Six people were found bound and shot dead in a Chinese restaurant in northern Germany Feb. 5, police said. The bodies of three men and three women were found in various rooms throughout the restaurant in the town of Sittensen, near Hamburg. A seventh restaurant employee is being treated in hospital for a life-threatening gunshot wound. A child was also found at the scene, but was uninjured.

Forty-five countries immediately backed France’s Feb. 3 bid to form a worldwide coalition, possibly with policing powers, to fight global warming and climate change. The charge, led by President Jacques Chirac, came a day after a report from a Paris environmental convention said human actions are “very likely” to blame for global warming. Absent from the initiative are industry heavyweights China, India and the United States.

Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski resigned Feb. 5, reportedly over a dispute with Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. According to reports in Polish media, the two men disagreed over Kaczynski’s appointment of a political ally as head of the counter-intelligence agency. The resignation comes as Poland prepares to enter talks with the United States over controversial plans to station a U.S. missile defense base in the country.

Prosecutors filed fresh embezzlement and money laundering charges Feb. 5 against oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been serving an eight-year prison sentence for similar charges since 2003. His lawyers released a statement charging the Kremlin with conspiring to keep him in jail beyond the March 2008 presidential elections. Both he and his business partner will be eligible for parole this year. Khodorkovsky angered President Vladimir Putin by funding opposition parties before the 2003 elections.

Thousands attended the Feb. 5 funeral of a policeman killed in a Feb. 2 riot at a soccer stadium in Catania, Sicily. Filippo Raciti, 38, died after being hit with a blunt object, an autopsy revealed. In a message of condolence, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the death, which he said “stains the world of soccer.” A further 70 people were injured.

A postal worker was injured after a letter bomb exploded in London Feb. 5. The bomb went off in a central London post office just 183 meters from the headquarters of Scotland Yard. The worker suffered only minor injuries. Police are investigating to determine who is responsible for the blast.