Polish film triggers conflicting views in Russia

The film “Katyn” by the Polish director Andrzei Wajda about the mass killing of Polish officers by the Stalin regime in 1940 has triggered conflicting views in Russia. 
Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/03/5968625.html

Krakow guards its past

This Polish City has not been overrun by tourists, yet its squares, churches and old buildings make an alluring destination for anyone fascinated by history

"You must go there," my friend Halina had enthused about Krakow, the place of her birth. "It's the most beautiful place in the world."

I had been worried that this beauty in southern Poland had generated the popularity from which Venice suffers. But I found even Krakow's busiest streets uncrowded, with tourists in a minority. Newcomers seemed to stop and stare at yet another achingly beautiful high-cheekboned blonde. Krakow is a university town, and I wonder how the male students get anything done.

Another comparison with Venice comes up. Like Venice's Piazza di San Marco, Krakow's main market square is lined with cafés shoulder to shoulder and has just as many pigeons as does the square in Venice.

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More-secular Poland marks Pope John Paul's death

A trumpet in Warsaw sounded a mournful tone Friday at 9:37 p.m., marking the minute five years ago when Poland's revered native son Pope John Paul II died.Believers held solemn commemorations of the pope amid Good Friday observances recalling the suffering of Jesus. Singing hymns in the torch light, they followed a group of men who carried an enormous cross in a Way of the Cross procession.
"It was a great pope we had, and it's important to pay homage to him," said Barbara Pelka, 69, one of thousands who turned out in the rain for the ceremony. "This is our tradition, this is what we should be doing."
The cross was then erected at Pilsudski Square, where John Paul, as the newly elected pope in 1979, delivered a Mass in which he subtly challenged the communist leadership and inspired the anti-communist movement that eventually helped defeat communist across eastern Europe.
Read more:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkHBmTzia-_YzdHho98zxotLTEjgD9ER54GO0

Sex Abuse Scandal Casting Shadow Over Pope John Paul II's Sainthood

Five years ago Catholics around the world were mourning the death of Pope John Paul II, who headed the church for 27 years. Now questions have arisen over his record combating pedophile priests and it appears his fast track to sainthood may be slowing down.

Catholics around the world are marking Good Friday but at the same time also the fifth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, the most popular pontiff of the modern age and a prime candidate for sainthood.

Read more: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Sex-Abuse-Scandal-Casting-Shadow-Over-Efforts-to-Make-Pope-John-Paul-II-a-Saint---89766977.html

From Poland, America Looks Like Wisteria Lane

America, the promised land for all Poles. For more than a century, so many people emigrated from Poland to the U.S. in search of their American dream and sent their hard-earned dollars back home.

Here’s the latest example, from conservative daily Rzeczpospolita, which writes on its blog today:

“What does a tourist see zipping through America over one week? He sees unlocked doors in suburbia, unlocked cars and bicycles left on the porch, not strapped to anything. He sees people who smile to each other on the street completely for no reason. He doesn’t see anyone littering. He sees that each and every car stops at the Stop sign that’s on every street corner instead of traffic lights. And no driver or almost no driver exceeds the speed limit and it won’t even occur to the driver not to stop before a pedestrian crossing even if the pedestrian is only getting ready to cross the street.”

That must be one of the most naïve descriptions of any country that I’ve read in a while. No crime at all? Nobody steals, no burglaries, and everyone is just smiling happily as they walk the always sunny and impeccably clean streets.

Indeed, just like many Poles used to think that “Dynasty” showed the absolute truth about America, now they seem to believe that the U.S. looks exactly like it does on “Desperate Housewives.”

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/04/01/from-poland-america-looks-like-wisteria-lane/

Mosque Building Brings Islam Fears to Poland

In a sight familiar in some west European countries but new to Poland, dozens of protesters demonstrated in a Warsaw suburb last weekend against the construction of a mosque.

Plans by Poland's tiny Muslim community to build a place of worship and an Islamic cultural centre face opposition in a sign that concerns about Islam may be spreading eastwards to the staunchly Catholic European Union member.

