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In the Czech Republic, more than 20 people have died after drinking bootlegged liquor tainted with industrial methanol. Police say they have arrested several suspects in connection with the production of the contaminated liquor.
Decentralization was supposed to secure Spain's future, but that was before the economic crisis hit. Many of the country's regions are deeply in debt or even teetering on bankruptcy. Now the principality of Asturias wants to help itself by mining for gold.
Asturias sits on one of the biggest untapped gold deposits in western Europe. Officials hope opening up new gold mines will create thousands of new jobs. But the plans have sparked protests. Many farmers fear that mining for gold could trigger the release of dangerous chemicals and endanger their crops.
Methanol-tainted, bootlegged liquor has unleashed a wave of alcohol poisonings in the Czech Republic. Many people have died and the Czechs are worried. The authorities have confiscated some, but not all, of the tainted spirits.
Liquor, spiked with industrial methanol, can be a deadly concoction. Those who have survived drinking the poisonous cocktail are likely to suffer permanent damage. The government has banned the sale, distribution and export of spirits with more than 20 percent alcohol content. But who is responsible? Czech police say they've made several arrests in connection with the production of the contaminated liquor.
Belarus is on the brink of bankruptcy and is sufferíng the after-effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko still plans to build a nuclear power plant near the Lithuanian border.
The plant is expected to go online by 2018 at the latest. In a time when nuclear power is falling out of favor around the world, nuclear energy is also controversial in Belarus. But anti-nuclear activists in Belarus face a harsh response. They're being jailed for speaking out.
No ice, no polar bears. Not too many years ago scientists were still convinced that climate change was threatening arctic animal populations. But today in Spitsbergen, there are more polar bears than there are people - even though it's getting warmer.
Researchers in the region have observed that polar bears are quick to adapt to new hunting and stalking methods, and that they're no longer shying away from humans or towns. Now the residents of Spitsbergen are building fences to keep out the bears and arming themselves with air guns.
