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.

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

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?

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?

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.