Free Republic

[translation from Polish]  Polish Parliament officially condems the verdict of the ECoHR banning the presense of Crosses in classrooms. The Polish Parliament, Seym, has stood up for the freedom of religion and for the endorsement of the values which belong to common heritage of the nations of Europe. The Seym of Poland rejects the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights banning Crosses in classrooms in Italy and calls the parliaments of the countries belonging to the Council of Europe to reflect on the issue.The resolution of the 460-seat Polish Parliament was accepted by a huge majority of...

Poles protest US Stalin memorial plan23.11.2009 11:06 The Polish community in the United States is outraged by a plan to honour Josef Stalin by placing his bust on a pedestal at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia.  According to William McIntosh, the director of the Bradford museum, which is coordinating the project, the Soviet dictator deserves to be acknowledged alongside Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt has he was an ally of the US after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The plans have met with protests from Polish war veterans in New York.  President of the Kosciuszko Foundation,...

[translation; excerpt] Crosses in classrooms. President of Poland condems the verdict of The European Court of Human Rights. This week the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg said," The presence of religious symbols in schools is in violation of the freedom of the parents to raise their children according to their own convictions. It is also a violation of the child's freedom of religion". Today, Nov.11, in his official speech at the ceremony of the Poland's Independence Day, the President of the Republic, prof.Lech Kaczynski, strongly condemned the verdict, saying,"  Nobody in Poland will not ever accept that crosses in...

Special Navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding the Francop some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hizbullah. More than 60 tons of weaponry were on board, in dozens of containers. The Francop carried hundreds of containers. A significant amount of 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, likely made in Iran, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades were found on board. Israel Radio reported that advanced anti-aircraft platforms not before...

Treason!   USA sold us to Russia.   ( http://www.efakt.pl/Zdrada-USA-sprzedaly-nas-Rosji,artykuly,52626,1.html ) (translation from Polish)[The end of anti-missile shield! Americans break promises. There will be neither a US base in Poland nor a radar in Czech Rep.What about our security now?! We've been left on the thin ice.] The strategic ally? The solid rock of our national security? The end of illusions. United States, which could always rely on us, turned its back to us. The President of USA just threw to the garbage bin  the project of building the Anti-Missile Shield in Poland and Czech Rep. The powerful military fascility could strengthen our...

Polish Army crushes Wehrmacht  at Mokra, Sep.1,1939 - 70th anniversary of WWII first battle  The Battle of Mokra took place on September 1, 1939 near the village of Mokra in Silesia, Poland. It was the first crutial battle of  World War II and one of the first Polish victories in the war.In brief: On  September 1, 1939 gen.Reinhardt's 4th Panzer Division  and German 31st Infantry Division were crushed by Poloish Volhynian Cavalry Brigade. Germans lost about 150 tanks and armored vehicles and more than 1,000 soldiers. The remnats of the 4th Panzer Division were forced to withdraw back to Germany....

Polish official intercedes on behalf of mothers of slain Brooklyn Marine Sgt. Pietrzak and his wife By Corky Siemaszko DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, August 24th 2009, 12:30 PM The grieving mothers of a slain Brooklyn Marine and his wife have won the support of the Polish government in their push for a face-to-face meeting with President Obama. A top Polish official urged the U.S. ambassador in Warsaw to "employ all your personal and institutional authority" to make it happen, according to a letter obtained by The News. An Obama sitdown with the mothers of Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and...

 Today marks the  65th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising against Nazi Germany. [Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President of Warsaw H.G.Waltz, President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, Chairman of the Polish Parliament B.Komorowski]   Sirens will wail and church bells will toll across Poland on the stroke of 5:00 pm., the exact time when the Polish Home Army started the rising. In line with long-established tradition, private vehicles and pedestrians are to stand still for a minute of silence. The president and prime minister laid wreaths at the monument to the Warsaw Rising at the Powonzki cemetery, which on August 1 is visited...

7/28/2009 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFNS) -- Thought not traditional Air Force linguists, two multilingual Airmen bring a unique skill to Manas Air Base. Capt. Jecek Dempnaik and Staff Sgt. Maria Hudgeons, who speak a combined seven languages, reduce communication barriers between Air Force members and coalition forces through written translations and verbal interpretations. They are the ears and eyes to the director of the Transit Center here. When acting in this capacity, they are referred to as the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing coalition coordinators and linguists. Shifting tongues between English, French and Spanish is as easy as breathing...

