Warsaw expects SOFA security pact signed with U.S. this week

WARSAW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - An agreement on the status of U.S. troops on Polish soil, known as the SOFA deal, will be signed on December 10 in Warsaw, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

According to the Status of Forces Agreement, U.S. troops will service Patriot missiles that are to be integrated into Poland's national security system.

"The U.S.-Polish SOFA accord will be signed in Warsaw and not in Washington. The last preparations for signing the document are underway," Piotr Paszkowski told journalists.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20091207/157146868.html

Poland hosts NATO summit on WMD

WARSAW, Poland, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Foreign officials descend on Poland on Thursday for a two-day summit on a weapons-of-mass-destruction policy adopted by NATO, the 28-member alliance announced.

Warsaw, Poland, hosts the annual NATO conference on WMD, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. NATO said it expects more than 100 top international officials to discuss the non-proliferation regime, disarmament and terrorism.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/12/07/Poland-hosts-NATO-summit-on-WMD/UPI-41791260210339/

Mouthpiece of communist Poland falls prey to market

WARSAW (Reuters Life!) - The once-powerful mouthpiece of Poland's communist party fell silent on Monday, bowing to the demands of the free market 20 years after the advent of democracy in eastern Europe.


Trybuna, direct successor to the influential communist-era 'Trybuna Ludu' paper, carried the torch for Poles nostalgic for socialism after 1990, but steadily lost readers.

"Dear readers, from the weekend Trybuna is no longer available at newsstands. The publisher of our newspaper took the decision to suspend publication due to the difficult material situation," Trybuna said in a short note on its website.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5B62P220091207

Sorry, Poland

Under the Nazis Poland became a prison where the Germans created their ‘largest camps of annihilation’

I called the ambassador, Piotr Ogrodzinski, who is leaving Ottawa this week after five extraordinarily productive years here. During that time he successfully urged Canada to remove visa restrictions on visitors from Poland, strengthened military and economic co-operation between our two countries, and wrote perhaps 30 letters of complaint to news outlets that had not made the Nazi origin of the death camps clear.
Poland has hardly been innocent of anti-Semitism, Ogrodzinski told me. “It is a fact that there was a very strong anti-Semitism in the interwar period and it continued during the [Second World] war,” he said. But the camps were a different story. “It’s absolutely false that Poles had anything to do with concentration camps, with the exception that they were the first prisoners.”
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/20/sorry-poland/

Who Wants What in Copenhagen

Wall Street Journal
This week, officials from 192 countries will meet in Copenhagen to tackle global climate change, seeking a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Even if they can't negotiate a binding agreement, many countries hope at least to work out commitments to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions and provide assistance to poorer countries likely to be hardest hit by the effects of global warming.
Poland
Poland and other Eastern European nations want a deal that isn't too economically burdensome. The issue is how financial support for developing countries should be shared by EU members
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704533904574548141677888208.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

'Red Baron' death certificate turns up in Poland

Ninety-one years after Von Richthofen died after being shot down near the River Somme in France Maciej Kowalczyk, a genealogist, found the document in archives belonging to the western Polish town of Ostrow Wielkopolski.

Mr Kowalczyk explained that the town, which in 1918 was part of Germany, issued the death notice in accordance to German law.

"Imperial regulations from 1879, relating to military personnel, who had left their permanent residence on mobilisation and were later killed, dictated that their death was registered at their last residence before heading to the front," he told the PAP news agency.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/6742769/Red-Baron-death-certificate-turns-up-in-Poland.html

Poland's internal swine flu fight

WARSAW, Poland — Poland is standing alone against the swine flu, as one of the only European Union member states to refuse to place orders for the H1N1 virus vaccine because of the health minister's concerns about its safety.

But now the country’s human rights ombudsman is threatening the health minister, Ewa Kopacz, with prosecution unless she moves on the vaccine.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/poland/091203/poland-swine-flu

Poland wants to buy vaccine from Sweden

Poland has not imported any vaccine since it claimed that it was not tested enough. But now the swine flu has broken out in Poland and according to Swedish Radio programme Ekot, Poland has secretly asked Sweden for vaccine.

The issue is sensitive since the Polish government has been criticised for not importing the vaccine early enough.

According to Ekot, Polands bid for Swedish vaccine, happened when Sweden´s Minister for Social Affairs, Göran Hägglund, visited Warsaw some weeks ago. Hägglund went there to try to persuade the Polish government to take back its no to EU´s directive on free movement for patients.
http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=4449

Poland: Sobibor not 'Polish camp'

Poland said Friday it had filed protests over foreign media's use of the term "Polish camp" for the Sobibor death camp set up by Nazi Germany in the occupied country during World War II.

Foreign ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski told AFP that Warsaw objected to the wording in reports on the trial in Germany of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk, 89, accused of helping as a guard to murder 27,900 people at the camp in 1943.  

