Europe News Headlines

The French and British governments have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to protest the decision to approve 3,000 new homes on Israeli-occupied territory.

Four European nations summoned their Israeli ambassadors on Monday to denounce Israel's latest settlement construction push, deepening the rift between the Jewish state and European allies that has cracked open over the Palestinians' successful U.N. statehood bid.

LONDON (Reuters) - British bankers' pay has further to fall and the banks themselves should be lending more to boost Britain's economy, a senior Bank of England official said on Monday. Andy Haldane, the BoE's executive director for financial stability, said that in the long run investment bankers' pay should be close to …

Ten people have gone on trial in Paris for alleged links to the financing of a jihadist movement that the U.N. Security Council considers an affiliate of al-Qaida.

U.S. and allied intelligence have detected Syrian movement of chemical weapons components in recent days, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday, as the Obama administration again warned the Assad regime against using chemical weapons on Syrian rebels.

The Obama administration stressed anew Monday that it wouldn't accept any use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, but didn't say if it had any new evidence to suggest a possible deployment of the stockpiles by the embattled Syrian government.

Pier Luigi Bersani, the head of Italy's main center-left Democratic Party, won a runoff primary Sunday to become the main center-left candidate for Italy's 2013 general elections — a vote that polls indicate could well be won by the Democratic Party given the utter disarray of the opposing center-right.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British serious crime unit has taken over an investigation into the mysterious death of a Russian anti-corruption whistleblower, police said on Monday, in a move local media said suggested it might have been a murder. Alexander Perepilichny, 44, moved to Britain three years ago and had been helping …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel faced concerted criticism from Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood. Britain, France and Sweden summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their respective capitals to …

LONDON (Reuters) - Waitrose, the upmarket supermarket chain owned by John Lewis, said trading momentum in the Christmas period was building as it posted a 7.8 percent rise in sales, excluding petrol, in the week to December 1. The 288-store firm said on Monday that online sales jumped 58.2 percent year-on-year. Orders for …

When friends of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit couldn't travel to India to welcome their surrogate twins into the world, the royal stepped up to the task, minding the couple's newly born children for three days and being mistaken by hospital staff for a nanny.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany urged Israel on Monday to refrain from expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem but said a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Berlin this week would go ahead as planned. "We appeal to the Israeli government to desist from this procedure (for building …

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Monday it had summoned the Israeli ambassador in London for talks over Israel's plans to expand Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N. recognition of statehood. "The Israeli Ambassador to London, Daniel Taub, has been formally summoned to the Foreign Office this morning …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of News International, the scandal-hit British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, will step down at the end of the year, the company said on Sunday. Tom Mockridge, who has served as News International's CEO since July 2011, is leaving the company to pursue outside opportunities, …

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A group of intrepid explorers are readying themselves for the first-ever recreation of the epic voyage made by British explorer Ernest Shackleton on his ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole in 1914, on an exact copy of Shackleton's lifeboat. Shackleton's boat, the Endurance, became trapped in the …

Former Slovenia Prime Minister Borut Pahor won the presidential election Sunday, calling for unity in the tiny EU nation where discontent has been mounting with government budget cuts and other austerity measures designed to avoid a bailout.

The mayor of Florence has conceded victory in a runoff primary to Pier Luigi Bersani to be the center-left's candidate for Italy's 2013 general elections.

Albania and Kosovo have called for an independent investigation into former Hague Tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte for her "tendentious and illegal role" in the case against former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Thousands attended an anti-Nazi rally Sunday in Hungary organized by Jewish and civic groups to protest a far-right lawmaker's call to screen Jews for national security risks.

Voters in small, crisis-hit Slovenia chose a president on Sunday amid growing discontent with government cost-cutting measures designed to avoid an international bailout.

Italy held a primary runoff Sunday to choose a center-left candidate to run in next year's general election — a man who in a few months could become the EU nation's next premier.

LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne said on Sunday that he would stick with his deficit-reduction programme when he presents a half-yearly fiscal statement on Wednesday. The Chancellor of the Exchequer declined to comment more specifically on whether he would be able to meet debt targets, but stressed he did not …

Italians are choosing a center-left candidate for premier for elections early next year, an important primary runoff given the main party is ahead in the polls against a center-right camp in utter chaos over whether Silvio Berlusconi will run again.