The United States spied on European Union offices and broke into private computer networks of EU officials in the US and Europe, according to a new report.

German magazine Der Spiegel claims that top secret documents from 2010 leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden show that the US bugged offices in Washington, New York and Brussels.

The NSA also tapped European Union private computer networks to read e-mails and listen to phone calls and meetings by government officials.

The NSA document refers to the European Union as "a target."

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The Guardian has since published a follow-up story that reports that "The president of the European parliament has called for full clarification from the US over claims it bugged EU offices in America and accessed computer networks."

From earlier:

The NSA has been working with at least seven European other countries to collect personal communications data, according to Wayne Madsen, a former NSA contractor who has come forward because he thinks the public should not be "kept in the dark." According to Madsen, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy all have formed secret agreements with the US to submit sensitive data.

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Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred from public office for life - a sentence that could mean the end of his two-decade political career. However, there are two more levels of appeal before the sentence would become final, a process that can take months.

Berlusconi holds no official post in the current Italian government, but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that emerged after inconclusive February elections.

Both he and the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal have denied ever having sex.

His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, immediately announced an appeal and said the sentence was as expected as it was unjust.

"This is beyond reality," Ghedini told reporters outside the courthouse. The sentence was even stiffer than the six-year prison term and lifetime ban on public office that prosecutors had originally requested.

"I'm calm because I've been saying for three years that this trial should never have taken place here," Ghedini said.

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He’s just taken a big step to fulfilling that ambition at a trainee bullfight in this small town 30 miles north of Madrid.

Mejias stands at a little over five feet tall and his voice hasn’t broken, but his skills with the cape against a quarter-ton bullock wowed the local crowd. At the end of the faena, he drove his sword into the animal’s heart, killing it with the cool precision of a veteran.

“I want to be a great bullfighter,” he said afterward. “That’s why I’m here. Otherwise I’d be at home studying.”

Mejias and the other teenagers who took part in the event are part of the next generation of Spanish matadors. But they’re embarking on their careers at a time that bullfighting’s future is more in doubt than perhaps any other time in its three-century history — as Moralzarzal’s three-quarters-empty bullring attests.

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However, the interior minister issued a stark warning to organizers of the one-day labor walkout that is aimed at maintaining pressure on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

"I am calling on public workers and laborers to not participate in unlawful demonstrations — otherwise they will bear the legal consequences," Muammer Guler said. "Our police will be on duty as usual."

A day earlier, riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul's central Taksim Square, while a few kilometers (miles) away Erdogan addressed hundreds of thousands of government supporters.

Police on Monday maintained a lockdown on Taksim, the epicenter of more than two weeks of protests, by barring vehicles. However, as the work week began, authorities re-opened a subway station at the square that had been shuttered Sunday when protesters tried to regroup.

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“We have always been firm on data protection within the EU and when negotiating with third countries, including the U.S.,” said caucus leader Guy Verhofstadt of the Alde group of liberal parties. “It would be unacceptable and would need swift action from the EU, if indeed the U.S. National Security Agency were processing European data without permission.”

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Massive plumes of tear gas billowed upward, and police fired water cannons Tuesday night.

It was the latest sign that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has run out of patience after 12 days of unrest in Turkey's largest city and beyond.

Several people were being placed into ambulances during the latest clashes, which have trained an international spotlight on Turkey's democracy.

The protests have swelled from a peaceful demonstration first aimed to stop developers from cutting down trees in a park into nationwide disturbances.

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In the first extensive public show of support since anti-government protests erupted last week, more than 10,000 supporters cheered Recep Tayyip Erdogan with rapturous applause outside Istanbul's international airport.

Despite earlier comments that suggested he could be softening his stand, Erdogan delivered a fiery speech on his return from a four-day trip to North Africa. "These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now," he said.

Tens of thousands of protesters have held demonstrations that have spread to dozens of cities across Turkey, sparked by the violent police reaction last Friday to what started out as a small protest against a plan to develop Istanbul's central Taksim Square.

