Blocked from pursuing his political crusade in Spain's parliament, the most prominent jailed leader of Catalonia's separatist movement is vowing to take his fight to the European Parliament.

Terror probe after 'low force' blast in French city of Lyon

French President Emmanuel Macron called it an "attack" during a live interview about the European Parliament elections that run through Sunday, but the president of greater Lyon, David Kimelfeld, urged calm.

Analysis

A new indictment against Julian Assange could further delay what was already expected to be a protracted battle to get the WikiLeaks founder out of a London jail cell and into a U.S. court, opening the door for his legal team to argue that the Espionage Act charges are political and thus not covered by an extradition treaty between the two countries.

Theresa May announced Friday that she will step down as U.K. Conservative Party leader in two weeks, admitting defeat in her attempt to take Britain out of the European Union and sparking a contest to replace her as prime minister.

A Russian court on Friday extended the arrest for a former U.S. Marine charged with espionage, who complained in court about abuse in custody.

Lt. Kaylie Ludwig, a medical corps officer, was found unresponsive on Monday and pronounced dead aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington, U.S. Sixth Fleet spokesman Kyle Raines said in a statement.

A sailor was found dead Tuesday aboard the USS Arlington, said Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a spokesman for Sixth Fleet.

It's part of a general officer swap that's designed to strengthen bonds between the U.S. and France, according to the Army.

The U.S. military has finally completed runway work at a new air base in Agadez, Niger, but Air Force officials said Wednesday it will still be several months before flight operations can begin at what is anticipated to be a major intelligence gathering hub in western Africa.

The USO center is expected to close its doors for good on June 3, just two days shy of the date Allies entered the city 75 years ago in a campaign to liberate the country.

After the bloodshed of World War I, Gautier's generation had grown up on a diet of hatred for neighboring Germany. He was 17 when he joined the navy in 1940. When France fell in June that year to the Nazi blitzkrieg, he shipped off to England, where a French general, Charles de Gaulle, was rallying his countrymen.

Cavalrymen at an exercise fought in their Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicles alongside Finnish Leopard 2 main battle tanks, against Marine M1A1 Abrams tanks and LAV-25 light armored vehicles.

Six F35-B Lightning II warplanes, the U.K.’s newest fighter, have arrived at a British air base on Cyprus for training and a systems test in the aircraft’s first overseas deployment.

A Frenchman figured he'd likely go to his grave without ever knowing who his father was, unable to identify the U.S. serviceman who had taken a bullet to the skull and been nursed back to health in a military hospital by his mother.

A banner emblazoned with the words "Honor to Mussolini," unfurled just steps from the Milan piazza where the fascist dictator's body was hung upside down after his 1945 execution. One-armed salutes and fascist slogans shouted at protests. Italy's right-wing interior minister skipping commemorations for the 74th anniversary of the country's liberation from Nazi occupation.

Analysis

Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar's almost two-month assault on the capital, Tripoli, has stalled and he can't take the city, according to a Russian special envoy to the oil-rich North African state.

Russia in recent years has used its vaguely worded extremism laws to go after dissenters, opposition activists and most recently religious minorities. Russia officially banned the Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017 and declared the religious group an extremist organization.

Racing to upgrade its military, China has been turning to Ukraine. And Ukraine - with its economy scrambled by hostilities with Russia - has been willing to accept China's embrace.

A senior German diplomat headed Thursday to Tehran to press Iran to continue to respect the landmark nuclear deal, despite the unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. and increasing pressure from Washington.

A Polish official said his country is entitled to seek World War II reparations from Germany, arguing Tuesday that no documents or records show Poland ever renounced its right to do so.

NATO jets were scrambled twice in two days to intercept Russian aircraft flying along the Baltic coastline toward Moscow’s military hub in Kaliningrad, the British Defense Ministry said Thursday.

In a statement Wednesday, the party's top candidate for the upcoming European Parliament elections, Joerg Meuthen, said the landlady of the venue had been subjected to "aggressive telephone terror" in recent days.

Remains of more than 1,000 Holocaust victims were laid to rest on Wednesday in a Belarusian city on the border with Poland after a mass grave was discovered on a building site earlier this year.

After a grueling weeklong competition, four soldiers stationed in Europe walked away as winners of the U.S. Army Europe Best Warrior Competition.

Turkey is evaluating the latest U.S. proposal to sell its Patriot air-defense system even as it is determined to go through with a Russian missile deal that's angered the Trump administration.

The Trump administration has issued a warning to European Union allies that a decadeslong partnership is at risk if the American defense industry isn’t allowed to compete for contracts on new EU military projects.

U.S. and allied warships were slated to begin live-fire drills off the coast of Scotland on Friday as part of an exercise designed to test NATO’s ability to coordinate missile defense during a fight at sea.

Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter said in a meeting on Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron that he cannot work toward a cease-fire because he has no one with whom to negotiate.

A short U.S. Air Force deployment to Romania is doubling the number of F-16 fighter jets in the country, ahead of Romanian plans to purchase more of the U.S.-made aircraft.

Analysis

Lawmakers in Europe say they haven't seen what they once feared: a flood of hacked, embarrassing documents, or Twitter accounts calling for street protests. Security services and social media companies that were bracing for an onslaught from Russia are surprised, but they are cautious about saying Russian meddling has been neutralized.

Members of a special firefighter climbing unit and police negotiators eventually persuaded the man to surrender, a Paris police official said. The official said the man was “under control and out of danger” Monday night.

France is taking in a new group of Yazidis including women victimized by the Islamic State group and their children. The families, a total of 130, were arriving Wednesday night in Toulouse, from Irbil, Iraq for resettlement around France.

British and Japanese mobile phone companies said Wednesday they're putting on hold plans to sell new devices from Huawei, in the latest fallout from U.S. tech restrictions aimed at the Chinese company.

Austria faces early elections in September after the conservative Kurz's coalition with the Freedom Party collapsed. Heinz-Christian Strache quit as vice chancellor and party leader after a video leaked to two German publications showed him appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor during a boozy meeting on the Spanish island of Ibiza two years ago.

In recent weeks, the act of "milkshaking" has become a symbol of protest on British soil, with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage becoming the latest target in a string of attacks that have seen dairy-based drinks dashed at controversial European election candidates during events across the country.

Twenty-four people went on trial Thursday in Morocco on terrorism charges for the brutal slaying of two Scandinavian women hikers that was then shared on social networks.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's stance could further strain ties between his country and the U.S., which asked Ankara to delay taking the system to 2020, according to people familiar with the proposal.

As it draws to a close, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series has drawn myriad opinions from some of its most devoted fans for its narrative choices, but U.S. military troops have fixed their attention on the medieval fantasy show’s battle strategy.

Russia needed nine "yes" votes in the 15-member council to hold the meeting but it got support from only four other countries — China, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and the Dominican Republic. Six countries voted against a meeting — France, Germany, U.S., U.K., Belgium and Poland — and with four other nations abstaining, it was canceled.

President Vladimir Putin says that new types of laser weapons developed in Russia will significantly enhance the nation's military capability.

Analysis

House Democratic leadership thinks that the early departure of Marie Yovanovitch, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is a clear sign that the White House is responding to accusations that Yovanovitch was part of a conspiracy that involved anti-corruption probes in Ukraine.

europe quick trips

Rolling hills topped with cypress trees might be a Tuscan travel book cliche, but the old villages and romantic back roads are hard to top.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who won 73% of the vote last month, justified his contentious decision to dissolve the parliament, which is controlled by allies of the man he defeated, Petro Poroshenko, on the grounds it has become a hotbed of self-enrichment.

Analysis

The Trump administration was expecting support over what it calls an increased threat from Iran, but this hope has been swatted down — not with anonymous whispers but by public comments from top British officials.

Italy's hard-line Interior Minister Matteo Salvini threatened possible legal action Monday after 47 migrants rescued at sea by a humanitarian aid ship landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa despite his explicit ban against them.

An altercation in Washington on May 16, 2017, that led to criminal charges against some of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security officers and civilian supporters also spurred lawsuits that turn on the question of whether a foreign country can be held responsible in American courts for violence done on its behalf.

Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio that it is too soon to give more details about the deal, but that "the construction of the modern Hungarian army is happening now."

Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson said if the Swedish court decided to detain WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “on probable cause suspected for rape … I will issue a European Arrest Warrant.”

The United States is weighing options to limit Russia and Cuba from meddling in Venezuela, perceived as a stumbling block in the pursuit of a solution to the political crisis in the country, a senior State Department official told the Miami Herald.

The far-right and populist leaders in Milan are making one of the strongest challenges to the European status quo in decades, united under an anti-migrant, anti-Islam, anti-bureaucracy banner.

Emmanuel Macron is no longer the fresh-faced force who marched into a surprising presidential victory to the rousing EU anthem two years ago.

In a letter to Italy's government, the investigators said the decree appears to be "yet another political attempt to criminalize search and rescue operations."

The charges, which include racial hatred and committing a racially motivated crime, carry a maximum of life in prison.

The North Korean Embassy in Madrid was a soft target. All it took was imitation handguns, fake business cards and some guile for a group of human rights activists to capture the embassy on the evening of Feb. 22. Over four hours, they took hostages, smashed photographs of the country's late dictators and absconded with a stash of electronics and thumb drives.

