Europe Top News and Analysis

A bastion of the U.K. high street, Marks & Spencer, reported a drop in non-food sales in the first three months of the year, numbers which are likely to inflame shareholder concerns over the company's management and retail strategy.

More needs to be done to promote global economic growth, and any additional U.S. deficit reduction needs to be restrained, the IMF's Christine Lagarde told CNBC.

The launch of new cancer medicines and a strong flu season in the U.S. helped Roche post a six percent rise in first quarter sales, Daniel O'Day, chief operating officer of the company's pharmaceuticals division told CNBC on Thursday.

Spanish police will erect barriers around politicians' residences to shield them from protests over the growing number of home evictions and to call for changes to mortgage laws.

U.S. defense officials are "highly confident" that North Korea is planning the imminent launch of a medium-range missile, echoing warnings that the probability of Pyongyang carrying out its threat is "very high."

Goldman Sachs downgraded its 2013 price target for gold and advised investors to short the precious metal, in a commodities report out on Wednesday.

Deutsche Telekom sweetened its terms for the proposed merger between T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications by reducing the combined company's debt.

Bernard Arnault, France's richest man, has abandoned attempts to obtain Belgian nationality and will keep paying tax in his native country.

General Motors renewed a commitment to its loss-making European brand on Wednesday, pledging to invest 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in Opel by the end of 2016 to support new model launches.

As the French government is mired in a growing scandal over secret foreign bank accounts, President Francois Hollande called for tax havens to be eradicated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their junior coalition partners have enough support to win a governing majority in September's election for the first time in more than three years, according to a poll out on Wednesday.

Demand for 500 euro bills as a store of value has started to decline, according to a currency strategist, who told CNBC that the note is used extensively for criminal activity and should be abolished.

Luxembourg plans to lift bank secrecy rules for European Union citizens who have savings based in the country, the prime minister announced on Wednesday.

Banks in bailed-out Portugal need an extra 8 billion euros ($10 billion) in capital, based on conservative tests of their financial health, Moody's Investors Service said on Wednesday.

Germans are one of the poorest groups in Europe, according to the surprising findings of a joint survey by various divisions within the European Central Bank.

Billionaire investor George Soros is the latest person to criticize Germany's role in the euro zone crisis, telling the country that it should consider leaving the euro zone.

Italy's caretaker government on Wednesday sharply hiked its targets for public debt this year and next despite waves of austerity measures, and said there was now room for less restrictive fiscal policy.

Malian authorities will give French President Hollande another camel after the one they gave him in thanks for helping repel Islamist rebels was eaten.