KILLER

A nurse has confessed to killing seven of his patients and attempting to murder 10 more by injecting them with a blood-thinning drug, police said Dec. 3. The 30-year-old man, whose identity was not released, worked in the intensive-care unit of a hospital in Havličkův Brod, east Bohemia. The motive of the killings was not euthanasia, police said.

NUCLEAR

Austrian critics of the Czech nuclear facility Temelí­n will file a suit at the European Court of Justice in the coming weeks, Austrian media reported Dec. 2. Activists also blockaded border checkpoint for six hours Dec. 3. The Temelí­n plant in south Bohemia, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Austrian border, has been plagued by technical troubles and is a frequent target of Czech, Austrian and German anti-nuclear protests.

DRINK

The Czech Republic ranked second in Europe in alcohol consumption in 2005, behind only Luxembourg, media reported Dec. 2. According to Czech Statistical Office data, per-capita consumption was 7.8 liters (8.27 quarts) of liquor, 16.8 liters of wine and 163.5 liters of beer. Czechs are still the highest per-capita consumers of beer in the world, the reports said.

BLAME

Social Democratic (ČSSD) head Jiří­ Paroubek blamed former party Chairman Miloš Zeman for the ČSSD's loss of public support last month, according to a Dec. 4 report on news server Novinky. Paroubek said voters dislike quarreling within parties and that Zeman shouldn't have publicly criticized the current ČSSD leadership.

LEFT OUT

Czech universities complain that they were left out of the government's decision on a new law on schools. Passed by the Chamber of Deputies Dec. 1, the law gives universities more freedom to decide how they handle their finances but will also change the way they receive state funding.

THE NETHERLANDS

The trial of a Serbian politician accused of crimes against humanity was halted Dec. 3 at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague after he had to be hospitalized during a hunger strike. Vojislav Šešelj is accused of ordering a Serbian militia to terrorize and kill Croatian and Bosnian civilians during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He has been refusing food and medicine since Nov. 11.

GERMANY

German politicians announced Dec. 1 they would pursue a ban on smoking in restaurants and certain public spaces, following the lead of other European countries like France, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom. However, the proposal stopped short of banning smoking in bars and pubs.

RUSSIA

The Russian foreign minister warned Dec. 4 that diplomatic relations could be damaged should the United Kingdom further suggest Moscow is responsible for the radiation poisoning of a man in London. Alexandr Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, died in a British hospital Nov. 23. He alleged the Russian government was behind the poisoning.

ITALY

Tens of thousands protested in Rome Dec. 2 against a series of tax hikes and spending cuts proposed by Italy's center-left government. The center-right opposition, led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, says the measures are an attack on the middle class. The ruling government says the tax hikes are needed to reduce Italy's deficit.

SPAIN

Police in the eastern region of Valencia have arrested a Chechen terrorist suspect wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by Russia, media reports said Dec. 3. Murat Ajmedovich Gasayev is suspected of involvement in multiple attacks "committed on the territory of the Russian Federation," a press release from the Russian Prosecutor General's office indicated.

FRANCE

The former French ambassador to Bulgaria accused of being involved in the trans-European sex trade appeared for the first time in a French court Dec. 4, media reports said. Dominique Chassard is accused of helping to procure French business visas for Bulgarian prostitutes. He served as ambassador in Sofia 1999—2001.

DENMARK

Three Danish journalists were acquitted Dec. 4 of charges of endangering national security after they published reports from the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (DDIS) in 2004. The reports showed the DDIS knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The DDIS said the leak undermined its relationship with intelligence services abroad, but the journalists argued the publication was in the public interest.

POLAND

Historians have discovered the wreckage of an Allied World War II bomber shot down while dropping supplies to the Polish resistance during the 1944 Warsaw uprising, media reports said Dec. 2. The remains of its crew, five Canadians and two Britons, were discovered buried with the wreckage, which was found near the southern Polish town of Dí browa Tarnowska.

ROMANIA

The Conservative Party pulled out of Bucharest's coalition government Dec. 3 over a dispute on tax cuts with the leading Democratic Party, leaving a minority government in power as Romania prepares to join the European Union in January. The economic minister and deputy prime minister also resigned. The governing coalition now has less than half of the seats in the Senate.

UKRAINE

The Parliament in Kyiv has sacked the interior and foreign ministers, both considered key allies of pro-West President Viktor Yushchenko, media reports said Dec. 1. Parliament is under the control of pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Constitutional changes that came into effect early this year reduced the powers of the president and strengthened those of the prime minister, analysts said.