Poland

WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Thursday that the human rights ombudsman be removed from his post, drawing opposition accusations that the court sought to illegally end the mandate of a staunch government critic.

After the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) won power in 2015, Adam Bodnar emerged as a leading defender of liberal values such as women’s and minority rights, as well as judicial independence, which critics say are under threat from PiS.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up. Pakistan is restricting domestic travel. The U.S. government will send more help to the state with the country’s worst infection increase.

The worldwide surge in coronavirus cases and deaths includes even Thailand, which has weathered the pandemic far better than many nations but now struggles to contain COVID-19.

BOCHNIA, Poland (AP) — Polish hospitals struggled over the Easter weekend with a massive number of people infected with COVID-19 following a huge surge in infections across Central and Eastern Europe in recent weeks.

Tougher new pandemic restrictions were ordered in Poland for a two-week period surrounding Easter in order to slow down the infection rate. The country hit new records of over 35,000 daily infections on two recent days, and deaths have been in the hundreds each day.

WARSAW, March 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Poland has denied claims it blocked French Minister for European Affairs, Clement Beaune, from the country’s regions that declared themselves as so-called LGBT-free zones, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said.

Beaune said on Monday that during a working visit, Polish officials deprived him entry to the eastern city of Krasnik, which last year declared itself as unwelcoming of LGBT ideology, citing COVID-19 restrictions.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Six people died and more than 30 were injured in an accident involving a Ukrainian bus in southeastern Poland, local medical rescue services said.

Earlier on Saturday state news agency PAP reported that the bus, with 57 people on board, fell into a ditch at night. The injured were taken to local hospitals and the remaining passengers were brought to a local school.

A spokesman at local medical ambulance services in Przemysl confirmed the information, adding that the bus was travelling to Ukraine.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The European Union’s top court ruled Tuesday that Poland’s new regulations for appointing judges to the Supreme Court could violate EU law.

The ruling obliges Poland’s right-wing government to discontinue these regulations and observe the principles of judicial independence and the right to judicial protection.

In a decision that could have a powerful effect on future court verdicts regarding judicial appointments, the ruling also allows Poland’s courts to refrain from applying the regulations introduced by the government in 2018 and 2019.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has not ruled out imposing restrictions at the country’s borders with Slovakia and the Czech Republic due to their rising number of COVID-19 cases.

“Borders will be open for persons with negative test results, but this is as of today, as the dynamics of the situation may change,” Niedzielski told Radio Zet on Saturday, adding the decisions will be taken next week.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A leader of the Polish Women’s Strike, the movement that has led mass nationwide protests against a near total abortion ban in Poland, has been charged with criminal felonies.

The U.S. State Department said it was watching the situation in the allied NATO country “very closely.”

Marta Lempart told The Associated Press on Thursday that she was formally read the charges at the district prosecutor’s office in Warsaw on Wednesday.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Medical workers, nursing home residents and politicians are set to be vaccinated against the coronavirus across the European Union on Sunday, part of an effort by the bloc’s 27 nations to roll out shots in a coordinated and equitable fashion.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen released a video celebrating the vaccine rollout, calling it “a touching moment of unity” in the battle to protect the bloc’s nearly 450 million people from the worst public health crisis in a century.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — As the Polish government plays a game of chicken with the European Union over its next long-term budget, some Poles are voicing fears that a drawn-out conflict could put their country on a path toward an eventual departure from the bloc, or “Polexit.”

Poland’s conservative government, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party, denies that it has ever wanted to leave the 27-member bloc, and popular support for EU membership runs extremely high.