FRANCE-JEWEL HEIST

PARIS - French police say about 15 armed assailants attacked two vans carrying millions of euros worth of jewels on a French highway Wednesday, forced out the drivers and sped away. Gendarmes and other authorities are combing the Burgundy region southeast of Paris for the attackers. 

RUSSIA-NEMTSOV-KILLING

MOSCOW - A Russian human rights activist says the main suspect in the killing of Boris Nemtsov has signs of torture on his body and was forced to confess. Investigators say the activist may have broken the law with his comments. 

NATO-UKRAINE

CASTEAU, Belgium - NATO's secretary-general on Wednesday insisted international observers be given the freedom of movement and the protection they need to monitor the cease-fire in Ukraine. 

BELARUS-SANCTIONS

MINSK, Belarus - The United States is lifting sanctions on a Belarus energy company, underscoring a thaw in relations in the wake of Minsk's key role in negotiations over Ukraine. 

BRITAIN-OLIVIA COLMAN

LONDON - The laws of television decree that a show that's both a critical hit and a ratings success must return to our screens. The laws of crime thrillers say that once you know whodunit, the case is closed. That's why some viewers were surprised to learn there would be a season two of the BBC's murder mystery series "Broadchurch" - and why the cast was initially skeptical, too. 

KAZAKHSTAN-PRESIDENT

MOSCOW - Nursultan Nazarbayev, the long-serving president of oil-rich Kazakhstan, says he will stand again in snap April elections. He is all but guaranteed to win. 

GERMANY-STRIKES

BERLIN - Thousands of German public service workers are staging a short-term strike in a bid for higher wages and to preserve pension benefits. The ver.di union said teachers and other public employees including police and firefighters walked off the job in multiple states Wednesday ahead of third round of negotiations starting next week. 

NETHERLANDS-INDONESIA-COMPENSATION

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A court rules that the Dutch government must pay compensation to widows and children of Indonesian men summarily executed in their country's war for independence in the 1940s, a ruling that could open the door to many more claims.

ANDORRA-BANK INTERVENTION

MADRID - Spain's central bank has taken over Banco de Madrid SA, a bank that caters to the rich, following accusations by the United States that its Andorran owner was involved in laundering money for criminal groups from China, Russia and Venezuela. 

CYPRUS-NUCLEAR

NICOSIA, Cyprus - Cypriots from both sides of the east Mediterranean island's ethnic divide are banding together to oppose plans to build a nuclear power station on nearby Turkey's southern coast. 

ROMANIA-PRIME MINISTER

BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania's prime minister has appeared before a court to give evidence in a probe into allegations of voter fraud during a referendum to impeach the former president. Premier Victor Ponta denied that his party had done anything illegal.