Russia rules out Belarus supply cut

Russia has no plans to cut oil supplies to Belarus despite failing to agree terms of this year's deliveries, a Russian government source said, adding that talks would resume in early this month.

The comment will be seen as a relief in Germany and Poland, which experienced major cuts in Russian crude oil supplies in January 2007 along a pipeline running via Belarus because of a similar dispute between Moscow and Minsk.

"The talks will be continued. The Russian delegation made a series of proposals which correspond to market conditions and the ball is in the Belarussian delegation's court," the source said.

Read more: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=267683

Poland launches Chopin bicentenary celebrations

Poland launched a year of celebrations Friday to mark the 200th anniversary of the celebrated composer Frederic Chopin, which will include events both at home and abroad.

Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski officially launched Chopin Year at the house where Chopin was born, in Zelazowa Wola, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of the capital Warsaw.

Later Friday, the Warsaw Philharmonic was set to give its first concert as part of the year's events, and on Thursday the Chinese pianist Lang Lan will play some of the composer's most celebrated pieces at a concert in Warsaw.

Chopin Year will include around 2,000 separate events, from concerts and exhibitions to films and theatrical performances -- with only 1,200 of them taking place in Poland itself.

Read more:http://www.france24.com/en/node/4960418

Polish Jewish sites falling into ruin

Hundreds of important Jewish historical and religious sites across Poland are in danger of deterioration and possible collapse, a Polish Jewish organization warned on Thursday.

"There are about 1,200 Jewish cemeteries and nearly 200 synagogues in Poland that survived the war," said Monika Krawczyk, president of the Warsaw-based Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, which oversees the sites on behalf of the Jewish community.

"But now, many are in a terrible state of disrepair and are literally falling apart," she told The Jerusalem Post in an interview during a visit to Jerusalem, adding that, "if we don't act now to save these sites, in another 10 or 20 years there will be nothing left to see."

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364566101&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Toshiba links with S. Korean rival LG.Philips

Japan's Toshiba Corp. is paying about $46-million (U.S.) for nearly 20 per cent of the Polish television panel making subsidiary of LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd., forging a partnership with a rival to strengthen its European TV manufacturing business.

Toshiba's announcement yesterday comes in the wake of its establishment last month of a liquid-crystal display TV production and sales company in Kobierzyce, near Wroclaw in southwestern Poland, where production is set to start next August.

Toshiba's investment in LG.Philips LCD Poland will allow it to secure a stable supply of LCD panels efficiently at competitive prices, the company's statement said.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/toshiba-links-with-s-korean-rival-lgphilips/article849400/

Poland troops to withdraw from Afghanistan in two years: FM

The Polish army will start to withdraw from the mission in Afghanistan in about two years, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said at a press conference in Bydgoszcz on Thursday.

"Now we want to strengthen them ... offer additional training to soldiers, Afghan police so that they could start to take over the responsibility for their own country in some two years' time," said Sikorski.

The minister stressed that the Afghanistan-based Polish troops manage to "implement their strategy slowly, but very consistently."

He added that Poland is withdrawing from foreign missions which "have ceased to be of primary importance to our reason of state."

Read more:http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/01/content_12737375.htm

Poland : 14 Nigerians convicted within four years for various offences

14 Nigerians who were arrested by the Polish Government between 2005 and 2009 for various travelling offences are still serving different jail terms in Poland.

The Coordinator, Human Support Services, a Nigerian – Polish Initiative, Mr Wisdom Ejebugha, disclosed this on Wednesday in Lagos while speaking on the dangers of illegal migration from Nigeria to foreign countries.

Read more: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100101425453

Polish general battles on to protect his place in history

Twenty years after communism crumbled in central Europe, most of the party leaders from 1989 are dead or living in obscurity - except for Poland's General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who is still fighting to salvage his reputation.

Now 86, the general sits ramrod straight at his desk, quietly explaining that his decision to declare martial law on December 13 1981 and crush the Solidarity labour union helped prevent a Soviet invasion of his country.

