LONDON

A gaunt and breathless George Michael tearfully thanked his doctors and fans on Friday for seeing him through a touch and go battle with pneumonia.

Michael was fighting for his life in Vienna

Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Phillip has been taken to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, UK after chest pains caused him to call short the royal family's Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate. The 90-year-old royal consort is getting precautionary tests, but old 2007 rumors of a hidden heart condition are already resurfacing.

European shares turned in their best weekly performance since early December on Friday on optimism about a global recovery, after some positive data from the United States during the week provided evidence the economy was growing.

With Christmas two days away, U.S. customers of collapsed broker-dealer MF Global with funds still tied up in the rubble of the company bankruptcy just got a nasty present: a statement by the trustee fighting on their behalf telling them how accountants in London are making it even harder for them to get their money back.

Ekaterina Rybolovleva and Petra Ecclestone may both be billionaire heiresses yet the two could not be any more dissimilar.

European stocks rose to their highest in two weeks on Friday, tracking Wall Street gains as the U.S., the world's biggest economy, showed further signs of recovery, especially in the labor market.

Kate Middleton, global warming and the Olympics will be among the top usage of words in English language in 2012, according to current word trends in global English being tracked by the Global Language Monitor.

Prince William and wife Kate stepped out Wednesday night to share and give back to the Centrepoint homeless charity in south London which William's mother, the late Princess Diana strongly supported.

Rihanna's single We Found Love on Thursday held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the eighth straight week, making it the singer's longest-running No. 1 single of her career.

In 2012, buzzwords will bow to the British royals with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, forecast as the most-used word in the media, according to a group that surveys the English language.

European shares rose on Thursday, helped by mostly upbeat U.S. economic data, and with banks gaining after taking advantage of cheap finance offered by the European Central Bank.

Kate Middleton showed off a teeny tiny waist at a Charity Event on Wednesday night.

Fears over the safety of silicone breast implants made by a now defunct French firm spread to Australia, South America and across Europe on Thursday as French officials prepared to decide if thousands of women should have their implants surgically removed.

A departure, once the transfer window reopens in January, could well be on the cards.

Chelsea may enter a bidding war with Manchester united for the player.

The Duchess visited a London homeless shelter on Wednesday.

Kate Middleton, like Princess Diana, is beautiful, exudes confidence, class and has an amazing taste in fashion. Therefore, a comparison between the two is inevitable.

Internet search engine giant Google has delivered the Christmas gift just now. To us? We wish but no.

After breezing through the euro zone debt crisis for the past two years, Germany's economy could fall into recession as anxious businesses hold off on investment and exports wither.

The first of the two-part prequel opens in theaters Dec. 14, 2012.