Heavy snowfall hit large parts of France on Sunday, putting Paris under a picturesque blanket of white stuff but causing major disruptions to air, road and rail transport.
Stefan Bachmann is only 19, but his darkly mysterious debut novel set in a parallel world of faeries, goblins and child snatchers has already earned him comparisons to J.K. Rowling, Dickens and Dostoyevsky.
Traffic at Germany's Frankfurt airport came to a complete standstill Sunday, with all flights cancelled for several hours, as freezing rain lashed the runways and created ice problems for the aircraft.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be forced to size up her election year strategy Monday after a bitter defeat to the centre-left opposition in a cliffhanger state poll.
Donatella Versace dazzled Paris on a dark, snowy night Sunday with a spring couture collection heavy on 24-carat gold pinstripes and crystal embroidery that some might say tended towards bling.
New Cerruti designer Aldo Maria Camillo presented a classic collection at the Paris menswear shows with a firm emphasis on the trinity of "fabrics, colours and silhouette".
The editor of British newspaper The Sunday Times was appointed Friday as acting editor of its sister title The Times, raising speculation that media baron Rupert Murdoch may seek to merge the two.
Known mainly for its steelworks, the gritty industrial hub of Kosice in east Slovakia is hard at work reforging itself as a centre of creativity and the arts as it enters 2013 with the tag "European Capital of Culture".
Jews of European origin are a mix of ancestries, with many hailing from tribes in the Caucasus who converted to Judaism and created an empire that lasted half a millennium.
After lengthy delays, the International Monetary Fund unblocked part of its aid to Greece Wednesday, offering a brief respite to the recession-mired country grappling with austerity measures.
Britain is working "very closely at all levels" with Algeria after one of its citizens was reportedly killed and several others seized during an attack on an Algerian gas field, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Wednesday.