The American aerospace giant Boeing halted deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner on Friday but said it would continue to build the aircraft while safety experts examine its battery and electrical systems.
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.
An Al-Qaeda linked group which shocked the world with its audacious hostage attack in Algeria threatened on Sunday to stage strikes on nations involved in chasing out Islamists from neighbouring Mali.
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.
"Django Unchained" and "Titanic" star Leonardo DiCaprio said on Friday he was planning to take a significant break from filming and concentrate on his environmental campaigning.
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.
A US spacecraft orbiting Mars has provided evidence of an ancient crater lake fed by groundwater, adding further support to theories that the Red Planet may once have hosted life.
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.
Algerian troops reportedly found the bodies of 25 hostages and captured five kidnappers at a remote gas plant after a bloodbath of captives that France called an "act of war" by Islamist militants.
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.