The general says, in a conversation with the Financial Times, that he acted after being convinced of a growing threat from the USSR, which was already using economic levers to prod the Polish government to act.

"There was constant, psychologically draining and exhausting pressure," says Gen Jaruzelski, and because he worried that if Poland spun out of control it could destabilise the postwar division of Europe.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/42e59a7e-f5ac-11de-90ab-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Zakopane, Poland: skiing with divine guidance

It is not often that you get to ski on slopes that have received a papal blessing, but that is one of the pluses of a winter holiday with a difference in the Polish resort of Zakopane.

The late Pope John Paul II hailed from these parts and during his years at the helm of the Catholic church in Kraków, he liked to retreat to the nearby Tatras and have a quick schuss with the best of them.

Slightly bizarrely during what turned out to be the most memorable of the three days I spent in Zakopane last February, I ended up teaming up briefly with a British man of Polish ancestry whose brother had actually skied with Karol Józef Wojtyla, as the pontiff-to-be was then known.

Read more:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/6911471/Zakopane-Poland-skiing-with-divine-guidance.html

Polish admit Euro 2012 stadium delay at Wroclaw

WARSAW — Construction of a new stadium in the city of Wroclaw, one of four Polish venues for Euro 2012, has fallen "several months" behind schedule after a contract with a constructor was shelved, Sports Minister Adam Giersz said Wednesday.

"A change in who will bring the stadium on stream will lead to several months' delay in its construction," said Giersz. "We already had signs the situation was difficult but we hoped the investors and the constructor would resolve the matter. That is not how things worked out," the minister added.

Wroclaw city mayor Rafal Dutkiewicz said the city had rescinded the contract with a Polish-Greek consortium fronted by Polish group Mostostal Warszawa owing to onsite deadlines being missed.

The mayor added the local authorities had given themselves three weeks to find another constructor.

The 42,000 capacity venue is due for completion in June 2011.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZ-5AbenuJIMrNnEdzlTLUkvZyKg

Extraditions to Poland: Wanted, for chicken rustling

Why one country accounts for half of Britain’s European extraditions

EVERY fortnight an aeroplane carrying Polish policemen touches down at an airport in southern England. Waiting for them each time is a glum band of 20 or so handcuffed men who are to be flown back to face trial in Poland. Extradited prisoners are normally transferred on ordinary commercial flights, but a surge in the number being sent from Britain to Poland means that now a fortnightly “Con Air” service is being laid on by the Polish authorities.

Astonishingly, Poland now accounts for more than half of all Britain’s extraditions to Europe (see chart). The number of transfers grew from four in 2005 to 186 in the first nine months of 2008. That is about ten times the number being sent to Ireland, despite the fact that Irish migrants easily outnumber Poles in Britain. What explains this sudden plague of hardened criminals?

A look at the charge sheet suggests that they may not be so hard after all. The crimes for which people have been extradited include “theft of a chicken”, “theft of a piglet” and “theft of a cupboard door”. Whereas most countries are happy to put minor offences on hold until the suspect re-enters the country, Poland requests extradition for almost any crime, however petty. Some of its eastern neighbours take a similarly finicky approach.

Read more: http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15179470

Avalanche in Poland kills 2, injures 3

Rescuers say an avalanche has killed two hikers and injured three others in Poland's Tatra Mountains.

A spokesman for the Tatra Voluntary Rescue Service, Marcin Witek, said Wednesday the avalanche hit five people who were trekking at the foot of the Rysy mountain, some 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) high.

Two were killed and three were hospitalized with injuries.

Vestas receives 96 MW order for Poland

Vestas has received an order for delivery of 48 V90-2.0 MW wind turbines for different locations in Poland. The order has been received from the German company Prokon.

