Europe News Headlines

PARIS (AP) — France's National Assembly is taking up an education reform bill that would allow public universities to hold some courses — like science or economics classes — in English, a plan that has alarmed language purists and the political far-right alike.

LONDON (AP) — A 61-year-old Irishman has been charged with the Irish Republican Army bombing of the queen's ceremonial cavalry in Hyde Park in 1982 that killed four soldiers and seven horses.

BEREZNIKI, Russia (AP) — An imprisoned member of the punk band Pussy Riot says she is going on hunger strike after a judge refused to allow her to attend a court hearing where she was seeking release on parole.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany says it supports adding the military wing of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah to the European Union's list of terrorist groups.

LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Britain's No.4 grocer Wm Morrison Supermarkets fell 3 percent on Wednesday after UBS confirmed it had placed around 100 million shares in the firm at 280 pence for an institutional seller. The sale represents a 4.4 percent stake in Morrisons and is equivalent to eight days worth of volume. The …

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's leaders are seeking to advance their fight against tax evasion and close loopholes for large corporations' creative tax avoidance schemes.

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday it would not have to issue contingent capital to meet new regulatory demands and expects to meet the requirements through its existing business plan. The state-backed lender said, however, that issuing contingent capital remained an option for the group if it needed …

VIENNA (AP) — Iran is moving ahead to update a program the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Wednesday, despite high-level diplomacy aimed at stopping it from doing so.

By Olesya Dmitracova and Christina Fincher LONDON (Reuters) - British retail sales dropped at their sharpest pace in a year last month, a reminder of weakness in the country's economy after some recent signs of recovery. Sales of food plunged 4.1 percent from March, the worst showing in almost two years. As the government …

By Matt Scuffham and Steve Slater LONDON (Reuters) - State-backed Lloyds Banking Group said it would not need to issue new equity or specialist debt in order to meet capital demands set by Britain's financial regulator. The Bank of England said in March that Britain's banks must raise 25 billion pounds ($38 billion) of …

(Reuters) - Parcel delivery company UK Mail Group Plc reported an 18 percent rise in full-year pretax profit as more thrift-conscious Britons look for online shopping deals. UK Mail, the largest independent parcels, mail and logistics services company in the country, said it expects good progress in the current year, helped …

PARIS (AP) — The man charged with reviving France's shrinking economy and attracting businesses to invest here is gaining a reputation for doing the opposite.

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. officials said Tuesday that the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan has suddenly fallen from an average of 2,500 a day to fewer than 20, and they are trying to quickly figure out why.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian capsule carrying mice, lizards and other small animals returned to Earth on Sunday after spending a month in space for what scientists said was the longest experiment of its kind.

By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - Deputy prime minister will take the unusual step of holding a news conference on Wednesday to say the country's two-party coalition will hold together until 2015 as he tries to stabilise a government beset by infighting and rifts. In a demarche that risks being cast as a sign of weakness …

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis' fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped "liberate" a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican's insistence that no such papal exorcism took place.

PARIS (AP) — Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.

LONDON (AP) — Britain's House of Commons has passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in England and Wales.

LONDON (AP) — Dozens of Mohandas Gandhi's personal items have been sold at an auction, but a sample of blood purportedly from the Indian independence leader didn't draw high enough bids.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Boruch Spiegel, one of the last remaining survivors of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising by poorly armed Jewish insurgents against the powerful Nazi German force that occupied Poland, has died. He was 93.

PARIS (AP) — Officials say Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has left the French military hospital where he has been treated for nearly a month and transferred to another facility.

By Kate Holton and Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao staked his reputation on selling the group's prized stake in U.S. operator Verizon Wireless at the right time and right price, saying on Tuesday he would not bow to pressure to do any deal. Contemplating what could be the world's third-largest …

MADRID (Reuters) - More than half a million Spaniards switched mobile phone operator in March to take advantage of the cheap deals on offer from competitors, with the market's main players Telefonica and Vodafone the biggest losers. In the first three months of the year more than 1.8 million consumers moved to another mobile …