The recently appointed Archbishop of Warsaw was right to resign Jan. 7 after admitting that he had served as a secret informant to Poland's communist regime, the Vatican said. Monsignor Stanislaw Wielgus, 67, confessed to allegations of spying and resigned less than an hour before his inaugural Mass was to begin. Wielgus had said he was innocent until a police file documenting his connections with the secret police became public.

SLOVENIA

Bitterness over price increases created by Slovenia's Jan. 1 adoption of the euro is on the rise, the Slovene Consumers' Association told the UK Telegraph newspaper Jan. 8. The association has been receiving about 175 complaints per day, association President Breda Kutin said. Costs are expected to rise further in June when a price freeze imposed on major retailers ends.

SLOVAKIA

The planned Tesco takeover of four Carrefour stores in Slovakia has stalled, the Slovak Anti-Monopoly Office said Jan. 5. The takeover would boost Tesco's market position and leave it without any real competitors, the office said in a statement. Tesco, the United Kingdom's largest retail company, took over 11 Carrefour stores in the Czech Republic after winning European Commission approval in Dec. 2005.

UK