Europe, France | featured news

The euro zone's two largest economies avoided shrinking between April and June, but the resilience of Germany and France wasn't enough to prevent the currency bloc's economy as a whole from falling back into contraction.

In Washington, Republicans are bashing President Obama for inflicting “European-style socialism” on the United States. Here in Paris, a genuine socialist took the presidential oath in May, and he has wasted no time implementing policies designed to soak the rich.

A French man and one of his three children died after they jumped along with his wife off a 164-foot cliff into the sea to flee a raging wildfire that forced them out of their car just as they were about to cross the Spanish border into France at the end of their vacation, officials said Monday.

Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France, after safely protecting the yellow jersey during Sunday's final processional ride into Paris.

The Paris premiere of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" was canceled Friday after a gunman killed at least a dozen people at a Colorado opening of the same film.

France's far right National Front will sue Madonna after she screened footage of party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her face at a concert in Paris.

French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen announced 8,000 job cuts and the closure of an assembly plant as it struggles with mounting losses, in a move that could hasten a wave of restructuring in western Europe.

French authorities filed preliminary terrorism charges Tuesday against a Tunisian administrator of an extremist French website who is suspected of playing a key role in financing and recruiting for al-Qaida and other violent groups....

French investigators searched former President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said. Potential legal troubles have threatened Sarkozy since he lost the presidency to Socialist Francois Hollande in May elections. Sarkozy, who lost his immunity from prosecution June 15, denies wrongdoing.

A gunman who authorities say had past psychiatric problems was captured alive after taking four people hostage Wednesday in a bank in the southern French city of Toulouse, claiming he was acting for religious reasons.