Europe | featured news

Frankfurt's airport closed, trains stopped running under the English Channel, and the French army was ordered to help clear roads — all because of a sudden dump of oddly late snowfall on Western Europe.

Steeped in tradition and pageantry, the ceremonies that will produce a new pope officially began Tuesday morning when 115 Roman Catholic cardinals celebrated Mass in the majestic St. Peter’s Basilica.

Europe has spent hundreds of billions of euros rescuing its banks but may have lost an entire generation of young people in the process, the president of the European Parliament said.

A major al-Qaeda base has been dismantled by French forces in the remote mountains of northern Mali, France's Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says.

The European Central Bank has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.75 percent, holding off on further stimulus even though the euro area remains stuck in recession.

An Italian court on Thursday sentenced former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to a one-year jail term for making public the taped contents of a confidential phone call in a case related to a 2005 banking scandal.

...During a visit to Grimsby, England, on Tuesday to support the Prince’s Trust Charity, the duchess was handed a teddy bear by well-wisher Diana Burton, and reportedly replied, “Thank you. I will take that for my d…” Another woman in the crowd who observed the exchange told London's Telegraph that the duchess quickly broke off the reply without finishing the “d’’ word, starting a wave of speculation that the royal meant to say “daughter.’’

The European Union has fined Microsoft €561 million ($733 million) for breaking a pledge to offer personal computer users a choice of Internet browsers when they install the company's flagship Windows operating system.

The fine for failing to give Windows users the choice of competing Web browsers would be the first levied by the European Union for neglecting to comply with a settlement.

Queen Elizabeth II left the London hospital where she'd been treated for the symptoms of a stomach infection today, following a brief and rare hospitalization for the 86-year-old head of state.