ITALY-LIBYA-FISHING BOAT SEIZED
MILAN — The Italian navy recaptures control of a Sicilian fishing boat that had been seized earlier in the day by armed men off the coast of Libya. The navy did not say whether the Italian military encountered the armed men, but the Sicilian cooperative said the seven crew members were on their way back to port.
GERMANY-PLANE CRASH
COLOGNE, Germany — Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Joachim Gauck and hundreds of dignitaries and relatives of 150 people killed in last month's crash of a Germanwings jet packed Cologne's landmark cathedral Friday to pay tribute. The steps to the altar were covered with 150 lighted candles, one for each person who died — including co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who investigators believe deliberately crashed the plane.
CYPRUS-TURKISH-CYPRIOTS-ELECTION
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Uncertainty reigns as Turkish Cypriots vote for a new leader this weekend: There's no clear favorite and no way of knowing whether the winner can bring talks on reunifying Cyprus to a successful conclusion. The Sunday vote in the island's breakaway Turkish side is expected to head into a runoff a week later.
SPAIN-RATO
MADRID — Former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato says he plans to cooperate with Spanish justice officials after being detained for several hours in an investigation into fraud and money laundering.
BRITAIN-ELECTION-FARAGE'S-FIGHT
DOVER, England — Saul Webster enjoys a good tipple, and nobody begrudges him one. But that doesn't make it good politics for the retired schoolteacher to pose for a campaign event with Nigel Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, while carrying a bottle of hard cider and a half-drained glass. He looks crestfallen as a UKIP functionary discretely removes the drink from his hands before the gathered media horde starts snapping away at Farage and his backers in front of an anti-immigration billboard at the foot of the White Cliffs of Dover.
BLOOMBERG-TERMINALS DOWN
LONDON — Bloomberg's trading terminals, which are used by most of the world's biggest financial firms, went down for two and a half hours on Friday due to apparent technical problems, a development that prompted the British government to postpone a planned 3 billion-pound ($4.4 billion) debt issue. Users say the outage started as trading was getting in full swing in London around 8 a.m., one of the world's largest financial centers, particularly in foreign exchange and bond markets.
GERMANY-VOLKSWAGEN
BERLIN — Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn will remain in his job and can look forward to having his contract extended, the leadership of the board said Friday, after a comment by chairman Ferdinand Piech raised widespread doubts about his future. A turbulent week for Europe's biggest automaker started when Piech, who is the board chairman and has long been a key powerbroker, was quoted last Friday as telling Der Spiegel magazine he was "at a distance from Winterkorn."