Nun becomes top-selling Polish cookbook writer By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 18, 2009 Emerging from the quiet of her convent, Sister Anastazja Pustelnik was confronted by a jarring image — her smiling face on posters plastered around town to hawk the cookbooks that have made the 59-year-old nun one of Poland's best-selling authors. It's fame Sister Anastazja never bargained for when she left the material world as a young woman, expecting to toil in obscurity for God. But her ability to create easy-to-follow recipes for delectable cakes and traditional home cooking has resulted in five cookbooks since...

Editorial: RCMP suffers another blow Times Colonist Published: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Staggering incompetence or coverup? Those are the only two explanations for the fact that a critical RCMP e-mail was kept from the inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death until last week, on the day final arguments were to begin. The failure to disclose the critical evidence has undermined the work of the Braidwood inquiry, forced a long delay in the completion of its report and -- once again -- tarnished the RCMP's already shredded reputation. The e-mail cuts directly to the heart of the issues before the inquiry. RCMP...

Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan. One need look no further than President Obama's cautiously timid response to the demands of freedom from Iranians. Contrast this with Reagan's response to similar demands from Poles in the 1980s and the miserable inadequacy of the Obama foreign policy is thrust into a stark and shameful relief.

Lednica 2000 – The Holy HappeningJune 6,2009One hundred thousand young boys and girls gathered at the Lednica Lake, the place of the Baptism of Poland, where the first historical ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity in AD966. Since 2000 this has been a place of annual  Polish Catholic youth meetings that last for two days. The high point of the celebration is a nocturnal walk under a massive steel fish structure, a symbol of Christianity. Doing this, the Polish youth solemnly confirm its faith in Jesus Christ, passed down from generation to generation.            See videos: 1. Lednica - 6.06.2009...

After 24 years, polka has had its last dance at the Grammys. The Recording Academy, which bestows the Grammy Awards, announced late on Wednesday that the polka category would be eliminated, saying in a statement that it had been cut “to ensure the awards process remains representative of the current musical landscape.” To many in the polka world, that read as a kind of industry code meaning that their genre — once capable of supporting artists with million-selling hits, but long since relegated to micro-niche status — had slipped off the mainstream radar entirely. “It’s devastating,” said Carl Finch of...

President Obama's model for spending the nation out of recession is Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. A better example is the Reaganite bearing of post-communist Poland. In the midst of the global financial crisis, Poland's economy is forecast to grow by almost 1 percent [...] likely will be the only European country with a growing gross domestic product in 2009. Germany's GDP is expected to shrink by more then 5 percent, Britain's by almost 4 percent, France's by 3 percent and the Czech Republic's by 3 percent. With a projected GDP drop of about 3 percent, the United States doesn't...

A man who fell 300ft (91m) to his death from the top of a cliff was posing for a photo at the time, holding on to a tuft of grass, coastguards said. The "tragic accident" at Seaton in Devon on Sunday afternoon was witnessed by the 39-year-old Polish man's friends and nearby tourists. The victim was found in bushes at the foot of Beer Hill and rescuers said he would have been killed instantly.

Millions of people attend the Resurrection Processions in Poland. The Warsaw processions, including the one that is traditionally led by the Military Guard of Honor and the officers of the General Staff with the Supreme Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, gathered hundreds of thousands of citizens of Warsaw.  The Military Guard of Honor at the Holy Sepulchre represented by all kinds of armed forces: Navy,  Air Force and Land Forces Resurrection Mass at the Cathedral attended by the Supreme Commander and the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces Resurrection Procession led by the Military Guard of Honor  Jesus Christ has...

Good Friday. Countless thousands of people of Warsaw attended the Way of the Cross through the streets of the city led by the soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces carrying the Cross of Jesus.  

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the Taliban's killing of a Polish engineer as "absolutely barbaric", after Warsaw blamed his death on Islamabad's "apathy" towards tackling extremism. Piotr Stanczak, who was abducted in late September in volatile northwest Pakistan, was beheaded at the weekend by his Taliban captors, who then released a graphic video of the execution to several media outlets. Warsaw has confirmed the authenticity of the video and vowed to find Stanczak's killers, who are believed to come from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan's umbrella Taliban organisation which has links to Al-Qaeda. "Officially the ministry of interior has...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – A Pakistani militant group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed Saturday it beheaded a Polish engineer kidnapped last year to pressure Islamabad to release detained insurgents. A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told AFP by telephone that its men decapitated Piotr Stanczak early Saturday after the Pakistani government failed to meet the group's demands by a Friday midnight deadline. No Pakistani government comment regarding the group's claim was immediately available, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country received "informal confirmation" of the engineer's death. A spokesman for the Polish embassy in Islamabad, Piotr Adamkiewicz told AFP: "We...