The contract includes delivery, installation and commissioning of the turbines and a VestasOnline® Business SCADA solution. Delivery of the wind turbines will take place during 2010 to 2012

Read more: http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=3139

Mostostal, Avax Lose Polish Soccer Stadium Contract

The Polish city of Wroclaw canceled a 598 million-zloty ($208 million) contract for Mostostal Warszawa SA and J&P Avax SA to build a stadium for the Euro 2012 soccer championships.

Wroclaw will start talks tomorrow with a group including Budimex SA to take over the work, Marcin Garcarz, a spokesman for the city, said by phone today. The municipality plans to sign a new contract in January to ensure that the stadium will be completed in the spring of 2012, Mayor Rafal Dutkiewicz said in a press conference carried live on the TVN24 television channel today.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aaBql9PQ2Fz4

Colin Farrell's son baptised in Poland

The baby son of Irish actor Colin Farrell and his girlfriend, the Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curus, has been baptised in Poland.

Polish newspapers Fakt and Super Express printed photographs today of the couple in a church in Krakow during the baptism, reported BreakingNews.ie.

Read more: http://www.rte.ie/arts/2009/1230/farrellc.html

Polish court to hear WWII massacre case

Poland's supreme court has agreed to consider whether the Polish survivor of a Nazi World War II massacre can sue Germany for compensation in a Polish court, a court spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Judges decided that the case, brought by 71-year-old Winicjusz Natoniewski, should be dealt with because it hinged on a "crucial legal issue", supreme court spokeswoman Teresa Pyzlak told news agency AFP.

"The question is whether the Polish courts have jurisdiction in a case pitting an individual against another state, and whether legal action can therefore be taken," Pyzlak said.

Read more: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091230-24251.html

Poland Insurance Report Q1 2010

2009-12-29 20:49:11 - New Financial Services market

report from Business Monitor International: "Poland Insurance Report Q1 2010"

A flash estimate provided by the Central Statistical Office shows Polish economic growth slowing to 3.0% year-on-year (y-o-y) during Q408 from 4.8% the previous quarter. We expect growth to continue slowing through 2009, with the economy likely to dip into recession during H209. Despite the deterioration in Poland's macroeconomic fundamentals, we nonetheless believe that the economy will emerge as the regional outperformer, especially compared with heavily trade dependent Czech Republic and post fiscal crisis Hungary, which will both dive deep into recession this year. According to preliminary data provided by the Central Statistical Office, the Polish economy posted growth of around 3.0% during the final quarter of 2008, bringing the full-year figure down to 5.4%, from a bumper 6.6% the previous year.

Read more:  http://www.pr-inside.com/just-published-poland-insurance-report-r1647337.htm

Poland seeks help from Sweden as it investigates theft of Auschwitz sign

Poland will formally seek Sweden's help in investigating the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free") sign from the Auschwitz memorial, confirming that Polish authorities suspect a Swedish link in the crime.

Boguslawa Marcinkowska, a spokeswoman for Krakow prosecutors, says her office will send a formal request for help Wednesday to the Swedish Justice Ministry in Stockholm.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ioKYw9TOzsr0TpmIeOaQPJRBBt9A

Poles wary of switching to euro - survey

53% of Poles believe adopting the euro would hit their pockets, according to a survey published today.

The study by the TNS OBOP public opinion agency found that just 15% of respondents believed the euro would be a personal boon, 17% thought its introduction would make no difference to them, and 15% had no view.

Ex-communist Poland, which joined the European Union in 2004, had been aiming to switch from its free-floating zloty to the euro by 2012.

Read more: http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1229/poland.html

Germans Blame "Polish Fireworks" for New Year's Injuries

Fireworks are an integral part of the German New Year's Eve tradition. Strict regulations and high prices encourage many to do their firecracker shopping across the border in Poland. Unregulated "Polish fireworks" are a perennial problem -- but this year may be their last.

Every year around this time, German firefighters and emergency room doctors look to the New Year holiday with dread. In cities and towns all across Germany, New Year's Eve is an occasion for uncontrolled exuberance -- which often takes the form of uncontrolled fireworks displays launched from street corners and balconies all over the country.

