The world at a glance . . . Europe

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Suing the Real IRA: Relatives of the victims of the worst terrorist attack in Northern Ireland’s history have won $2.6 million in damages in a civil suit against an IRA splinter group. A High Court judge found the Real IRA and four of its members responsible for the 1998 Omagh car bombing, which killed 29 people. The victims’ families said they were frustrated by the inability of British and Irish authorities to win criminal convictions in the bombing, so they turned to the civil courts, which have a lower standard of proof. They were inspired, they said, by the damages awarded in the wrongful-death suit against O.J. Simpson.

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EU Parliament gets odd members: Internet piracy advocates and accused criminals were among the 783 people elected to the European Parliament last week. The breakdown of parties represented in the EU’s legislative body is roughly the same as in the last election, in 2004, with center-right parties winning a plurality. But there were a few notable additions. Sweden’s Pirate Party, which advocates free Internet file sharing for all, won a seat. Lithuania’s ethnic Russians helped elect Alfreds Rubiks, an unrepentant communist who was the country’s last Soviet leader. Romanians chose Gigi Becali, a soccer club owner who plans to use his parliamentary immunity to escape trial for kidnapping (he allegedly abducted three people he believed had stolen his car). And the British gave two seats to the far-right British National Party and 13 to the U.K. Independence Party—which seeks to pull Britain out of the EU altogether.

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