FRANCE-UNEQUAL SCHOOLS

PARIS — France's government is proposing an overhaul that would end elite bilingual programs in middle school and give individual schools more say in how students spend their time, fearing that inequality among schoolchildren threatens the education system and the country's future.

RUSSIA-CHECHEN-PROBLEM

MOSCOW — The groom is approaching 50, a silver-haired boss in the Chechen strongman's feared police force. The bride is 17, a shy beauty reportedly devastated at the idea of wedding a man nearly three times her age. Many Russians expressed outrage over the nuptials, causing a firestorm in the media and putting Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov — a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — on the defensive. 

LITHUANIA-JEWISH TOMBSTONES

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Giedrius Sakalauskas always thought there was something strange about the graffiti-sprayed, bunker-like structure in a leafy area outside the center of Vilnius. Why build an electrical substation with granite blocks instead of regular bricks? "I touched the stones and I realized that they're really gravestones," he said. 

NATO-RUSSIA

BRUSSELS — NATO officials say the alliance secretary-general will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the first such contacts since they met in January. 

EUROPE-FOREIGN FIGHTERS

BRUSSELS — Ministers from the Council of Europe meet to see how they can align their strategies to contain the flood of fighters going off to Syria and how to deal with them once they get back. 

PORTUGAL-POLICE BEATING

LISBON, Portugal — Portuguese prosecutors are investigating the conduct of a policeman who beat a man in front of his young children and also punched their grandfather outside a soccer stadium, sparking a national scandal. 

EUROPE-ECONOMY

FRANKFURT, Germany — A top European Central Bank official says the bank will boost May and June bond purchases intended to stimulate the eurozone's economic recovery. ECB official Benoit Coeure said Tuesday the bank would buy more in those months so it can buy less in in July and August, when bond market trading slows down.