Europe's week in pictures: Nov 24 - Nov 30

French strike chaos

France was hit by a mass walk-out of public sector workers

 In pictures

Etna's lava menace

Lava from Mount Etna in Sicily stopped metres away from a tourist hostel

 In pictures

Floods in Italy

Italy braced for another wave of floods after heavy rains

Sub mission

A French submarine set off for Spain to check whether a sunken tanker, the Prestige, is still leaking oil

 Full story

Birthday treat

The French President Jacques Chirac spent his 70th birthday watching Davis Cup tennis with former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin

 Full story

Nice art of ice

Four hundred tons of ice and snow were used for the second ice sculpture festival in Belgium