WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — A charter bus carrying people with disabilities including children crashed in southwest Poland on Thursday, leaving one passenger dead and 20 others injured, rescue services said. The bus was carrying 51 people when it overturned, landing on its side in a ditch near the town of Kazimierzow, local Polkowice county rescue services said on their Facebook page. “One person is dead… the total number of participants in the accident is 51… […]
Tag: Poland
Poland may take Filipino workers: deputy labor minister
Poland, whose right-wing government opposes taking in migrants, may have to look to Filipino workers to cover a growing labor shortage hurting the economy, a senior official said Saturday. “We are on course to conclude an agreement. I hope that in the autumn we will be able to at least sign a preliminary accord” with the Philippine authorities, Deputy Labor Minister Stanislaw Szwed said according to a PAP news agency report. Szwed noted that Poland and […]
Poland’s Supreme Court top judge defies retirement law
by Mary Sibierski Agence France-Presse WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Poland’s chief justice refused to step down Tuesday, defying a controversial new law by the right-wing government which requires her and other senior judges to retire early. Chief Justice Malgorzata Gersdorf, in a heated showdown, branded the controversial Supreme Court reform lowering the retirement age of its judges from 70 to 65 as a “purge”. She said she was defying the reform that cuts short her […]
Senegal beats Poland for first African win at 2018 World Cup
by Guy Jackson Agence France Presse Senegal recorded the first African win at the 2018 World Cup when they beat Poland 2-1 on Tuesday thanks to a deflected Thiago Cionek own goal and a terrible error by Polish ‘keeper Wojciech Szczesny. West Bromwich Albion midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak got Poland back in the game with an 86th-minute header but Senegal hung on at Moscow’s Spartak Stadium. In a match billed as a straight fight between super-strikers Robert Lewandowski and […]
WHO warns of “health risks” for vulnerable sectors in areas affected by extreme cold in Europe
(Eagle News) – The World Health Organization warned that the wave of extremely cold weather now affecting Europe this week posed “health risks” as the number of deaths due to the deadly blizzards in the region rose to more than 55. A news release from WHO said that the temperatures are even “expected to plunge below average in western European Russia, central Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic States.” This means that the death […]
Poland’s president signs controversial Holocaust bill into law
by Mary Sibierski © Agence France-Presse VARSOVIE, Poland (AFP) — President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday signed into law a controversial Holocaust bill intended to safeguard Poland’s image abroad but which has instead triggered an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel and tensions with the US and Ukraine. Duda also said he would send the legislation, which now comes into force, to the Constitutional Tribunal to rule on whether it conforms with guarantees for freedom of speech. The law sets […]
Polish PM defends Holocaust bill that upset Israel, Ukraine
by Anna Maria Jakubek Agence France-Presse WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday defended a controversial Holocaust bill intended to safeguard his country’s image abroad but which has instead drawn dismay from Israel, the US, the EU and Ukraine. The head of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party government spoke after the senate approved the legislation, which sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone who refers to Nazi German […]
Poland to post Chopin collection online
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Poland’s Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) on Tuesday said it would make its entire collection devoted to the 19th-century composer available online for free by 2020. “Chopin will be the first great composer to have all of his musical scores digitised” and openly accessible by all, NIFC deputy director Maciej Janicki told reporters. Nearly 40,000 Chopin items from the UNESCO world heritage collection — including photographs and paintings of the Polish-French romantic […]
EU starts countdown to settle refugee quotas row by June
by Lachlan CARMICHAEL Agence France-Presse SOFIA, Bulgaria (AFP) – EU ministers stuck Thursday to opposing east-west camps as they started a countdown to try and overhaul Europe’s asylum rules by June when the three-year-old migration crisis could flare anew. The minister from Bulgaria, which holds the six-month rotating EU presidency ending June 30, said he would introduce proposals to “try to find a balance between the member states” split over refugee quotas. “Today we will see if […]
Tillerson, not Trump, to visit London next week
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he hopes to visit the new US embassy in London next week, shortly after President Donald Trump refused to attend its opening ceremony. Tillerson will be in Britain on Monday at the start of a sweep through Europe that will take him on to Paris, Warsaw, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. His meetings in each city have not been finalized, State Department officials […]
Polish leaders condemn ‘xenophobia’ after huge far-right march
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Poland’s right-wing leaders on Monday spoke out against xenophobia after a controversial Independence Day march organised by far-right groups. Having started small in 2009, the annual event attracted a large following this year, with police estimating the crowd on Saturday in Warsaw at around 60,000. While many marchers denied membership of or sympathy for extreme right groups, the event also drew representatives of far-right parties from Britain, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia, among others. […]
Tens of thousands join Polish nationalists’ march on independence day
by Anna Maria Jakubek Agence France Presse WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Carrying Polish flags and throwing red smoke bombs, tens of thousands of people on Saturday joined a march in Warsaw organized by far-right nationalists to mark independence day, while counter-protesters rallied against fascism. The annual march also attracted a considerable number of supporters of the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party to honour the reestablishment of Poland’s independence in 1918. This year’s slogan […]
