A violent storm has left some 200,000 households without power across France, including 30,000 in the Paris region, the national electricity provider said.

Your lunchtime news bulletin.

Here's your morning news bulletin...

Four people have been killed and 23 others injured in a fire at flats in western Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged her supporters to keep up the momentum in the final hours before tomorrow's national election, urging a last push to try to sway undecided voters.

The horrors of Nazism and a consistently robust economy have inoculated the country from extremism, but undercurrents of discontent should not be ignored, says Michael Bröning

One man has been killed and another injured in a stabbing in western Germany.

The 32-year-old man, a German who was believed to have converted to Islam and become radicalised, was arrested on Thursday evening in Essen.

Ten people indicted over a deadly crush at the Love Parade techno music festival in western Germany in 2010 must stand trial, a court has ruled.

Police have shut down an entire shopping centre in the western German city of Essen after receiving a credible tip-off of an imminent attack.

A 19-year-old man arrested over the death of a neighbour's son has admitted killing the child as well as a 22-year-old acquaintance, prosecutors in western Germany said.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Police say scores of people have been injured by lightning strikes at a rock festival in western Germany.

USA:  A macaque monkey who took now-famous selfie photographs cannot be declared the copyright owner of the photos, a federal judge said.

A total of 33 people have been hurt after lightning struck a rock festival in western Germany overnight.

At least six people have died in western Germany as heavy rain, hail and high wind battered the region.

A Tornado combat jet crashed on a training mission but both the pilot and co-pilot were able to eject to safety, the German military said today.

Four adults and a child were killed when a small plane crashed in western Germany, authorities said today.

The following is dedicated to the building labourer who told me that — as work has dried up — his family now refers to one day a week as “the hungry day”.

The strong EU meat market has helped to push the price of animal feed wheat over the bread wheat price in parts of northern Europe.

German investigators have found excessive levels of cancer-causing dioxin in chicken – the first such confirmation of tainted meat since the discovery that farm animals had eaten contaminated feed, possibly for months.

SNOW and freezing temperatures continued to cause holiday travel chaos for road, rail and air passengers throughout much of Europe yesterday, raising fears that many will not get home in time for Christmas.

GERMANY said yesterday it was tightening security at airports and train stations after receiving “concrete” evidence of planned terrorist attacks in the country, including one this month.

THE death toll rose to 19 yesterday and police said that 340 had been injured in a panicked crush of partygoers in an overcrowded tunnel that served as the sole entrance to a German festival billed as the world’s largest techno music party.

The death toll in a stampede at the annual Love Parade festival in Germany has risen to 19, police said today.

A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans left 15 people dead and dozens injured at the famed Love Parade festival in western Germany today.

A GERMAN father abandoned his 14-year-old son on an autobahn 450km from their home after an argument, saying he wanted to teach him a lesson, authorities said.

A heatwave across much of Europe is starting forest fires, causing crops to wither and roads to melt, while fridges and fans are buckling in the searing sun.

IT’S so hot that women in bikinis are sunbathing in Moscow.

The Pope will address Ireland tomorrow in an unprecedented letter apologising for chronic Catholic child abuse.

Snowstorms and subfreezing temperatures have battered Europe, killing 29 people in Poland alone overnight and wreaking havoc on air, train and car travellers from the Nordics to Italy on the last weekend before Christmas.

Four people died after a helicopter and small plane were in collision in western Germany.

Police say a man has died of injuries sustained when a car ploughed into a street parade in western Germany over the weekend – bringing the death toll to three.

EUROPEAN spacecraft carried out a close fly-by of Mars yesterday, a crucial manoeuvre in its meandering, 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet.

A European spacecraft carried out a close flyby of Mars today, a crucial manoeuvre in its meandering, 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet

A shortage of electricity in mainland Europe’s power grid caused blackouts across the continent, halting trains, trapping people in lifts and plunging millions of homes into darkness.

Police said 25 people were injured when a high-speed magnetic train went off the track during a test in the town of Lathen in western Germany.

Volkswagen AG said today it has offered payoffs to 85,000 workers in Germany if they agree to leave their jobs, the latest step in a drive to slash costs and boost profits at Europe’s biggest car maker.

German prosecutors concluded their case today against a nursing assistant accused of killing nine women at a retirement home, saying she deserved life in prison.