Poland

Polish president signs 'Tusk Law' on undue Russian influence

WARSAW, May 29 (Reuters) - Poland's president said on Monday he would sign a bill to allow a panel to investigate whether the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party allowed the country to be unduly influenced by Russia and as a result too dependent on its fuel when it was in power.

The liberal PO, in government from 2007 to 2015, rejects the claims and says the law is designed to destroy support for its leader and former prime minister Donald Tusk ahead of an election scheduled for October or November.

Polish ruling party wants commission to investigate Russian influence; critics fear witch hunt

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish ruling party is pushing for the creation of a commission which it says would investigate Russian influence in Poland. Critics view it as an attempt to create a powerful and unconstitutional tool that would help the party continue to wield power even if it loses elections this fall.

Poland: Auschwitz museum begins emotional work of conserving 8,000 shoes of murdered children

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — In a modern conservation laboratory on the grounds of the former Auschwitz camp, a man wearing blue rubber gloves uses a scalpel to scrape away rust from the eyelets of small brown shoes worn by children before they were murdered in gas chambers.

Colleagues at the other end of a long work table rub away dust and grime, using soft cloths and careful circular motions on the leather of the fragile objects. The shoes are then scanned and photographed in a neighboring room and catalogued in a database.

How Russians end up in a far-right militia fighting in Ukraine

WARSAW, May 11 (Reuters) - Danil Yugoslavsky had long hated Vladimir Putin. The tech worker says he protested for fair elections in Russia for several years before he left his homeland in despair in 2017 and eventually settled in Spain.

Even so, he never suspected his yearning to topple the Russian president would one day see him join a far-right paramilitary group founded by a former soccer hooligan known as White Rex and march into the war in Ukraine.

Poland: 1 dead, 9 injured in knife attack at Polish orphanage

WARSAW, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A knife attack at an orphanage in central Poland has left one teenage girl dead and nine others injured, local media reported Wednesday.

The tragic incident took place in the village of Tomislawice after 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) at night. Five of the injured were sent to hospital, and the rest received medical treatment at the scene, the Polish Press Agency quoted local police and the prosecutor's office as saying.

The 19-year-old perpetrator had been detained by the police, it said.

Poland summons Russian ambassador over assassination comment

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in protest Friday after a former Russian official suggested that it would be acceptable to assassinate Poland’s ambassador to Russia.

Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s children’s ombudsman from 2009 to 2016, spoke on a television program hosted by Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. He was being interviewed after Polish authorities took over a school building in Warsaw on Saturday that was serving the children of Russian diplomats and the military.

Military object found in Poland is surface to air missile-RMF FM

WARSAW, April 27 (Reuters) - The military object which was found in a northern Polish forest is surface-to-air missile which is several metres long, private radio station RMF FM reported on Thursday citing 'unofficial information'.

On Thursday Polish authorities said that the remains of a military object were found in northern Poland near the city of Bydgoszcz, confirming earlier media reports of the discovery of some kind of object in the area.

Poland, Hungary ban Ukraine grain to protect local farms

WARSAW, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Poland and Hungary banned imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect local farmers, officials from both countries said.

Ukraine’s grain exports have been transiting through the European Union to other countries since the war-torn nation’s traditional Black Sea routes were blocked by Russia’s invasion.

But because of logistical issues, the grain had been piling up and driving down prices, which led to protests from farmers and the resignation of Poland’s agriculture minister.

EU says unilateral trade action unacceptable after Poland, Hungary ban Ukraine grain, food imports

WARSAW, April 16 (Reuters) - Unilateral action on trade by European Union member states is unacceptable, a European Commission spokesperson said on Sunday, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on grain and other food imports from Ukraine to protect the local agricultural sector.

After Russia's invasion blocked some Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, ended up staying in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers.

Polish leader heads to US to further strengthen defense ties

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki flew Tuesday to the United States for meetings aimed at strengthening the economic and defense cooperation of the two nations.

Morawiecki is due to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday at the White House. He is also scheduled to have meetings with the representatives of American defense companies during his three-day visit.

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