An extremist cell in northeastern Spain was preparing bombs for an imam who planned to blow himself up at a Barcelona monument, a key suspect in the attacks that killed 15 people in northeastern Spain told a judge Tuesday, according to a judicial official.

Poland has been making efforts to increase its defense capabilities amid security concerns raised in the region by Russia's military activity. Poland's latest defense project aims to put some 10,000 volunteers through theoretical and practical training this academic year.

The Toscano family's happy ending brought cheers from the firefighters who worked through the night to extricate the three brothers, trapped alone for hours after their father was rescued and their pregnant mother managed to free herself from their collapsed apartment.

President Donald Trump has demanded NATO allies commit more troops to the mission in Afghanistan “in line” with planned U.S. increases, but the source of those forces is unclear for an alliance that has pledged more support but only in small numbers.

Morocco has long considered itself a haven of stability in a volatile region and a key ally in the fight against Islamic extremism, but in recent months, it has found itself shaken by carnage in Europe blamed on Moroccans who moved abroad.

The body of a woman has been found in the Baltic Sea near where a missing Swedish journalist is believed to have died on a privately built submarine, Danish police said late Monday.

Four alleged members of a terror cell accused of killing 15 people in attacks in Barcelona and a nearby resort appeared in court Tuesday, a day after the last missing member of the cell was gunned down by police.

President Donald Trump has demanded NATO allies commit more troops to the mission in Afghanistan “in line” with planned U.S. increases, but the source of those forces is unclear for an alliance that has pledged more support but only in small numbers.

Officers said they found about 5,000 of the orange, Trump-shaped ecstasy tablets along with a large, but unspecified quantity of cash while checking an Austrian-registered car on the A30 highway on Saturday in Osnabrueck in northwestern Germany.

The lone fugitive from the Spanish cell that killed 15 people in and near Barcelona was shot to death Monday after he flashed what turned out to be a fake suicide belt at two troopers who confronted him in a vineyard just outside the city he terrorized, authorities said.

A career Russian diplomat, who gained the reputation of a hawk during his earlier tenure at the Defense Ministry, was named the new ambassador to the United States on Monday.

Russia has boosted its air campaign in Syria to help President Bashar Assad's forces drive Islamic State militants from Deir el-Zour, the largest city in which they still have a major presence.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow announced Monday that it will temporarily stop issuing nonimmigrant visas in Russia and permanently curtail visa operations outside Moscow as it works to comply with Russia's demand that the U.S. mission in the country reduce its staff by 755.

Pope Francis urged countries on Monday to greatly improve their welcome to migrants and stop any collective expulsions, saying migrants' dignity and right to protection trumps national security concerns.

A van rammed into two bus stops in the French port city of Marseille on Monday, killing one person and injuring another, a police official said.

Finland has observed a minute of silence for the victims of a stabbing attack in the western city of Turku that left two people dead and eight injured.

While police have identified the 12 members of the cell, three people remain unaccounted for: two believed killed when the house where the plot was being hatched exploded Wednesday, and a suspected fugitive.

Desperate to ease public fears and neutralize a terrorist cell responsible for the deadliest attack in Spain in a decade, Spanish police erected 800 checkpoints across the region of Catalonia on Sunday - part of a massive manhunt for a Moroccan-born man they suspect was the driver of the van that killed 13 and injured scores in Barcelona last week.

Germany has become the top destination for political refugees from Turkey since the failed July 15, 2016 coup. Some 5,742 Turkish citizens applied for asylum here last year, more than three times as many as the year before.

Spanish authorities on Sunday continued their hunt for a 22-year-old suspect as well as two others in connection with the brutal vehicle attacks in Barcelona and a nearby coastal city late last week. A police official said that the terrorist cell had planned a "much more serious attack" that was probably thwarted by an accidental explosion Wednesday.

Police said Sunday that 35 of those detained belonged to the far-right march, while four were taking part in the counter-protest.

Horst Seehofer said he would aim to ensure the measures already taken to reduce refugee arrivals are protected by a future government.

The knife attack in western Finland that left two people dead and seven others wounded is "a likely terror act," Finland's intelligence agency said Saturday, while police said Europol was investigating if it had any ties to deadly vehicle attacks in Spain.

The words above are displayed at the United States Holocaust Museum. This week, amid outrage over President Donald Trump's rhetoric about the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who clashed with counterprotesters in Charlottesville, they have been recited around the world as a simple, haunting warning.

A knife-wielding man went on a stabbing rampage Saturday in a Siberian city, wounding seven people before police shot and killed him.

A report that a cooperating witness has emerged out of Ukraine to help the FBI's inquiry into the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee is drawing confusion and denials in Ukraine.

After 73 years, Sgt. Alfonso O. Duran was still missing. A team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency arrived at a small town in Slovenia ready to find Duran's remains and bring him home. Along the way, they got to know more about the soldier and the town that buried him.

A Northern California man who was spending his first wedding anniversary overseas was among those killed in a deadly truck attack in Barcelona, Spain, his family said Friday.

