Europe News Headlines

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.

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.

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 …

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Allies of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili — a former prime minister and a provincial governor — were charged on Tuesday with embezzlement and abuse of office in another sign of an ongoing power struggle between the country's top two officials.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has launched a campaign to attract more investment fund money to the country, with plans for tax breaks, cutting red tape and marketing campaigns in Asia and the Americas. In speeches to fund management executives on Tuesday afternoon, Treasury ministers Sajid Javid and Greg Clark said they aim …

MADRID (AP) — Spain favors a partial lifting of sanctions against Syria that would allow the delivery of "defense material" to rebel groups to help protect the population, its foreign minister said Tuesday.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has expressed his "closeness to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado," with special concern for "those who lost young children."

BRUSSELS (AP) — Flying high above Europe's economic crisis, a local lightning-fast pigeon called Bolt became the world's most expensive racing bird when his Belgian breeder sold it for 310,000 euros ($400,000) to a Chinese businessman.

By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON (Reuters) - Parliament is to probe UK-based mining and oil firms, delving into areas such as transparency and disclosure after troubles at two mining companies burnt some investors' fingers. Parliament's Committee for Business, Innovation and Skills will meet next month to set the terms …

By Chris Vellacott LONDON (Reuters) - Britain plans to boost the insurance industry with policy sweeteners such as tax breaks, hoping to nurture it as a source of investment and an engine of economic growth. Treasury minister Greg Clark said the government would extend to the insurance industry a series of measures announced …

HUSBY, Sweden (AP) — Some 200 youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in a largely immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Tuesday, the second day of rioting triggered by the fatal police shooting of a man wielding a knife.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian police say they are investigating an incident in which an elderly man may have been mauled to death by two donkeys.

PARIS (AP) — Here's how the struggling French economy stacks up compared to Germany's and Britain's:

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.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain stood its ground on its approach to fixing the weak economy on Tuesday, a day before the International Monetary Fund is expected to call for a softening of its austerity push. "Our view is that the economy is healing and we are on the right road, but we have to stick to it," a spokesman for Prime …

LONDON (Reuters) - Football champions Manchester United topped the table for English Premier League television income in 2012-13, raking in almost 61 million pounds ($93 million) in the final year of the current three-year contract, the League said on Tuesday. Relegated Queens Park Rangers, owned by Malaysian airline boss …