A longtime chief of the Basque militant separatist group ETA was arrested Thursday in a French Alps town after being on the run for 17 years, Spanish authorities said, proudly announcing the capture of a man they accuse of having committed crimes against humanity.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called for new elections on Saturday, hours after his vice chancellor and head of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, announced his resignation from both offices.

A U.N. committee is calling for an independent public inquiry to investigate allegations of unlawful killings and torture by British troops in Iraq.

Turkey's state-run news agency says a court has sentenced 14 people to life imprisonment without parole over two bombings near an Istanbul soccer stadium in 2016 that killed 47 people.

A judge in Britain has sentenced an alleged member of a banned British neo-Nazi group to life in prison for planning to murder a U.K. lawmaker.

German leader has been campaigning against the rise of populism and far-right extremism in Europe, but Croatia's nationalists are optimistic they can outperform expectations.

Caught in a sprawling trade dispute with U.S. rival China, President Donald Trump decided against declaring commercial war on America's friends: The White House said Friday that he is delaying for six months any decision to slap import taxes on foreign cars, a move that would hit Europe and Japan especially hard.

Authorities have said the 22-year-old man who died in the eastern town of Koethen in September had severe chronic heart disease. The court concluded he was pushed in the chest, fell and then was kicked in the face.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the talks with Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government have "gone as far as they can."

A longtime chief of the Basque militant separatist group ETA has been jailed in France, a day after his arrest in a French Alpine town ended 17 years on the run.

Police announced the discovery of wills alongside a couple found dead in a hotel room near the Austrian border and said there appeared to be no signs of struggle — evidence that may point to a murder-suicide pact.

Paris wished the Eiffel Tower a happy birthday Wednesday with an elaborate nighttime laser show retracing the monument's 130-year history.

Diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving Venezuela's crisis accelerated on Thursday as the government and opposition sent envoys to talks in Norway, though the two sides' mutual mistrust and differences on key issues could prevent any quick solution.

Ten people, including five Russian fugitives, have been charged in connection with malicious software attacks that infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide and caused more than $100 million in financial losses, U.S. and European authorities announced Thursday.

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Autonomous robots built by seventh and eighth graders, some of whom have won Europewide acclaim in competitions, completed tabletop “space missions” in front of hundreds of spectators during an exhibition at Ramstein Middle School.

The White House is not endorsing a global pledge to step up efforts to keep internet platforms from being used to spread hate, to organize extremist groups and to broadcast attacks, citing respect for “freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

The council in Estepona, in southern Spain, advertised the 125-feet stainless steel slide as a useful fast way of getting between two streets.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey and Iraq have discussed a possible deal to increase military and security cooperation between the neighboring countries.

Spain's decision to remove a frigate on training exercises from a U.S. combat fleet that is approaching the Persian Gulf was taken purely for "technical reasons," the country's defense minister said Tuesday.

Russia and the United States voiced hope Tuesday that badly strained relations could begin to improve despite wide differences on multiple fronts and deep mutual suspicion exacerbated by Russian meddling in American elections.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will try again next month to secure Parliament's backing for a Brexit deal so that the U.K. can leave the European Union this summer, May's office said Tuesday.

A U.N. court said Friday it will deliver a decision this month on Ukraine's demand for the release of 24 sailors and three naval vessels captured by Russia in November.

The French public was invited to line the Alexander III Bridge in central Paris as the funeral cortege passed slowly for Wednesday's elaborate ceremony.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's first trip to Russia is scheduled to start Tuesday in Black Sea coastal city of Sochi, where he and Russian Foreign Minister are sitting down for talks and then having a joint meeting with President Vladimir Putin. A look at the top issues Pompeo and Lavrov are expected to discuss before briefing Putin:

Some 300 microscopic tissue samples belonging to resistance fighters, mostly women, who were executed during the Third Reich and then used for experiments will be laid to rest Monday.

The meeting between Britain, France, Germany, and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini comes as the Europeans struggle to keep financial supply lines open to Iran to offset the impact of U.S. sanctions.

The move sets up a legal battle with the U.S., where the Australian computer hacker is separately wanted on suspicion of hacking into a Pentagon computer. British authorities will have to decide which extradition request takes precedence.

Countries are under pressure not to send arms to Saudi Arabia, amid concerns they are being used against civilians in Yemen.

The social network said Sunday it "removed a number of fake and duplicate accounts that were violating our authenticity polices, as well as multiple pages for name change."

Paul Whelan, the Michigan businessman accused of spying in Russia, entered the country on a business travel visa supported by BorgWarner Inc., he told his lawyers in Moscow.

After a hockey game Friday in which Vladimir Putin reportedly scored 10 goals, Russia's 66-year-old president took a spin around the rink to wave to fans. He missed a red carpet that had been laid out on the ice. When his skates hit it, he tripped and fell flat on his face.