A missing imam and a house that exploded days ago became the focus Saturday of the investigation into an extremist cell responsible for two deadly attacks in Barcelona and a nearby resort, as authorities narrowed in on who radicalized a group of young men in northeastern Spain.

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U.S. Army battalion conducts their final live-fire training to prepare for the culminating event of their rotation in Europe on Friday.

EUROPE QUICK TRIPS

The Basilica di San Francesco di Paola defies the conventional design of a Catholic cathedral or even the city’s other domed churches. Its striking incongruence and grandeur make it worth a visit.

Airmen took a break today to celebrate the second annual Diversity and Inclusion Day on base.

A knife-wielding man went on a stabbing rampage Saturday in a Siberian city, wounding seven people before police shot and killed him.

The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will visit Ukraine next week to reassure government leaders that the U.S. does not accept Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

A man stabbed eight people Friday in Finland's western city of Turku, killing two of them, before police shot him in the thigh and detained him, police said. Authorities were looking for more potential suspects in the attack.

A group of protesters who have scheduled a series of demonstrations against drone operations allegedly directed from Ramstein Air Base hope to meet and talk with airmen and other military personnel in the area during September protests.

The USS Lewis B. Puller will replace the USS Ponce, which is scheduled to be decommissioned next year. The new vessel is the second ship named after Marine Lt. Gen. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, a World War II and Korean War combat veteran.

When the Army wants to move ammunition and fuel around the United States, it gets a waiver for road rules that apply to other hazardous materials transporters. Not so in Europe.

Video | Gallery

A van veered onto a promenade and barreled down the busy walkway in central Barcelona on Thursday, swerving back and forth as it mowed down pedestrians and turned a picturesque tourist destination into a bloody killing zone. Thirteen people were killed and 100 were injured, 15 of them seriously, in what authorities called a terrorist attack.

Men's basketball teams from several U.S. universities, including Oregon State, Clemson and Arizona, were in Barcelona, Spain, when a van drove into pedestrians Thursday in a historic district popular with tourists but school officials said the players and staff were safe.

Within days, weeks at most, the former British spy behind the infamous dossier on Donald Trump could find himself forced by courts on both sides of the Atlantic to sit for a deposition.

Spain's maritime rescue service has saved more than 600 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Morocco in the past 24 hours, making it one of its busiest days so far this year.

The International Criminal court ruled Thursday that a Muslim radical found guilty of destroying World Heritage cultural sites in the Malian city of Timbuktu must pay 2.7 million euros ($3.2 million) in reparations.

The deadly Barcelona van attack that killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others Thursday is the latest attack in Europe in recent years.

In countries such as Germany and France that have adopted strict codes policing hateful speech, there were questions about why white supremacists carrying guns were allowed to assemble and propagate a message targeting racial and religious minorities.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth, the biggest ship ever built for the British navy, sailed into its homeport for the first time Wednesday as tens of thousands jammed the harbor to welcome it.

Turkey formally asked the German government on Wednesday to arrest and extradite a top suspect in last year's failed coup attempt following reports suggesting that he has been spotted in Germany.

French authorities filed preliminary murder charges Wednesday against a security guard who intentionally sped his car into a crowded pizzeria east of Paris, killing an adolescent girl and injuring a dozen other people.

A 10-year-old migrant from Afghanistan, who has been nicknamed "Little Picasso" because of his talent for painting, and his family have been offered Serbian citizenship and a job for his father after being stuck for eight months in a refugee camp while seeking to reach Switzerland.

Michael Steiger, who heads a Scouting division in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, makes no apologies for infusing traditional Scout activity — canoeing and pitching tents — with politics, particularly as the stakes rise before Germans go to the polls next month.

French prosecutors say a psychiatric examination has determined that a security guard can be held legally responsible for deliberately ramming his car into a crowded pizzeria east of Paris, killing an adolescent girl and injuring a dozen other people.

The Polish president has bestowed a high honor on the U.S. Army commander in Europe as Poland marked its Armed Forces Day with a military parade. Meanwhile, police forcibly removed activists who tried to block a march by far-right groups marching in the parade.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen spoke with a local group opposed to the U.S. military’s plans for a $1 million expansion of a warehouse in the German town of Germersheim, where some residents are worried about the project’s safety.

The Invictus Games’ Spirit Flame was lit in Kabul on Aug. 9. It made stops at Ramstein and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center on Tuesday to symbolize the journey of wounded servicemembers from the battlefield to the 2017 games in Toronto.

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The 15-day mission rehearsal exercise with the Marines is the final step to certifying the Georgian unit is ready to deploy with coalition forces in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel.

Libyan strongman Kalifa Haftar is meeting with Russian leaders in Moscow in a sign of growing ties with a militiaman whose forces now control a growing swath of territory in the oil-rich north African country.

The head of Ukraine's top rocket-making company on Tuesday rejected claims that its technologies might have been shipped to North Korea, helping the pariah nation achieve a quantum leap in its missile program.

