Europe

Fitch warns on top Cyprus banks
International ratings agency Fitch on Monday placed Cyprus' top three commercial banks on rating watch negative, meaning that they could be downgraded ...
Bus falls off cliff in Albania; 11 killed
Albanian authorities say a bus carrying university students fell off a cliff, killing 11 people and injuring 22 others. There was no immediate ...
Iran's Kiarostami goes to Japan for latest film
Abbas Kiarostami has found inspiration far from home. The Iranian director's films are routinely banned in his country, whose Islamist government has ...
France's Hollande steals show in world stage debut
In his debut in international summitry, Francois Hollande has made a splash — and held his ground on some sharply defined positions. France's new ...
Georgia, Azerbaijan restore full monastery access
Pilgrims to one of former Soviet Georgia's most renowned monasteries, part of which lies in Azerbaijan, are again able to visit the entire complex ...
U S artist buys abandoned French hamlet at auction
An abandoned hamlet in central France will find a new life with a noted photographer from New York state who has bought the place — stables and all.
Bus falls off cliff in Albania, may carry students
Police say a bus believed to be carrying high school students has fallen off a cliff in Albania. There was no immediate information about how many ...
Visceral performances bring stardom for Tom Hardy
The allure of movie stardom is becoming evident to Tom Hardy. As he made his way down the glittering red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival for the ...
Italy quake victims wake in cars, tents, schools
Emergency crews inspected schools, churches and other buildings Monday for damage as aftershocks rattled northern Italy a day after a magnitude-6.
Russian leader Putin names new Cabinet
Russian President Vladimir Putin named a new Cabinet on Monday that retained some of the outgoing government's key figures but added a few fresh ...
Alain Resnais back in Cannes competition at 89
The Cannes Film Festival received a dose of theater Monday in the form of French director Alain Resnais' new film. "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" is a ...
Sea Shepherd founder leaves German jail
The founder of the environmental activist group Sea Shepherd has left a German jail after a court ordered him freed on bail pending a decision on ...
Prosecutor launches new Strauss-Kahn rape probe
A French prosecutor on Monday opened a preliminary investigation into allegations of rape in a Washington hotel by former IMF chief and one-time ...
Suu Kyi to give Nobel lecture during Norway visit
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will finally get a chance to deliver her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, nearly 21 years after ...
Ditch euro? Many Greeks already are
People in this central Greek city are rejecting the euro before it rejects them. Apostolos Arabatzis keeps bees on his farm outside Volos, and the ...
Greece's new prime minister meets party leaders
Greece's newly installed caretaker prime minister began talks with party leaders Monday ahead of this week's European Union summit that's expected to ...
Former ultranationalist is new Serbian president
Serbia is likely to get a government with ambitions to join the European Union despite the election of a pro-Russian nationalist as the country's new ...
Dutch court sentences pedophile to 18 years
Dutch judges on Monday handed down an 18- year sentence, plus involuntary psychiatric treatment for an indefinite period of time, to a pedophile who ...
Italian dad throws kids off balcony, jumps; 3 dead
Police in northern Italy say a father has thrown his two young children to their deaths from a sixth floor apartment balcony before jumping to his ...
Europe stocks inch up after G8 vague on Europe fix
European stocks inched up Monday morning in spite of investors' lingering concerns that the G-8 leaders had failed to provide a concrete plan to solve ...
EU urges Nikolic to stick to pro-Europe line
The European Union has urged newly elected Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to pursue the course of European Union membership and to continue to ...
Polanski returns to Cannes, to present new film
Polish director Roman Polanski has returned to the Cannes Film Festival, where he is to present a new film. The festival's artistic director, Thierry ...
Nationalist wins Serb presidential runoff
Nationalist candidate Tomislav Nikolic won the Serbian presidency, a result that adds to the political turmoil in the Balkan country and could slow ...
Strong quake kills 4 in Italy cheese region
A magnitude-6.0 earthquake shook several small towns in northeast Italy, killing four people, knocking down a clock tower and other centuries-old ...
NATO shifts to help an elusive Afghanistan peace
NATO allies declared the end of a long and unpopular Afghanistan war is in sight even as they struggled to hold their fighting force together as ...