Rioters torched cars and attacked local police stations in 15 immigrant-populated Stockholm suburbs in a fourth night of riots on Thursday, shattering Sweden's image as a peaceful and egalitarian nation. The riots have sparked a debate in Sweden about the assimilation of immigrants, who make up about 15 percent of the population, as many of them struggle to learn the language and find employment despite numerous government programmes. The fire brigade said it was called to some 90 different blazes during the night, most of them caused by rioters.

Hungary's governing party slammed Thursday a new report by rights group Amnesty International that sharply criticised recent legislation and the treatment of minorities, calling it "distorted and biased". Peter Hoppal, a spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz party, said that the London-based watchdog's annual report published Wednesday "painted a particularly distorted and biased picture of the country".

Iceland's new Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson took office on Thursday, heading up a coalition government composed entirely of newcomers who have never served in a cabinet. Gunnlaugsson, of the centrist-agrarian Progressive Party, thereby became at age 38 one of the youngest serving heads of government in the world. He will also be the youngest member of Iceland's new government. An Oxford-educated former journalist, Gunnlaugsson belongs to a new generation of politicians who emerged after Iceland's 2008 financial crisis.

France's lower house on Thursday approved a plan to introduce more courses in English at universities despite critics alleging it will undermine efforts to promote French. A majority of lawmakers in the National Assembly approved the second article of a bill on higher education in a show-of-hands vote. The full bill is expected to be approved in the Assembly and the upper house Senate, where the ruling Socialists and their left-wing allies have majorities.