Moody's cut France's sovereign debt rating one notch to Aa2, saying the country will struggle with slow growth and a high debt burden for the next five years.
Over the years Tintin has battled spies, climbed the Himalayas and travelled to the Moon but the intrepid Belgian boy reporter now faces what could be his biggest adventure yet -- an opera.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that EU members reluctant to accept migrant quotas may have to be outvoted and overruled in the 28-member bloc.
The European Union has announced an emergency summit in Brussels next in a bid to find solutions to the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II.
The Labour Party's new leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a new dilemma in his rocky first days in the job -- whether or not to kneel before Queen Elizabeth II.
Bulgaria began deploying up to 1,000 troops to buttress its southeastern border with Turkey as hundreds of migrants remained stranded for a third day on the Turkish side.
Thousands of migrants arrived in Croatia early seeking to open up a new route to northern Europe, after Hungary sealed its border, sparking ferocious clashes with angry refugees.
Alexis Tsipras is a six-year-old with a broken left arm and Greece's leading female politician changes a tyre in high heels while refusing to pay the country's debt.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expanded a list of sanctions against Russian companies and individuals held responsible for the ex-Soviet state's eastern uprising and for Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
EU president Donald Tusk said he would consider requests by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others for an emergency summit on migrants and decide later this week.
Hungary plans to build a fence to keep migrants out along part of its border with Romania in addition to the barrier being erected along the frontier with Serbia.
Hungary's populist prime minister called for a massive aid package to be given to countries around war-wracked Syria to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
French President Francois Hollande, whose country is carrying out surveillance flights over Syria, said it would be "necessary" to carry out air strikes against Islamic State militants there.