Since then, three people have died — two protesters and a policeman — and thousands have been wounded. One protester is on life support in a hospital in Ankara.

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The Putins made the statement on state television after attending a ballet performance at the Kremlin.

"It was our joint decision," Putin said.

Lyudmila Putin was rarely seen in public during her husband's long tenure at the top of Russian politics and implied that she didn't like to travel with him on his frequent trips.

"I don't like publicity and flying is difficult for me," she said.

The Putins married on July 28, 1983, and have two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina. In the televised announcement of their divorce, Putin appeared reserved and Lyudmila smiled tentatively.

"We practically never saw each other. To each his own life," Putin said.

Lyudmila Putin said, "We will eternally be very close people. I'm thankful ... that he supports me."

There were no immediate indications of how the move would be perceived by the public. Divorce is common in Russia, and nearly 700,000 pairs dissolved their marriages in 2009, according to UNICEF.

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It’s not as though there were a shortage of countries to experiment with libertarianism. There are 193 sovereign state members of the United Nations—195, if you count the Vatican and Palestine, which have been granted observer status by the world organization. If libertarianism was a good idea, wouldn’t at least one country have tried it? Wouldn’t there be at least one country, out of nearly two hundred, with minimal government, free trade, open borders, decriminalized drugs, no welfare state and no public education system?

When you ask libertarians if they can point to a libertarian country, you are likely to get a baffled look, followed, in a few moments, by something like this reply: While there is no purely libertarian country, there are countries which have pursued policies of which libertarians would approve: Chile, with its experiment in privatized Social Security, for example, and Sweden, a big-government nation which, however, gives a role to vouchers in schooling.

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Thousands have joined anti-government rallies across Turkey since Friday, when police launched a pre-dawn raid against a peaceful sit-in protesting plans to uproot trees in Istanbul's main Taksim Square. Since then, the demonstrations by mostly secular-minded Turks have spiraled into Turkey's biggest anti-government disturbances in years, and have spread to many of the biggest cities.

The Hatay province governor's office said the man, Abdullah Comert, died in a hospital after he was shot Monday during a demonstration in the city of Antakya. It suggested, however, that he may have been shot by demonstrators trying to inflame tensions, saying police had been fired on during the protest.

But the province's chief prosecutor said that an autopsy showed Comert received a blow to the head and there was no trace of a gunshot wound. It said authorities had launched an investigation into the death.

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The square has become the symbol for Turkey’s broadening protest movement as more and more people from all strata of society are drawn to the demonstrations to express their mounting frustrations with the government.

Thousands arrived at the square on Saturday, every hour and from all directions. There were Greenpeace activists, football fans, supporters of opposition political parties as well as right- and left-wing groups.

The streets were mostly for the young, but there were families and elderly couples, too. Riot police beat back surging crowds using wave after wave of tear gas.

Student doctors and nurses roamed Taksim square, applying a solution of water and sodium bicarbonate to anyone with red eyes.

Paper masks were handed out, though by Saturday evening, many protesters were better prepared and equipped with head-covering latex gas masks.

Calls for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s resignation reverberated around Istanbul’s city streets and by 5 p.m., police were driven from the square by a shower of stones and bottles.

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In a statement, spokeswoman Laura Lucas says the U.S. believes peaceful public demonstrations "are a part of democratic expression." And she says Turkey's long-term stability is best guaranteed by upholding "the fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly and association."

The White House statement in particular calls on security forces in Turkey to "exercise restraint."

Thousands of people around Turkey have been protesting in the country's fiercest anti-government demonstrations in years. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (REH'-jehp TY'-ihp UR'-doh-wahn) rejected claims that he is a "dictator," dismissing protesters as an extremist fringe.

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Prime Minister David Cameron says there are strong indications it was an act of terrorism, and his top advisers will be examining the potential security implications of the attack, which took place near a military barracks in the Woolwich area of the city.