In Berlin, fire department officials triple-staff stations around the city on New Year's Eve to deal with the bang boom. Last year, firefighters in the capital tackled some 1,650 fires between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. on New Year's Eve. Fire departments around the country see a similar spike over the holiday.

It has become a New Year's ritual for German newspapers and authorities to issue dramatic warnings about "Polen Böller," or "Polish fireworks," German shorthand for fireworks illegally imported from eastern Europe. Foreign fireworks, the German press implies, are largely to blame for the thousands of injuries and fires set every New Year's Eve.

Read more:http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,669415,00.html

As at Auschwitz, the gates of hell are built and torn down by human hearts A wrenching debate about antisemitism in Poland's past leads us, in the end, to ask questions about ourselves

Between Hanukkah and Christmas, the sign over the entrance to the Auschwitz extermination camp is stolen. Polish police recover it and catch the thieves, who were apparently carrying out a commission from abroad. We struggle to imagine the kind of human being who would want such a thing in his private collection. For all the mass murder, enslavement and torture that has been perpetrated since, Auschwitz remains, for a European of my generation, the symbol of human evil in our time.

This grotesque episode ends a year in which the relations between Christians and Jews in general, Christian Poles and Polish Jews in particular, have again been the subject of debate. The ghosts of a tortured east European past even howled through the corridors of Westminster, as the Conservatives announced their alliance in the European parliament with a group of rightwing parties, mainly from central and eastern Europe, and then put their MEPs under the leadership of Michal Kaminski, from Poland's Law and Justice party.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/23/poland-catholicism-nazis-difficult-past

More Money for Auschwitz After Theft of Sign

BERLIN — The Polish Cultural Ministry, in an effort to save face after the embarrassing theft eight days ago of the infamous “Arbeit macht frei” metal banner that hung over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp, has said it will help pay for more security at the site.

Bogdan Zdrojewski, the culture minister, said late Wednesday that the government would contribute about $138,000 after a furor over the lack of security at the camp, which covers over 500 acres.

Read more:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/world/europe/26poland.html

A troubled genius: The truth about Chopin

He was a narcissistic, anti-Semitic fop who betrayed his country and hated his fellow man. The charges levelled against Chopin are as diverse as they are odious.

Everyone has their own idea of Chopin, and it's often wide of the mark. His commodification by advertisers and the serial murder of a few unfortunate pieces by "smooth classics" programmers means his real oeuvre is now almost terra incognita. His character, meanwhile, has been travestied in a thousand ways. Time was when he was written off as effeminate – "one naturally thinks of him with a skirt on" was the American composer Charles Ives' idiotically macho jibe – and he's now customarily depicted either as a heroic Polish patriot or hypersensitive hothouse plant. While neither image fits the facts, a newer one – first proposed by the pianist Andras Schiff – is currently being tried for size: it has superficial plausibility, but on closer scrutiny proves as blinkered and childish as the others.

After researching Chopin in depth for a biographical film, Schiff – who plays his music with rare sensitivity – condemned him as an anti-Semite, a self-invented aristocrat, a social snob, a dandy who hated contact with the rest of the human race, and a man totally without loyalty to his fellow Polish exiles. "A very strange person, very hard to like," Schiff concluded with haughty distaste. In other words, a great composer, but a rotten human being.

Read more:   http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/a-troubled-genius-the-truth-about-chopin-1848372.html

Polish official who campaigned for swine flu vaccines now sick with the virus

WARSAW, Poland — A Polish official who has waged a campaign against the government for refusing to import swine flu vaccines says he is himself now sick with the illness.

Janusz Kochanowski, Poland's ombudsman, the top civil rights official, announced Friday on Twitter that he has a bad case of swine flu and called it "ironical."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gTJyFx1sTJxxyKdfR1ZNr1yb_2dQ