More than 80 people were killed in Syria Thursday, most of them in a relentless blitz on the city of Homs, an attack US President Barack Obama decried as "outrageous bloodshed".
Thick ice closed vast swathes of the Danube on Thursday, crippling shipping on Europe's busiest waterway, as the death toll from bitter cold across the continent rose to at least 460.
US President Barack Obama praised Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Thursday, saying he was boosting confidence across Europe and world markets with his stewardship of his country.