Romania's president says his country is a security provider in a region marked by uncertainty, unpredictability and security challenges.

witzerland's tourism office on Tuesday decried an "unfortunate" incident in which a small Alpine hotel posted a sign asking "Jewish guests" to shower before swimming in the hotel pool.

Turkish media reports say police in Istanbul have apprehended a suspected Islamic State group militant wanted by Interpol.

A tree crashed down on a popular religious festival on the Portuguese island of Madeira on Tuesday, killing 12 people and injuring 52 others, officials said.

Police from Sweden assisted their Danish counterparts on Tuesday with pursuing leads in the search for a missing Swedish woman who was on an amateur-built submarine the night before it sank, while volunteers and authorities combed the countries' waterways for signs of her.

Around 3,000 firefighters in Portugal were struggling to put out more than 150 wildfires raging across the country Tuesday, as persistent hot and dry weather stoked the flames, officials said.

Navy Lt. Craig R. Becker, accused of pushing his drugged and sleeping wife out the window of their Belgian apartment building in 2015, says he is innocent and accuses the Navy’s Sixth Fleet of abandoning him to Belgian authorities.

Russia's top domestic security agency said Monday it has thwarted suicide bombings in Moscow planned by Islamic State militants in Syria. Among them is a Russian national and an explosives expert.

Turkey's state news agency says that Turkish authorities have arrested and charged a suspected Islamic State group member with killing two Syrian journalists in Turkey in 2015.

It's the second time this month that tourists have gotten themselves into legal trouble for giving the Nazi salute.

Serbia's foreign minister has called for a compromise over Kosovo that could end a dispute hindering both countries from one day becoming European Union members.

Libya has warned that it's extending its own search-and-rescue area to beyond the 12-mile limit Italy and other countries consider the boundary of Libyan territorial waters.

Refugees reflect on the moral quandaries posed by mass migration for a nation rebuilt after the Holocaust on a set of bedrock principles that includes responsibility to the Jewish people.

GALLERY

The Ramstein Air Force Sergeants Association and the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Detachment 4 booster club hosted the annual Color Run at Ramstein on Saturday.

A new program offering Department of Veterans Affairs jobs to servicemembers leaving active duty is now accepting applicants for a Europe-based training course.

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The ceremony marked the beginning of a farewell to Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who will retire later this year after having commanded U.S. Army Europe since November 2014.

A Danish court ordered the owner of an amateur-built submarine Saturday held in pre-trial detention for 24 days while police investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who had been on the ship before it sank.

Europe Quick Trips

Don’t let the name fool you; the Nuremberg Tiergarten is hardly a garden of tears. Quite the opposite, in fact. Tiergarten means zoo. And the Nuremberg Tiergarten is fantastic.

EU officials say 15 European Union members plus China and Switzerland have reported receiving contaminated eggs or egg products in a growing food scandal.

New guidelines for Marine leadership emphasize coaching and constant interaction between subordinates and leaders. The former Marine Corps Mentoring Program was criticized for being overly formal and for a one-size-fits-all approach to mentoring.

GALLERY

Thirty-two middle and high schoolers from the Wiesbaden area are foregoing the usual summer camp staples of rope swings and hikes for soldering circuit boards and programming small computers at a weeklong day camp at Wiesbaden High School.

The leaders of Poland's Jewish community have written to the country's most powerful politician, urging him to denounce what they say is rising anti-Semitism that has left them fearing for their future in the country.

French soldiers taking part in Operation Sentinelle are the highest profile symbols of the fight against Islamic extremism — but along with other security forces patrolling French streets are increasingly the main targets of attacks.

The man suspected of ramming a BMW into a group of soldiers near Paris is a 37-year-old Algerian who was known to police as a suspect in minor crimes but not as someone with radical beliefs, police said Thursday.

Turkish authorities have detained a Russian national and suspected Islamic State group militant for allegedly planning a drone attack on U.S. aircraft at Turkey's Incirlik air base, police said Thursday.

Bosnia is marking the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's visit, her last overseas tour only weeks before she died in a car crash in Paris.

U.S. servicemembers and their families are being subjected to heightened “scrutiny and harassment” while traveling to Russia, prompting officials to urge the U.S. military community to avoid unofficial visits to the country.

Three Humvees broke loose from their parachutes and plummeted to earth at the Hohenfels Training Area in April 2016. Now, a sergeant charged in connection with the free-fall destruction is headed to court-martial, the military said.

A new device developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory exposes dogs to the mixed odors in an explosive, so what they’re exposed to during training better mimics a homemade bomb.

GALLERY

U.S. military doctors have kept a full schedule at Britain’s civilian hospitals, treating a backlog of patients with ailments they rarely see on a base filled with relatively healthy servicemembers.

Brussels police have opened fire on a car after a high-speed chase in the suburb of Molenbeek and the driver has told officers there are explosives inside the vehicle.

After undergoing the first change in leadership in more than a decade in June, the nation is trying to revive its efforts to join the EU and NATO, arguing that membership will protect it from Russia "interfering" in its affairs.