Germany’s Social Democrats on Friday named two seasoned politicians to key posts in a new government, with Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz to become finance minister in Europe’s largest economy and the justice minister becoming foreign minister. The SPD’s designated leader Andrea Nahles and Scholz announced the party’s six ministry appointments at a news conference. Justice Minister Heiko Maas would replace Sigmar Gabriel as foreign minister, Nahles said.

Europe is preparing to impose tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorbikes, bourbon whiskey and Levi's jeans in retaliation for President Donald Trump's planned taxes on steel and aluminum imports.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker identified the products as targets for "counter measures" the European Union has been preparing, a Commission spokesperson told CNN.

Trump said Thursday that he would impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports, a move that has been vociferously condemned by key US allies and trading partners.

Russia said it has developed a new array of nuclear weapons that are invincible.

President Vladimir Putin made the claims as he laid out his key policies for a fourth presidential term, ahead of an election he is expected to win in 17 days' time.

The weapons he boasted of included a cruise missile that he said could "reach anywhere in the world".

The French government is planning to set a formal age of sexual consent at 15 years, after two-high profile cases involving 11-year-old girls, according to the country's Equality Minister.

Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said the government "has decided to set the age at 15," after consultations with the public and an expert panel.

The death toll from severe weather has risen across Europe, with at least 23 casualties in Poland alone amid sub-zero temperatures, officials say.

Shelters have been opened as the plight of rough sleepers is a major concern. Some 59 people have died across the continent, AFP news agency reports.

Meanwhile most transport and flights have been suspended in Ireland where thousands were left without power.

Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed in a state-of-the-nation speech on Thursday that his country had tested new nuclear weapons at the end of 2017. Speaking in a nationally televised address to the country’s political elite weeks before a presidential election, the president showed video and animations of ICBMs, nuclear-powered cruise missiles, underwater drones and other weapons that he said Russia had developed as a result of the US pulling out of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty signed with the Soviet Union.