Germany’s Christmas markets opened on Monday at the start of the holiday season, with security staff on hand and concrete barriers to protect shoppers, nearly a year after an Islamist militant killed 12 people by driving a truck into crowds. Some 2,600 markets, known for their sparkling...

The death toll from flash flooding which hit Athens earlier this month has risen to 22, the fire department announced on Monday. The remains of the latest victim were found in the early hours of Monday near a depot in the western Athenian municipality of Mandra. Firefighters are...

Chancellor Angela Merkel set her sights on forthcoming talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) as a path to forming a stable government in Germany and rejected new elections after three-way coalition talks collapsed last weekend. Merkel’s fourth term was cast into doubt when the...

 London’s police force said on Friday that they had stood down after an incident in the heart of London’s shopping district that they initially responded to as if it could have been terrorist-related. “Our response on #OxfordStreet has now been stood down,” the Metropolitan Police...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will in the coming days visit Turkey's sometimes uneasy NATO ally Greece, a top official said Thursday, the first visit by a Turkish head of state to its neighbor in 65 years. Erdogan had himself, as prime minister, visited Greece in 2004 and 2010 but the...

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) should reconsider their opposition to joining a new “grand coalition” with Angela Merkel’s conservatives because Europe needs a stable government in Berlin, a senior ally of the chancellor said on Thursday. Germany is facing the worst political crisis of...

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would prefer a new election to ruling with a minority after talks on forming a three-way coalition failed overnight, but Germany’s president told parties they owed it to voters to try to form a government. The major obstacle to a three-way deal was...

Police say a man drove a car into a crowd of people in Berlin, but didn't injure anybody. Police spokeswoman Valeska Jakubowski said Saturday the man ran away after the incident Friday night and authorities were still looking for him. She said the car had been rented by a...

A Madrid judge has ordered that eight former Catalan ministers be remanded in custody on Thursday over last week's vote for independence in the Catalan parliament.  One of the ex-ministers was granted bail. Of the 14 former members of the cabinet facing charges of...

MADRID (Reuters) - A lawyer for dismissed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who is due to appear in a Spanish court this week to answer charges relating to Catalonia's push for independence, said he was not expected to return to Spain soon. If Puigdemont fails to appear before the...

KIEV (Reuters) - The Ukrainian wife of a Chechen man accused by Russia of plotting to kill President Vladimir Putin was shot dead outside Kiev on Monday in an attack that also wounded her husband, Ukrainian interior ministry officials said. Amina Okuyeva and Adam Osmayev were in a car...

(Reuters) - Spain’s state prosecutor accused sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont of rebellion and sedition on Monday as the former regional president traveled to Belgium with other members of his ousted administration and hired a lawyer there. As Madrid began direct rule of...

Pro-unity protesters gathered for a rally in Catalonia's capital Barcelona Sunday, two days after regional lawmakers voted to break away from Spain, plunging the country into an unprecedented political crisis. As protesters gathered for the march, the deputy president of the region's...

MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Sacked Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont on Saturday called for peaceful “democratic opposition” to the central government’s takeover of the region following its unilateral declaration of independence from Spain. Puigdemont, whose regional government...

Spain's allies in Europe and the United States rallied behind Madrid on Friday after Catalonia's regional parliament declared independence in an escalating standoff. Catalan MPs passed the motion by 70 votes to 10 -- in a ballot boycotted by the opposition -- in a move that threatens...

MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spain prepared to impose direct rule in Catalonia on Friday, an unprecedented step that risks sparking unrest with secessionists calling on the Catalan parliament to make a defiant declaration of independence. The upper house of Spain’s parliament - the Senate -...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The three parties exploring a possible coalition in Germany face an early test of their willingness to compromise on Thursday when they try to hammer out a common stance on deeply divisive immigration and asylum policy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to...

A man armed with a knife wounded at least four people in the German city of Munich on Saturday, police said on Twitter, adding that they were searching for the suspect whose motive remains unclear. A man “injured several people with a knife” in the centre of Munich and “is still on the...

 Germany's Social Democrats beat Angela Merkel's conservatives in a closely-watched state poll Sunday, dealing a blow to the chancellor as she heads into thorny coalition talks to form a national government. In the state vote in Lower Saxony, home of Volkswagen, Martin Schulz's...

MILAN/ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s communications regulator is considering whether it could force Telecom Italia (TIM) (TLIT.MI) to put its fixed-line network into a separate company to address competition concerns, three sources close to the matter said. Such a move would result in the network...