Between 15,000 and 30,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Chechnya, live in Poland -- the biggest ex-communist EU state where more than 90 percent of the 38-million population declare themselves Catholics.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/01/world/international-uk-poland-mosque-feature.html

Polish-language section coming to the Herald

With nearly a quarter of the city’s population, and even more in the communities surrounding New Britain, the Polish community is, and has been, a major piece of the city’s social and economic fabric.

Now, this group will have its own voice in the city’s local daily newspaper.

Beginning Wednesday, the Herald will publish a weekly Polish-language section focused on the news, events and people in this community. It will offer both editorial features and advertisements that will make a difference in the lives of these readers.

Read more: http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2010/03/28/news/doc4bb00e8921ab9154449061.txt

Why do Polish women lag behind?

Polish women have long been placed on a pedestal — hand kissing only went out of fashion in the last decade — but that does not translate into senior positions in politics and business.

That’s why the Polish parliament is considering a bill that would mandate that either half or a third of places on electoral lists be reserved for women. But the move has aroused enormous controversy — even within the ruling centrist Civic Platform party — and it looks unlikely to become law before local elections at the end of this year.

Read more:http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/poland/100330/polish-women-politics-business

Polish refiner PKN to build 460 MW gas plant

Poland's top refiner PKN Orlen PKNA.WA said it received a power grid operator's permit to build a gas-fired plant in Poland, a step forward in its strategy to become a multi-utility company.

PKN, predominantly a refining and petrochemical company with limited experience in the energy generation sector, wants to build a 460 megawatt gas-fired plant in central Poland's city of Wloclawek.

Read more:http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE62U12X20100331

IMF Falls In Love With Poland’s Economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the person of the former French finance minister and current IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has lately lain heaps and heaps of praises upon Poland’s government for maintaining a strong economy in face of the ‘economic crisis’ that’s struck the world.

Last year, the IMF launched a FCL (flexible credit line) for Poland which gave the Polish government access to nearly 20 billion dollars for the support of currency reserves in Poland’s central bank. In Strauss-Kahn’s visit to Poland and meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Strauss-Kahn expressed satisfaction at Poland’s economic ability to absorb the shocks rippling throughout the European economy. Amazingly, not one penny of the funds that were made available to Poland last year was used. Yet some of it may be used to help Poland endure a bit more through the global financial crisis according to a few analysts.

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Catholics find ties to the church tested by crisis

In staunchly Catholic Poland, the homeland of the late Pope John Paul II and a place where churches are packed even on work days, the top church authority called the pope the target of an "unprecedented media attack."

Allegations that Benedict concealed abuse "are totally groundless and it is hard to understand them in any other way than as a direct attack on the person and dignity of the pope," Henryk Muszynski, the Primate of Poland and Archbishop of Gniezno, said Sunday.

But across the Atlantic, Jasmine Co said her faith in the church was badly shaken.

Read more:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gxurRwqriy9QKJu99vhhYtdl6nIQD9EOT5JG0

Doubts hang over John Paul II’s legacy, sainthood

Pope Benedict XVI hailed the legacy of John Paul II yesterday five years after his death, while questions swirl over the late pontiff’s record in combating pedophile priests and whether a miracle needed for his sainthood really happened.

During an evening Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Benedict told pilgrims from John Paul’s homeland of Poland that his predecessor had “without interruption taught us to be faithful witnesses to faith, hope, and love.’’

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2010/03/30/doubts_hang_over_john_paul_iis_legacy_sainthood/

Krakow, Poland: Noble city of pathos

Krakow, Poland’s former capital, is one of central Europe’s least-known treasures, says Teresa Levonian Cole.
On my first visit to Krakow 12 years ago, I was struck by the magnificent riot of its churches. Every religious order, so it seemed, had set up shop here, and few had found reason to leave. Towers and spires pierced the skyline. Benedictine, Franciscan and Dominican priests emerged from portals Romanesque, Gothic and baroque, to stroll down the narrow cobbled streets of the old town, greeting members of their congregation by name.

