French tax hikes over the last three years and fiscal breaks provided by Portugal are driving rich French to seek homes in the Atlantic-hugging country.

Years of history lie under the hallowed ground of one of the world's most famous cricket venues. But the best bit is the tea and scones ritual, writes Kevin Pilley.

Leave modesty at the door to get the best treatment at a Turkish bathhouse, writes Megan Singleton.

Travel agents have fielded calls from worried passengers due to fly to Europe as airlines around the world avoid Ukrainian airspace.

Britain's 70 billion-pound pub industry has fallen on hard times. But the industry is fighting back, thanks in part to investors like Noah Bulkin.

Gold futures posted the biggest gain in four weeks after Ukraine said rebels shot down a Malaysian jet carrying 295 people near its border with Russia. Palladium extended a rally to a 13-year high.

The Kremlin said Mr Putin had informed President Obama of the disaster after learning of it just before a scheduled phone call between the two.

The German economy is set to benefit as the country's football victory draws shoppers to the "Made in Germany" brand, says a research firm.

Ewan McDonald stays at the Malmaison, a former "house of negotiable affection" in Edinburgh.

It was the Everest of its time, and some 25,000 people try to scale it every year. But the issue of climbing Europe's tallest mountain has come to an ugly head.

Even bloodthirsty Count Dracula likes a sundowner now and then, learns Kevin Pilley.

The good folk of Tuscany are offering lessons in manners to wealthy Russian tourists.

Over a dozen NZ women have told Maggie Barry they were also indecently assaulted by Rolf Harris - and one is considering an official complaint to police after years of silence.

In football, architecture and cheap food, Dean Parker finds a few ghosts of the old East Berlin - before the wall came down.

The BBC explains why it won't investigate Rolf Harris's career at the corporation.

To fund big deals, buyers are using stock to fuel the best quarter for global takeovers since 2007.

A waiter, whose adoptive parents are peasants, claims to be the son of former Spanish king Juan Carlos and has launched a paternity suit.

One of Greenpeace's most senior executives commutes 400km each way to work by plane, the environmental group has admitted.

Heads of the European Union gather in Brussels this week for a meeting that may point to Britain's prospects of staying in the EU or heading for the exit.

The EU has to rely on antitrust and privacy rules to curb Google's search-engine dominance and can't just break up the company, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

Rolf Harris' lawyer has told a court in the closing arguments of his sex trial that his client has been punished for his infidelity by public humiliation.

For almost half an hour, 13 aircraft vanished from air traffic controllers' radar screens as they flew at high altitude above Europe, it has been revealed.

Detlef Berg discovers an historic gem of a city with a Unesco-listed monument at its heart.

World Cup fever has officially kicked off as the first game of the competition got under way this morning.

Tax breaks for Apple, Starbucks and Fiat are under investigation in a clampdown on special treatment for companies.

A friend of a New Zealander killed by a falling tree branch at the world-famous Kew Gardens in England has recounted the horrifying ordeal at an inquest.