Europe

Moscow Man Can't Wait For Summer Weather

8:50am April 05, 2013

The man was picketing Moscow's Hydrometeorological Center wearing swim trunks and holding a sign that read: "Let Summer Come Faster." Russian forecasters now predict that "everything will thaw fast" — adding, "we are meeting him halfway."

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Researchers Look Into Shakespeare's Finances

8:50am April 05, 2013

They report the great playwright did not entirely make his living in the theater. He was also a merchant, a moneylender and a tax dodger. In 1598, he was prosecuted for hoarding grain during a famine.

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Bosom Pals, an iconic sculpture by Vasily Konovalenko, was created between 1981 and 1984. It shows three revelers out for a night of drinking and song. Konovalenko loved this scene so much that he repeated it in other works — including enamels and bronz

Emigre Artist Sculpted Exquisite Gems Of Russian Folk Life

8:20pm April 04, 2013

by Corey Flintoff

Semiprecious stones were the medium of choice for Vasily Konovalenko, a Soviet ballet set designer turned sculptor. His masterful workmanship captured Russian characters, from Cossacks and drunks to country folk and czarist henchmen. He fell afoul of the authorities and left Russia for the U.S. in the 1980s.

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Ramiro Maura hunts wild boar at his ranch near Madrid in February.

World News

A Renaissance For 'Pigsticking' In Spain

8:50pm April 03, 2013

by Lauren Frayer

Hunting wild boar while riding horses and using only spears is a practice that dates back at least 2,000 years — and now it's making a comeback in Spain.

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World News

Once Championed By Putin, Medvedev Falls Precipitously Out Of Favor

9:56pm April 02, 2013

by Corey Flintoff

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is under attack these days — and is receiving no support from his erstwhile political partner, President Vladimir Putin. Though loyal and cautious, Medvedev became a magnet for the opposition, who sought an alternative to Putin. Now, observers say, it's only a matter of time before Medvedev is ousted.

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Parishioners partake in the Way Of The Cross procession at the Colosseum on Good Friday in Rome. A group of women Catholics recently made a pilgrimage to Rome to request that women once again be allowed to hold leadership positions in the church.

With New Pope, Catholic Women Hope To Regain Church Leadership Roles

8:45pm April 01, 2013

by Sylvia Poggioli

A group of American nuns and Catholic women has traveled to Rome for a pilgrimage to the sites where there are traces on frescoes, mosaics and sarcophagi that show how women played an important role in the church in the early centuries of Christianity. Groups say women once held "co-equal roles with men."

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European bison, or wisents, keep a safe distance from human visitors to their enclosure on the property of Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in Germany's densely populated state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

German Prince Plans To Put Bison Back In The Wild

5:17pm April 01, 2013

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

The prince's dream of reintroducing European bison, or wisent, into Germany's most densely populated state will soon be reality. It will be the first time in nearly 300 years that these creatures will roam Western Europe. But not everyone is as excited as the prince.

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German Anti-Euro Group Has Big-Name Backers

10:34am March 30, 2013

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

In Germany, a new political party has cropped up with one sole aim: doing away with the euro. Unlike past anti-euro parties in Europe, this one is no fringe group. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports they are banking on German frustration over bailouts of eurozone countries to propel them into office in national elections this fall.

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Belgian Post Office Sells Chocolate-Flavored Stamps

11:14am March 29, 2013

The glue in the stamps is infused with cacao oil. It's a celebratory touch that makes sense given that Belgium is famous for its chocolate.

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After 2-Week Closure, Cypriot Banks Reopen

9:18am March 28, 2013

by Joanna Kakissis

The Mediterranean island nation's leaders are hoping to prevent a bank run. Customers could see limits on cash withdrawals that could last for months. The terms of the bailout deal are a shocking outcome for a country which built itself on its banking industry.

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