Your Weekly European Roundup

Welcome back from your long weekend ““ just in time for a new European Roundup! Germany is currently finding its way out of the nuclear power era, cucumbers are experiencing a crisis on the European market and Berlusconi is in (serious) trouble.

Europe: Bomb explosions in IKEA stores in France, Belgium and the Netherlands

All three explosions happened this Monday and in exactly the same way. Nobody was injured, fortunately. The police in the three countries are working together, however, so far nobody knows what exactly happened and who might be behind it. Read more.

Germany: Nuclear power to be phased out by 2022

Nuclear power was never really popular in Germany, and after what happened in Japan, the German public got louder in its protest. Angela Merkel is going with the crowds on this issue, which means that the German government now has agreed on phasing out nuclear power by 2022. The energy lobby is not too happy, of course. Read more.

Germany: 14 dead in E. coli outbreak

For the last week, especially Northern Germany has been suffering under the biggest E. coli outbreak in German history. It is suspected that fresh vegetables are the source. First scientists thought that they had found the bacteria on a delivery of Spanish cucumbers, but this turned out to be wrong. German and Spanish cucumbers and other vegetables have been banned in several European countries and farmers are throwing out their harvest. Read more.

Italy: Berlusconi is losing his backland

Well, Berlusconi’s latest racist rant did not help. Italy seems to be fed up showed that in the latest local elections, where Berlusconi’s conservative party lost key cities like Milan and Naples to centre-left candidates. Read more.

Russia: Suspected arrested in Politkovskaya murder case

Five years after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a suspect has been arrested. In 2006, the journalist was killed right outside her home. Rustam Makhmudov is not the first to be arrested. His brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim and former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov have been arrested before, but all of them were acquitted in 2009. Rustam Makhmudov has been a fugitive for the past five years. Read more.

Russia: Violence at gay rights rally in Moscow

It sad but no surprise that violence was a big part of the latest gay rights rally in Moscow. The rally started out rather peaceful. However, the flag-waving activists were then attacked ultra-Orthodox religious group. Several activists were arrested, among them three prominent gay right leaders. Read more.

Serbia: Former army chief Ratko Mladic arrested in Belgrade

Ratko Mladic has been hiding from the police since 1995. He is accused of ordering the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, where 7,500 Muslim men and boys were killed. He tried to prevent his extradition, however, he is now on the way to The Hague to face his charges at the UN war crimes tribunal. Read more.