If your topic is a current one, or you want to see how it has been covered in newspapers, there are many electronic newspaper sources available through the UW-Madison Libraries. Here are a few that are especially useful for finding articles from foreign newspapers:
Lexis-Nexis Academic is one of the popular sources and includes some foreign newspapers and searching in foreign languages. (See below for hints on searching Lexis-Nexis Academic.)
Facts on File: World News Digest is another good source of stories (in English) concerning other countries. The database goes back to 1940.
Factiva has articles from many foreign newspapers. The database has articles going back to the 1970s for some of the publications.
World News Connection. Translated and English-language news, compiled by the U.S. government.
For more newspapers sources, use the Libraries' Newspapers Research Guide, especially the international tab.