Europe | featured news

Greece's economy shrank further in the first three months of 2012, shriveling at a yearly rate of 6.5 percent against a backdrop of painful wage cuts, tax hikes and record unemployment.

Spain could decide this month to ask for a bailout for its troubled banking sector, a step that would make it the fourth country in the 17-member eurozone to seek help since the EU debt crisis broke out....

Stocks fell Friday, as investors erred on the side of caution ahead of a weekend expected to bring new developments in dealing with Spain's banking crisis.

Spain's credit rating was slashed by three notches on Thursday by Fitch, which signaled it could make further cuts as the cost of restructuring the country's troubled banking system spiraled and Greece's crisis deepened.

Cheering crowds thronged the streets of London on Tuesday for the grand finale to four days of festivities marking Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee attended by millions across Britain.

Spain's high borrowing costs mean it is effectively shut out of the bond market and the European Union should help Madrid recapitalize its debt-laden banks, Treasury minister Cristobal Montoro said on Tuesday.

A Canadian porn actor suspected of murdering and dismembering a Chinese student and mailing his body parts to Canada's top political parties was reading about himself on the Internet when he was arrested Monday at a cafe in Berlin.

When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.

Calls for Europe to take drastic steps to quell its economic crisis grew earsplitting this week, but the pleas had an intended audience of one: German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Seven decades after a war sparked by Germany brought Europe to ruin, the country’s neighbors see it as their only hope. Germany alone has the deep pockets to help struggling countries escape a worsening economic crisis that threatens to tear the region apart.