Read more:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/poland/7537460/Krakow-Poland-Noble-city-of-pathos.html

IMF says Poland right to delay euro adoption-paper

Poland was right to put off swapping its currency for the euro because the move gave it the flexibility to absorb the effects of the global crisis, the head of the IMF was quoted on Monday as saying.
Read more: http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/IMF-says-Poland-right-to-delay-euro-adoption-paper-2010-03-29T052030Z

Benedict honors John Paul 5 years after death

Pope Benedict XVI is commemorating the fifth anniversary of the death of John Paul II with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Many pilgrims from Poland, the late pontiff's homeland, joined Benedict in prayer Monday evening.

Read more:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gk3WsWorrZeBZNHQzNGN_IHt6DtwD9EOE5GG1

Polish PM calls for meeting with c.bank Wednesday

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called for a meeting with central bank officials and the new Monetary Policy Council members on Wednesday to discuss policy issues, his aide Michal Boni said.
The central bank has clashed with the government over Poland's IMF deal and over the transfer of central bank profits to the national budget. The Wednesday meeting would be the first official meeting between the new monetary policymakers and the government.
"The prime minister has invited ... the Monetary Policy Council (MPC) members as well as the central bank's board to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss important, fundamental issues for the next couple of months," Boni told TVN CNBC on Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7817497&subject=markets&action=article

Poland Reveals Internal Rift During IMF Visit

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, must be feeling a little awkward right now. During his visit in Warsaw, in the span of just a few hours, Poland’s central bank and finance ministry released separate contradictory statements: The central bank said Poland does not need to extend the IMF’s Flexible Credit Line; the finance ministry said the country does need to extend it.

“This doesn’t look good,” one local bank economist said. “It looks terrible,” adds another. “It would be better to meet up and discuss this.”

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Polish president uncertain of his trip to Moscow on VE-Day

Polish President Lech Kaczynski could decide not to attend Victory Day festivities in Moscow on May 9 following Russia's invitation of Poland's former Communist ruler to attend the same event.

Kaczynski has repeatedly voiced criticism against 86-year-old Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, who was the last commander-in-chief of the communist Polish People's Army and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990.

"President Lech Kaczynski has doubts about traveling to Moscow to attend the [Victory Day] festivities after Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski received an invitation from Russia," Aleksander Szczyglo, the head of Poland's National Security Bureau, said on Sunday in an interview with Radiî Zet radio station.

Read more:http://en.rian.ru/world/20100329/158340752.html

Large tax hikes loom for Poland

A large, delayed European Union-mandated increase in sales tax on food and housing in Poland is set to come due on Jan. 1, Polish press said Monday.

The union gave Poland three years to increase its value-added tax to 22 percent for food and housing when Poland joined in 2004, but Warsaw requested and was given an extension to Jan. 1, 2011, the Warsaw Business Journal reported.

Read more:http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2010/03/29/Large-tax-hikes-loom-for-Poland/UPI-55421269869318/

Polish Central Bank Sees No Need to Extend IMF Credit Line

Poland’s economy is in “good enough shape” that the country doesn’t need to extend its Flexible Credit Line from the International Monetary Fund, the central bank said in an e-mailed statement today.

Read more:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-29/polish-central-bank-sees-no-need-to-extend-imf-credit-line.html

Poland's top church leader defends pope

A news agency says Poland's top Roman Catholic leader is defending Pope Benedict XVI's handing of church abuse cases.

The PAP news agency quotes the Primate of Poland, Henryk Muszynski, as saying that criticism of Benedict amounts to a personal attack on the pontiff and an attempt to discredit the church.

The remarks are some of the first to be made on the case by church authorities in Poland, the strongly Catholic homeland of the late Pope John Paul II. The church scandal rocking Germany, Ireland and the U.S. has so far received little attention in Poland.

Read more:http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1214331&lang=eng_news