Photo caption: Youth take part in the world's largest LAN (Local Area Network) party, a gathering of computer enthusiasts playing games, browsing the web and developing software on November 26, 2009 in Jonkoping, Sweden. Sweden is the first stop for the tech-savvy students of Think Global School. (Jan Johannessen/Getty Images) STOCKHOLM, Sweden — For the first time in history, a parent will actually be proud that their child attended three different high schools in one year.

ROME, Italy — As Catholics around the world prepare to celebrate Palm Sunday, a drumbeat of scandal in the church seems incessant and increasingly focused on the pope himself.

BERLIN, Germany — Germany's military has long struggled with a contradiction at the core of its identity: It is asked by the country's political class to serve in far-off countries alongside the professional soldiers of allied nations, but its institutional core is that of a conscripted infantry designed to protect the homeland from Soviet attacks.

BERLIN, Germany — In a deal struck at the end of February that's expected to serve as a model for the rest of the country, Germany's robust engineering sector will next year see its smallest wage increase in over a quarter century. The agreement is a done deal, but its import is still being hotly debated. Most Germans see it as a sign of their preparedness to make painful concessions to the realities of the global financial crisis. To their neighbors in the European Union, though, it's a doubling-down on policies that have lead to the continent's currency crisis.