In what is considered a landmark case in Holocaust restitution, Germany’s largest retailer agreed March 30 to pay 88 million euros ($117 million/2.5 billion Kč) to the original owners of a land plot in central Berlin. The Wertheim family operated a department store there before it was seized by the Nazis. The payment, one of the largest ever granted in a Holocaust restitution case, will be shared by the Jewish Claims Conference and Wertheim descendants.

Leading presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal have clashed over France’s immigration policy just weeks before elections scheduled for April 22. Sarkozy, the candidate for the right-leaning UMP party, said at a news conference April 2 that “uncontrolled immigration” has “exasperated” France. Royal, the Socialist candidate, has criticized Sarkozy for having an anti-immigration stance.

Two former police officers accused of beating a Romany man to death in 2001 told a Slovak court April 2 they don’t know how the victim died. Karol Sendrei, 51, was arrested in Magnezitovce, east Slovakia, after a scuffle with the town mayor. Prosecutors say Sendrei was tied to a radiator in the police station, beaten and jumped on, and sustained 10 broken ribs. The trial began in 2003.

President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called early elections April 2. The decree was issued in response to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s moves to persuade pro-Yushchenko lawmakers to join his camp despite a new law requiring lawmakers to stay with their party during an election. Parliament called the action legally baseless and blocked funding for the new election, set for May 27. Thousands of supporters of both sides rallied in Kyiv March 31.

Danish researchers reported April 1 that they have discovered how to convert all blood into the universal donor type. The scientists say they have isolated bacterial enzymes that safely and effectively transform types A, B and AB blood into Type O blood. The discovery could relieve blood-supply shortages.