Police Thursday confirmed the dead man was a serving soldier and said his identity will not be released yet at his family's request. They said a post-mortem examination will be conducted later Thursday.

One of the attackers went on video to explain the crime — shouting political statements, gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver. Police shot and wounded the unidentified assailants and took them into custody.

British media say the victim was wearing a shirt in support of troops when he was killed.

Security has been tightened at military barracks and authorities say they are updating their guidance for military personnel.

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While details were scant, Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing "truly shocking" and said he had asked Home Secretary Theresa May to call an urgent meeting of the government's emergency committee.

A British government official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation said the details that had emerged were indicative of a "terrorist-motivated attack."

May said she had been briefed by Britain's domestic security service, MI5, and by police on what she called a "sickening and barbaric" attack.

Britain's Ministry of Defense said it was urgently investigating reports that a serving soldier was involved in the incident.

Police said armed officers responded to reports of the assault Wednesday afternoon just a few blocks from a military training barracks in southeast London.

Commander Simon Letchford said reports indicated that one man was being assaulted by two other men, and that a number of weapons - including possibly a firearm - were used in the attack.

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Rioters Tuesday night attacked a police station in Jakobsberg, damaged two schools and set on fire an arts and crafts center, in spite of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's call for people to "pitch in to restore calm."

It's believed the riots are linked to the death of a local man, shot dead by police on May 13 after reportedly threatening them with a machete. Since then riots or related incidents have been reported in nine suburbs, especially Hubsy, home to about 12,000 people.

"We've had two nights with great unrest, damage, and an intimidating atmosphere in Husby and there is a risk it will continue, said Reinfeldt on Tuesday.

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The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival Monday — on the very day France once again slipped into recession.

As GlobalPost's Senior Correspondent for Europe Paul Ames reported, "The symbolism of Cannes opening with Baz Luhrmann's extravagant 3-D evocation of millionaire decadence in roaring '20s New York, did not go unnoticed."

But there are other important things "The Great Gatsby" can teach us about economics, aside from how much fun those West Egg parties must have been.

In short, there's a key lesson in here about economic inequality.

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With urgency in his voice, he refers to children being murdered and women being raped at the hands of the enemy.

“We really need you here. This is your opportunity for paradise.”

“Paradise” via the distinct possibility of death on a Syrian battlefield, he means.

The man is calling for recruits to join the Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate that makes up part of Syria’s fragmented armed opposition fighting the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

As unappealing as that “opportunity” may sound to the average European, the message has resonated with hundreds of youths here who have disappeared from their schools and homes and turned up in Syria.

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The suspect, Sven Kamphuis, was arrested in Barcelona last month and extradited Monday, Justice Ministry spokesman Paul van der Zanden said. Kamphuis is currently before a judge in Rotterdam as prosecutors seek to have his detention extended by 14 days, Van der Zanden said.

He said Kamphuis, 35, is likely to face charges for directing large amounts of data at Spamhaus in an attempt to derail its servers, and for breaking into other people's computers.

Van der Zanden could not confirm that there was any link between the Kamphuis case and the coordinated attack on the government's website.

Robert Wester, a spokesman for the national government, said in an emailed response to questions that the attack began late Tuesday evening and got worse Wednesday morning.

The attack consisted of an unknown attacker or attackers trying to flood government computer servers with so many requests that they would become unreachable for regular traffic.

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But the former Italian leader could appeal this verdict to a higher court, the Court of Cassation.

In October, a court convicted Berlusconi in a scheme that involved inflating the price his Mediaset media empire paid for TV rights to U.S. movies and pocketing the difference. Berlusconi denied the charges and says he's a victim of politically motivated prosecutors.

That verdict was upheld Wednesday by the appeals court in Milan.

The lower court, which began hearing the case in 2006, also said Berlusconi could not hold public office for five years or manage any company for three years, penalties that would take force only if the conviction is upheld on two levels of appeal.

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