Smash hit

Berlusconi wife seeks €43m a year divorce deal

Italian Prime Minister contests claim as exorbitant after Veronica Lario demands three and a half million euros a month

French fail to grab control of EU finances

Britain expects to defeat President Sarkozy’s campaign to take key post in European Commission, due to be announced today

Swiss to vote on proposed minaret ban

Populist politicians seize on opportunity to head off “problems” associated with Muslim integration elsewhere in Europe

Case study: The altar boy

‘Look the other way and you’re just as guilty,’ says Andrew Madden, who as a 12-year-old boy was abused by a Dublin priest

Briton 'used marriage proposals to con women'

After allegedly taking up to €700,000 from his victims the man, who claimed to be aristocrat, would fake his death

Poland legislates against red symbols

Up to two years in jail await anyone glorifying communism, according to an amended Article of the Polish criminal code

Recession forces East Europeans to quit UK

Record emigration last year included many from the former Soviet bloc countries returning home in the economic downturn

France voted world’s leading wine producer

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine reports that France has knocked Italy off the top spot

'Papi' Berlusconi celebrated with a musical

A Scilian theatre is planning a musical on the turbulent love life of the Italian Prime Minister, based on My Fair Lady

ANALYSIS: it defies belief, but they did it

In the Irish Church obedience was not to God or the law, but to the overarching policy of: 'Don’t ask, don’t tell'

Berlusconi government blocks abortion pill

RU486, or mifepristone, which offers an alternative to surgical abortion suspended for use after Vatican condemnation

Polanksi on bail as Swiss consider extradition

Switzerland's top criminal court grants request by director, facing child sex charges, to be released on £2.7m bail

'They owned you and they made sure you knew it'

John Kelly was just 13 years old when he was committed in 1963 to Daingean Reformatory School in County Offaly

Putin's tiger is missing, despite satellite collar

Endangered animal's movements were being tracked. Environmentalists say collar could have fallen off or poachers struck

'Jet Man' ditches into sea as record bid fails

Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy failed in bid to make first intercontinental flight using jet-powered wing attached to his back

Belgium braces for worst as ex-PM returns

Yves Leterme’s first stint as the Prime Minister of Belgium was not a resounding success. Now he is back for another go

UN summit fears green squat on its doorstep

A commune in central Copenhagen, seen by Government as a nest of troublemakers, has impeccable environmental credentials