Europe still maintains a dozen monarchies. As a new king settles into the Dutch throne, can the cash-strapped continent afford to support these expensive spongers any longer?

Harnessing anti-Europe sentiment in Britain, UKIP leader Nigel Farage is dragging his party of “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists” into the mainstream.

Tracking the epidemic of smalltown corruption that has crippled Spain — and Europe with it.

In other countries, voter anger has spilled over into violence and xenophobia, but in Italy Beppe Grillo is winning with a form of vigilante politics.

On a speaking tour of Australia, the controversial Dutch populist is being touted as a prophet of “Freedom, Islam and the West”.

Rome has an election campaign underway — oh, and one very large financial corruption scandal.

So, print is all but washed up? Not according to one of the world’s most successful magazines, which, against all odds, is still making money — lots of money.

Deutsche Bank’s reputation is besmirched, bringing a little light relief to Europe’s Greek tragedy.

It’s Denmark’s ‘The West Wing’: the TV series ‘Borgen’ has done for politics what Nordic-Noir has done for screen police and thriller lit.

From Spain, the latest on the splintering state of the EU.

It’s austerity o’clock in the EU — bad timing for Moet-swilling papershufflers?

Fresh out of the joint, disgraced media baron Conrad Black is charging his way through an image rehab tour, insulting everyone in his path.

The Dutch did. When the water's at your neck, it pays to be pragmatic.

Ten years ago, Jemaah Islamiah perpetrated the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesian — and Australian — history. The suicide bombing of Bali’s Sari Club killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian. This is the story ...

With bloody protests in the streets of Madrid, reports of Spain's recovery seem greatly exaggerated. Tell me again how we got to this point?

Unfinished Seseña is the backdrop for the Spanish economic rescue being dreamed up in the European Central Bank.

Julian Assange's Australian lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, has shot to notoriety in cases where technology and freedom of speech intersect.

Apple this week became the most valuable public company in history. I had a bite of that... once.

A tiny Spanish village saved itself by turning into Smurftown. The alternative was Colonel Gaddafi.

As Team GB gathers up an historic gold-medal haul, London Mayor Boris Johnson has managed to garner almost as much glory as the athletes.

With few foreigners in sight, what is driving the fairytale towns of rural France into the arms of Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National?

Racist? Offensive? Rabble-rouser? Writer and economist Thilo Sarrazin discomfits Germans with his blunt take on what he thinks ails them.

Being European isn't all Parisian zinc bars and bocce, boules and moules. In the besieged Eurozone, it's tough economic love.

Oh, yes, another country’s economic wreckage you really ought to understand. And it’s a big one — one of Europe’s top five.

Italian comic Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement has won 25 per cent of the vote in Italy's national election — and the political establishment isn't laughing. How did Italy's Michael Moore come to lead the single ...

To put you in command of dinner-party conversation, we offer a smart, simple guide to what’s going on in the land of goat’s milk and honey.

As the revelations tumble from the UK phone-hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron seem locked in a race to destroy each other.

Rupert Murdoch swore to tell the “whole truth and nothing but the truth” to a British media inquiry this week. Did he?

The grand European experiment is under threat. Does Nicolas Sarkozy’s electoral pain herald the end of Europe as we know it?

Anders Behring Breivik's slaughter of 77 Norwegians seems to have inspired a provocative German clothing shop. Should it be banned?

As Europe’s economic crisis puts pressure on the cost of everything, the squeeze is creating a potentially explosive problem.

Gibraltar has a reputation for stability. Some would say dull. Looking in vain for action on The Rock.

Part two: Scotland will vote on independence in 2014, raising questions about the British nuclear arsenal there.

Part One: Toxic to English politicians as the phone-hacking scandal deepens, Rupert Murdoch is tempting independence-minded Scots.

Life expectancy in Glasgow’s inner eastern neighbourhoods is the lowest in Britain. But while they live, they go to Paradise.

Many nations sock money away for harder times. Some invest carefully, some cravenly. Others - like East Timor - just get lucky!

The Irish are emigrating — again — and Australia is their preferred destination. You may even find an Irish politician building your kitchen cabinet.

After Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president in a poll many say was rigged, the Kremlin reviews the jailing of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Who knew Che Guevara was Irish? Not many Irish did, until a struggling hamlet in faraway County Clare figured out a way to make a buck from him.

Not every media mogul has a staff that hacks phones. One of England’s most admired moguls has a staff made up of people who are homeless.

In these troubled times for Australian soccer, an Indonesian oligarch has stepped up to buy the Brisbane Roar club.

Meet Paul Staines, the maverick mischief-maker who revels in upending British political reporting.

Mitty Lee Brown died this week in Sri Lanka. It’s likely that this was her final interview.

After 14 years and USD1 billion, the International Criminal Court finally delivers a verdict. Why does it take so long?

As Europe wallows in a mire of navel-gazing and finger-pointing, The Global Mail meets students from the College of Europe.

Still shivering after the New York protest packed it in, Occupy London is encamped in St Paul's.

The Global Mail’s European correspondent muses on his latest hometown — the efficient, the delicious … and the racist.