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The Swiss economy has long appeared to be surprisingly resilient to the economic downturn across Europe, but the latest statistics released Tuesday showed that Switzerland is slowing down together with the rest of Europe. After a strong first quarter, the economy contracted in the second because of falling exports to the euro zone, the Alpine country's biggest trade partner. Compared with a year earlier, the Swiss economy still managed to expand at a 0.5% pace, but it contracted 0.1% from the first quarter.

One of the masterminds behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay was arrested last week in Cambodia, months after he was due to begin a one-year prison sentence in Sweden.

Chancellor George Osborne says a third runway at Heathrow airport could be an option as he vows to "do more" to boost economic growth.

A strike by flight attendants on German airline Lufthansa disrupted hundreds of flights on Friday, leading to long lines of stranded passengers at Germany's biggest airport.

Hospitals in debt-ridden Ireland will send some patients home at weekends after the country’s public health services announced fresh cuts, according to a media report Friday.

Scientists have found alarming levels of the lung disease tuberculosis in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America that are resistant to up to four powerful antibiotic drugs. In a large international study published in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday, researchers found rates of both multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) were higher than previously thought and were threatening global efforts to curb the spread of the disease.

Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich on Tuesday before explosives experts detonated the remains of an undetonated, 550-pound World War II bomb, Andy Eckardt of NBC News reports. Bales of straw which had been placed around the bomb to cushion the shock of the detonation were set ablaze and thrown through the air by the detonation, according to the European Pressphoto Agency. Some of them landed on the roofs of neighboring buildings and ignited fires.

Holland's Ministry of Defense scrambled two military fighter jets to escort a Spanish passenger plane amid fears that the aircraft might have been hijacked, but the airline involved denied any trouble, saying the incident was the result of failed communications between the crew and the control tower... Part of Schiphol was already evacuated Wednesday after workers unearthed a suspected World War II bomb near the airport's main terminal.

Prosecutors have opened a murder inquiry into the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a judicial official tells the Sipa news agency.

More than 2,500 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich late Monday night after construction workers found an unexploded 550-pound World War II bomb.