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A protest party draws support from voters who are fed up with politics, but its success could make governing Italy even harder than it already is.

The European Union's official economists predicted the euro-zone economy will shrink in 2013 for the second year in a row and for the third year of the past five, in a forecast that sees little hope that easing financial-market tensions in the region will provide a jolt to the real economy any time soon.

More than 200 strangers attended a British veteran's funeral after a church minister put out a plea on Facebook, fearing he would be buried without mourners, according to reports.

Admir Suljic is thought to be an associate of Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean who has been implicated in suspected match-fixing cases dating back more than a decade... Officials from Europol and other European law enforcement bodies said Feb. 4 that they had identified 680 matches worldwide that appeared to have been fixed over the past few years, including at the very height of the sport, in World Cup qualifiers and the Champions League.

Even as the euro zone periphery starts to spy some glimmers of hope, concern is mounting that Germany is drifting apart from other countries at the core of the single currency bloc, notably France.

Popular pressure is mounting in the U.S. and Italy to keep California Cardinal Roger Mahony away from the conclave to elect the next pope because of his role shielding sexually abusive priests, a movement targeting one of the most prominent of a handful of compromised cardinals scheduled to vote next month....

Tens of thousands of anti-austerity demonstrators took to the streets of Athens on Wednesday as unions staged a general strike to protest government spending cuts and tax hikes, which some predict will push unemployment to an alarming 30 percent. Police said up to 40,000 people were participating in two separate marches in central Athens that were so far peaceful.

A new James Bond novel by British novelist William Boyd will be released in England on Sept. 26. The book will star a 45-year-old Bond and be set in 1969, the "classic Bond" era.

For Britons worried last week's beef lasagne was in fact a helping of horse, peace of mind that such a meal will never reach dining tables again may come at a price.

President Francois Hollande has confirmed that a French family of seven -- three adults and four children -- have been kidnapped in northern Cameroon.