Scandal-plagued Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be tried in April on charges of corruption and paying for sex with an under-age prostitute. The evidence is reportedly so overwhelming that the prosecutors secured a fast-track trial for the billionaire leader, bypassing the normal preliminary hearing.

Another pro-family public-interest group has joined the battle to free a Swedish boy seized by authorities in 2009 over homeschooling, lining up with a broad international coalition urging the European Court of Human Rights to speed up the case, which was filed more than seven months ago.

Despite prosecutors’ best efforts and Swedish charges of sex without a condom, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from British custody on bail Thursday to a crowd of cheering supporters chanting, "Exposing war crimes is no crime!" But now, he is concerned that U.S. authorities may be plotting a variety of new charges, possibly including espionage.

After two bombs were detonated in downtown Stockholm over the weekend, killing the man suspected of the attack and injuring two others, investigators from several countries are trying to determine whether the suspect had accomplices in Sweden or abroad. So far, experts are divided on the question.

France is running low on fuel supplies as nationwide strikes led by labor unions paralyze roads, fuel refineries, public transportation, and more. And the protests are expected to intensify.

When Swedes went to the polls late last month for the parliamentary election, most of them did not suspect the anti-immigrant “far-right” Sweden Democrats (SD) had much of a chance, especially after the party was banned from advertising in certain subsidized media outlets and generally ostracized and demonized as racists by mainstream society.

The move toward a cashless society is accelerating in Sweden as plastic payments become the norm and various government officials, unions, and high-profile Swedes push for a ban on cash, supposedly to reduce robberies. But opposition to the proposal is mounting as well.

The French parliament voted unanimously June 29 to  give final approval to a new law to criminalize “psychological violence,” prompting criticism from judges and rights groups who worry about privacy violations and how the rule will actually be enforced.

In a scenario that could have come from George Orwell’s famous book 1984, a controversial government surveillance system that uses hidden microphones to snoop on public conversations in Europe has been exposed. And it’s already drawing strong criticism from privacy advocates.

New revelations in the suspicious “suicide” death of whistle-blower Dr. David Kelly point even more strongly to the possibility of murder and a subsequent cover-up, according to an explosive investigation by the British newspaper Daily Mail.