"The Polish embassy in Madrid has intervened following the use of the expression 'Polish concentration camp' by several Spanish media," Paszkowski said. 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3815299,00.html  

Polish lawmakers defend crucifixes in schools

WARSAW, Poland — Polish lawmakers have approved a resolution defending the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's right to hang crucifixes in public schools.

Lawmakers wanted to voice opposition to a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled last month against the display of crucifixes in Italian schools.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iy0F6iwCkZaDgfbHqUlNLA5F-vMAD9CBPEKG0

EU To Appeal Court Decision On Poland,Estonia CO2 Emission Caps

European Commission will appeal a ruling in September that overturned a decision to impose stricter limits on carbon emissions from Poland and Estonia between 2008 and 2012.
The commission considers that the European Court of First Instance has interpreted too narrowly the powers of the commission "in the assessment process of the national caps for CO2 emissions," said environment spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich, during a regular press briefing Thursday.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200912030836dowjonesdjonline000474&title=eu-to-appeal-court-decision-on-polandestonia-co2-emission-caps

Chopin's homeland, a magnet for Asian musical talent

WARSAW — More and more young Asian musicians are choosing Poland to perfect their skills and absorb the atmosphere in the native land of renowned 19th century romantic composer Frederic Chopin, adored in Asia.

"I love Chopin's music. I feel it is so beautiful and so nostalgic -- it's very pure and passionate and so I like to live in Warsaw, in Poland," says Aya Gokita, 27, a Japanese piano student.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5idIYdP_iVJ46jp1UHcs_0GMWpUNQ

Poland plans to add 600 more troops in Afghanistan

WARSAW, Poland — Poland plans to send 600 more troops to Afghanistan next year, officials said Wednesday.
The new troops would serve in combat, reconnaissance missions and in training Afghan forces, said Defense Minister Bogdan Klich.
The decision, which still requires the government's and president's approval, was in response to calls for help by President Barack Obama's administration, said Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4tHHi0gqZ1hw5eGeRZQXyYf9PnwD9CB8UDO0

Dell hands European operations to Foxconn

Polish manufacturing plant to change hands

Dell has announced that it is transferring ownership of its manufacturing operation in Lodz, Poland to electronics outfit Foxconn.

Following the transfer, Dell will become a Foxconn customer, sourcing its desktop, notebooks, servers and storage systems for EMEA customers from the Lodz factory.

According to Dell the move will help make the company more efficient by simplifying its global operations.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1564423/dell-hands-european-operations-foxconn

Polish official requests investigation into gov't refusal to import swine flu vaccines

WARSAW, Poland — Poland's ombudsman has asked prosecutors to investigate the government for refusing to import swine flu vaccines, calling it an "unacceptable" failure that endangers public health.
Janusz Kochanowski, the country's top official for defending civil rights, said he requested the investigation Tuesday. Prosecutors must now carry out preliminary fact-finding. They will decide later whether to open a full investigation.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i5EMJ3KHjK1xlfLpgJE0QxvgTmkQ

Vancouver airport denies any responsibility in Dziekanski's death

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Vancouver International Airport, where Robert Dziekanski spent the last 10 hours of his life lost, confused and unable to communicate with anyone before his fatal confrontation with RCMP, has denied any responsibility for his death in its defence of a lawsuit filed by the Polish immigrant's mother.
Dziekanski died on the floor of the airport's international arrivals area in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, after four RCMP officers stunned him with a Taser.
His mother is now suing the officers, the airport and the federal and provincial governments.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iOThpiaCxmDp9y_aqsQn8O2anbrQ

Poland says Lisbon Treaty to help achieve goals in EU

WARSAW, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Lisbon Treaty will allow for the implementation of Polish goals, including the strengthening of the European security and defense policy, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told TOK FM radio on Tuesday. 

    According to Sikorski, the strengthening of European policies "will probably" be a priority of Polish presidency of the EU (to start on July 2011). 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/02/content_12571646.htm

Poland, U.S. Agree on Patriot Deployment Troop Terms

Poland and the United States have finished negotiating an agreement that would address the legal status of U.S. military personnel to be deployed on Polish territory with a Patriot missile defense system, Reuters reported last week (see GSN, Oct. 19).

Under the Status of Forces Agreement, crimes committed in Poland by U.S. military personnel would be subject to Polish jurisprudence if they are conducted off base and outside the course of their duties. Taxation of U.S. troops is also addressed in the deal.

http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20091201_2723.php

Key facts on main Nazi camps

(Reuters) - The trial of John Demjanjuk started on Monday on charges that as a Nazi guard he helped to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers at Sobibor death camp in 1943.


The 89-year-old denies involvement in the Holocaust.

Here are some details about the main Nazi camps:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5AT38S20091130