Arson attacks on refugee shelters, assaults, swastikas sprayed on walls -- as Germany has taken in record numbers of asylum seekers, it has been rocked by a xenophobic backlash which authorities have appeared unable to stop.

With one million arrivals expected in the EU's most populous nation this year, about half of them from Syria, Chancellor Angela Merkel has rallied Germans to welcome the newcomers and vowed to crack down on hate-mongers.

Greece is under growing pressure over its handling of the migrant crisis -- but on Lesbos island, swift registration procedures are still seeing thousands of new arrivals packed off promptly to elsewhere in Europe.

After revelations that two jihadists involved in the Paris terror attacks slipped into Europe through another Greek island, posing as refugees, Athens has faced heavy scrutiny over its screening of more than 750,000 people who have landed on its shores this year.

One is a pragmatist: a 47-year-old lawyer by training who has steered France's far-right National Front (FN) from pariah status to mainstream.

The other is an ideologue: her 25-year-old niece, a photogenic Roman Catholic traditionalist with a stance on abortion, homosexuality and Islam that critics say is dangerous or sectarian.

U.S. President Barack Obama sought to reassure terror-struck Americans that the Islamic State group will be defeated Sunday, in a rare primetime address from the Oval Office.

Facing doubts about his leadership, Obama harnessed the highest trappings of U.S. power to calm a nation put on edge by a rampage in California that killed 14 Americans.

Britain deployed army personnel, rubber dinghies and a military helicopter on Sunday to rescue people trapped by floods that have deluged parts of the country in the wake of Storm Desmond.

Thousands of homes and business were affected by the heavy rains and strong winds that battered Britain over the weekend, with one death reported in London after a man was blown into the path of a bus, police said.

France's far-right National Front saw record-high results in regional polls on Sunday, held under a state of emergency just three weeks after Islamic extremists killed 130 people in Paris.

The National Front (FN) came first with between 27.2 and 30.8 percent of the vote nationwide, and found itself topping the list in at least six of 13 regions, according to early estimates. 

Kalashnikov ammunition and Islamic State propaganda videos were seized in raids following the closure of a mosque in the Paris suburbs, French authorities said Sunday.

The prayer hall in Lagny-sur-Marne, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of the capital, was shut down last Wednesday following a large-scale police operation.

Anarchists turned part of central Athens into a battleground on Sunday during a march to mark the seventh anniversary of the fatal shooting of 15-year-old boy by police. 

Protestors hurled petrol bombs at police and set fire to garbage bins and cars, while police responded with teargas, an AFP photographer said.  

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter told church parishioners in his native Plains, Georgia on Sunday that he is free of cancer, U.S. media reported.

The 91-year-old Nobel peace laureate and global humanitarian recently had a tumor from his liver removed, only to find four melanoma spots on his brain.

Armenians on Sunday voted in a referendum on constitutional reforms which the opposition claims are aimed at keeping the ex-Soviet nation's President Serzh Sarkisian in power.

If endorsed, the constitutional change proposed by the pro-Russian leader will transform the Caucasus country's system of government to one led by a prime minister, not a president.