Europe

    A bus carrying foreign students has crashed and killed 14 people in northeastern Spain - and British students are feared to be among the injured. At least 43 were hurt when the coach collided with a car and overturned on the AP7 highway near Freginals around 6am local time. The injured, aged between 22 and 29, were from Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine and Barcelona, local media said. Four were reportedly seriously hurt in the crash, which happened around halfway between Valencia and Barcelona. Two of the injured people were in the car. They are being treated at hospitals in Tortosa, Amposta, Reus and Tarragona, officials said. The bus, carrying 56 people including the driver, was returning from the renowned Fallas fireworks festival in Valencia when it crashe...

    Channel 4 News's footage from the Aegean Sea (Picture: [copyright]) The Turkish coastguard attacked a flimsy dinghy packed with men, women and children in a bid to prevent it reaching Greece, it has been claimed. Footage filmed by Channel 4 News in the Aegean appeared to show members of the coastguard repeatedly striking the boat with sticks in order to break its engine. One young woman was hit on the head, according to those on board. After failing to cut the motor, the coastguard crew revved their vessel’s engine to create a huge wake, in what film-makers said they believed was an attempt to sink the boat. The allegations will exacerbate concerns about the treatment of refugees by Turkey. While the country has won international praise for accepting an estimated 2.7 milli...

    Waiters in France are being given the power to charge customers more or less depending on how polite they are. Waiting-on is considered a profession worthy of respect in France, so the policy of charging rude customers extra is reportedly becoming more widespread. In 2013, La Petite Syrah in Nice became so fed up of rude customers it began penalising them. If waiters were asked for "a coffee" they charged 7€ (£4.90). Ask for “a coffee, please” and the price was dropped to 4.25€ (£3.60). The winning formula, though, was to say “Bonjour [‘hello’], a coffee please”, which would cost you the typical price of 1.40€ (£1.20). Manager Fabrice Pepino told The Local at the time: "It started as a joke because at lunchtime people would come in very stressed and were sometimes rude to ...

    The UN Security Council views Russia's decision to begin withdrawing from Syria as a positive step, the body's president said Monday. The council discussed the surprise Russian announcement during a closed-door meeting, when it also heard a report from UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on a new round of peace talks that opened in Geneva. The decision just announced today by the Russian president that's a positive step, said Angolan Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, who holds the council's rotating presidency this month. That's what we like to see. President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will begin withdrawing the bulk of its forces from Syria starting on Tuesday. The Kremlin leader said his forces had achieved their military goals and expressed hope that peace talks will ...

    Pope Francis today formally approved sainthood for Mother Teresa and set September 4 as the date for her canonisation. The move comes 19 years after the death of the missionary nun who dedicated most of her adult life to working with the poor of Kolkata, India. There was no immediate word from the Vatican on the location of the canonisation ceremony, which is expected to take place in Rome with a thanksgiving ceremony held at a later date in the Indian city where Teresa is buried. The Albanian nun, 87 when she died in 1997, was revered by many Catholics and won the 1979 Nobel peace prize for her work with the poor. But she was also a divisive figure, with critics branding her a religious imperialist whose fervent opposition to birth control and abortion ran contrary to the...

    Turkey's air force hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq Monday, hours after a suicide car bombing in the capital killed 37 people and heightened tensions with the Kurdish rebels. Nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK in the northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the group's leadership is based, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Targets hits consisted of ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters. Police meanwhile carried out raids in the southern city of Adana, detaining suspected PKK rebels the agency reported. The private Dogan news agency said at least 36 suspects were taken under custody. Fifteen suspected Kurdish militants were also detained in Istanbul, Anadolu said. Health Minister Mehmet Muezzin...

The report into the Germanwings crash which was deliberately caused by a co-pilot has recommended more medical checks for crew. One hundred and fifty people died when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz flew flight 9525 into a mountain-side in the French Alps after locking the pilot out of the cockpit. French investigators have been holding a news conference in France this morning as the report into the crash's cause is published. It comes after some of the families of the victims of the crash, who had advance sight of the report, voiced concerns. Investigators told the news conference a doctor recommended that Lubitz should be treated in a psychiatric hospital two weeks before the disaster. Lubitz had begun to show symptoms that could be consistent with a psychotic depressive episode in December 2...

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed European nations for "unilaterally" shutting the Balkan route for migrants. She said this had put Greece in a "very difficult situation" and such decisions should be taken by the whole of the EU. Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and non-EU members Serbia and Macedonia have all acted to stem the migrant flow. The EU and Turkey, from where migrants reach Greece, have set out a plan to ease the crisis. Under the proposals, hammered out at a summit in Brussels on Monday but still to be finalised, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be sent back. For each Syrian returned, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU. European Council President Donald Tusk has said the plan would spell the end of "irregular migration to Euro...

    A man accused of stabbing a 21-year-old in the neck in an unprovoked and fatal attack is among nine most wanted suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands. Shane O'Brien, 28, is accused of walking up to Josh Hanson in the RE Bar in Hillingdon, west London, and killing him in front of his girlfriend in October 2015. He is among nine fugitives, including another murder suspect, alleged drug smugglers and a convicted rapist, being hunted by British authorities. Josh's mother, Tracey, said: "Every single waking moment we keep on trying our best to assist the police. We need justice for Josh. An incredible young man, a very hardworking young man, it's the least that can be done for him. It would give us the chance to grieve. "It's soul-destroying at times. Mother's Day h...

    An Italian pilot threatened to crash his passenger jet if his wife left him, but was stopped minutes before taking off by police. When his wife threatened to leave, the unnamed Italian pilot, in his 40s, sent a text saying he would kill himself along with the 200 passengers on his Rome-Japan flight, The Times reported. However, the man's wife alerted officers at Fiumicino airport, who were able to replace the pilot without the passengers' knowledge. The incident occured in January last year - two months before German pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed Germanwings A320 into the Alps - and was kept secret until now. The Italian pilot, who was married with children, was already known to police in Padua, Italy, after his wife reported him for mistreatment. After threate...