary election, a poll showed on Friday, as rivalries triggered by Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat in the race for the presidency risk splitting the right-wing vote. President Francois Hollande's Socialists and other left-wing …

PARIS (Reuters) - Socialist President Francois Hollande has defied critics who considered him an inexperienced lightweight by starting with a burst of globetrotting activity and standing up to Berlin and Washington on euro and foreign policy. Placid and slow-paced by nature, Hollande has packed in visits to Berlin, Washington, …

Spain's fourth largest bank Bankia has asked for 19bn euros (£15bn) in state aid - on top of a previous injection of 4.5bn euros.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - A suspect in a human organ trafficking scandal that came to light in Kosovo in 2008 has been arrested in Israel, the European Union's police and justice mission in the Balkan country said on Friday. Moshe Harel was arrested along with several other people in connection with a parallel investigation …

PARIS (Reuters) - The French left will comfortably beat the conservative UMP party in next month's parliamentary election, a poll showed on Friday, as rivalries triggered by Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat in the race for the presidency risk splitting the right-wing vote. President Francois Hollande's Socialists and other left-wing …

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's butler was arrested on Friday in connection with an investigation into leaks of confidential documents, some alleging cronyism and corruption in Vatican contracts, a senior Vatican source said. The scandal, which has come to be known as "Vatileaks", involves the leaking of a string …

ROME (Reuters) - A letter purporting to be from Italy's radical left-wing Red Brigades called on Friday for new attacks against politicians, bankers and reporters, just days after the president warned the country risked a return to the political violence of the 1970s. "The dawn of the new revolution is here," read the letter, …

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The butler who serves in the apartments of Pope Benedict was arrested on Friday in connection with an investigation into leaks of confidential documents, a senior Vatican source said. The source confirmed reports by Italian media about the identity of the person. "It is very serious," the source …

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Two former Bosnian Serb police chiefs were jailed for 35 and 30 years on Friday for the killing of 1,000 Muslim men at a warehouse near the town of Srebrenica in July 1995, part of the worst massacre in Europe since World War Two. Bosnia's war crimes court found Dusko Jevic, 55, and Mendeljev Djuric, …

ROME (Reuters) - One of the young women who attended Silvio Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties told a court on Friday that she dressed up as a burlesque version of U.S. President Barack Obama to entertain the former Italian prime minister. In testimony during a trial against the 75-year-old Berlusconi on charges of paying …

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's wealthiest autonomous region, Catalonia, needs financing help from the central government because it is running out of options for refinancing debt this year, Catalan President Artur Mas said on Friday. "We don't care how they do it, but we need to make payments at the end of the month. Your economy …

President Francois Hollande on Friday defended France's imminent exit from Afghanistan, saying 2,000 combat troops will leave in a coordinated withdrawal this year but vowing not to abandon the country.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of the Tibetan government in exile called on the European Union on Friday to send an investigative team to areas where dozens of Tibetans have set themselves ablaze in protest at Chinese rule. Prime Minister in exile Lobsang Sangay told a news conference that 35 Tibetans have set themselves on …

Pharmacies in Greece were on strike earlier this week in protest at the government not paying them for medicines that should be free to customers.

KABUL (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Friday to visit some of the French troops he wants to pull out later this year, defending his plan for their early exit after meeting his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai. Hollande was strongly criticised at a NATO summit last …

Eurozone tensions have intensified after grim news on the economic outlook and as investors sought safety in Germany on growing doubts over Greece's future in the currency union.

(Reuters) - Europe's economic slowdown has hit the engine-room of the euro zone, including Germany, gloomy new indicators have revealed, adding urgency to the region's struggle to keep Greece's debt crisis from tearing the single currency apart. So far, the 17-nation euro zone's downturn has been confined mainly to its …

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels will set free on Friday two Lebanese men kidnapped in Syria this week, a cleric who brokered the release said. A statement from head of Free People of Syria, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zoaby, said efforts were being made with several sides in Lebanon, Europe and some Arab countries to secure the …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Uncertainty over the fate of the euro currency is already dampening U.S. economic growth and any significant worsening of the crisis would deal a blow to a recovery that is gradually gathering steam. Economists estimate that volatile markets and business uncertainty over the fate of Greece and the …

ROME (Reuters) - Greece will probably remain in the euro zone, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Thursday, but demands made of Greece by its partners had been unrealistic and far reaching economic reform could take decades to achieve. "Anything can happen, but I think the most probable outcome is the one which …

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Wednesday that he expects to leave office at the end of President Barack Obama's first term, and also expressed enthusiasm about the potential for a trade agreement between the United States and the EU to boost jobs and growth on both sides of the Atlantic. . …

A summit of European leaders has ended without clear agreement on how best to restore confidence in the euro, despite pleas from the British PM to get a grip on the crisis.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The president of the Vatican bank has been ousted by the board of directors, the Vatican said on Thursday, blaming him for a deterioration in standards of governance. The board unanimously passed a no-confidence vote in Italian Ettore Gotti Tedeschi for failing to carry out "various fundamentally …

Tensions between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar have sharply increased after Spanish police demanded naval protection to defuse a fishing dispute around the Rock.

MILAN (Reuters) - Europeans are putting holiday plans on the back burner this summer as the crisis hits "sun belt" economies in Greece, Spain and Italy, a study showed on Thursday. Only six of 10 people polled by Ipsos for Europ Assistance said they were planning to go on holiday between June and September this year, the …

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's anti-bailout leftist SYRIZA party is maintaining its poll lead ahead of a June 17 election that is deemed critical to the country's continued membership of the euro zone, a poll showed on Thursday. Greece was forced to call a repeat election after a May 6 vote left parliament divided evenly between …