WARSAW - The remains of 1,800 German civilians who perished in 1945, towards the end of the World War II, have been exhumed from a mass grave in Malbork, northern Poland, officials said Wednesday.

Rod Blagojevich, the Stupidest Governor in the Country, Puts Obama in a Bad Light... Blagojevich as Dick Mell's son-in-law, with a Slavic name (this had long been thought of as a Polish seat), managed to get the endorsement of Mayor Daley and to engage the consulting services of David Axelrod.http://www.usnews.com/mobile/blogs/barone/2008/12/11/rod-blagojevich-the-stupidest-governor-in-the-country-puts-obama-in-a-bad-light.html

Poland has been forced to deny its foreign minister 'joked' that President-Elect Barack Obama's grandparents were cannibals. Writing in his blog, Mr Czarnecki, an MEP, quoted the foreign minister as saying: "Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary." A spokesman for the Polish foreign office conceded that Mr Sikorski had made the controversial comment, but denied that the foreign minister had intended to insult Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has made no comment on the affair. It appears that Mr Sikorski's position is not...

The brutal murders of Brooklyn-raised Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his wife had nothing to do with the fact that he was white and she was black, a top cop said Thursday."There's nothing to suggest what happened was a racial crime," Investigator Josh Button of the Riverside County Sheriff's Central Homicide unit said. "I've seen that reported, but it's just people looking at the case from the outside and making up their own minds."RELATED: MURDERED MARINE'S MOM WRITES OBAMA Button addressed the sensitive question of race after four Marines - all of them black - were charged last week...

Poland: McCain crushes Obama 3:1According to users' preferences of a Polish  liberal Internet forum "Onet.PL", John McCain is an absolute winner of the presidential race to the White House.Taking many different criteria into consideration,  if the US presidential election took place in Polish Internet zone, John McCain would crush Barack Obama 3:1 ( 75% to25%), which is an unprecedented case in the whole of Europe.

US Election – the Polish-American Vote Created: 28.10.2008 15:24 Which way will Polish-Americans swing in the general and presidential elections in the United States on November 4? By Magdalena Jensen Ten million Polish-Americans live in the United States, representing a large voting body with some sway in next Tuesday’s Presidential Election. Despite these large numbers and the city of Chicago – where Barack Obama makes his home – containing the largest pocket of Poles after Warsaw, is this community decidedly left of right, decidedly pro-Obama or pro-McCain? Around the early to middle of the twentieth century, when FDR was saving...

This is a video out of Poland and it’s a squirrel giving a big Thank You, a man.

This is a video out of Poland and it’s a squirrel giving a big Thank You, a man.

Poland ended its military presence in Iraq Saturday with a ceremony for its approximately 900 troops at Camp Echo, Qadasiyah Province.The Polish army commanded Multi-National Division - Center South, which operated throughout Qadasiyah Province.Polish forces completed 10 rotations in Iraq, which ended October 1, and commanded 10 national contingents, including Armenia, Latvia, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  To the memory and honor of the Polish soldiers who fought, worked and lost their lives in Iraq, 2003-2008   It  was in the first days of the operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003.  Despite numerous attempts of the British forces to take a startegic...

[translated from Polish]The assembly of a gigantic monument of Christ the King has just begun on the outskirts of Swiebodzin, Poland. Situated on the small hill several miles east of the German-Polish border, the statue is erected not only as a fruit of faith of the local people but also as a towering symbol of welcome to Catholic Poland, perfectly seen from both A-2 Highway and S3 Fastway. Almost 100-foot-tall statue of Christ the King will be 4 feet higher than a famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, which is overlooking Rio de Janeiro. Designed by a priest Sylvester Zawadzki...

Text of report in English by Polish national independent news agency PAP Warsaw, 20 August: I am very glad that irrespective of all ups and downs we have a good agreement, President Lech Kaczynski said on Wednesday after Poland and the USA signed a deal on placing 10 missile interceptors in Poland. The president stressed that the Polish-US deal was the implementation of one of the strategic goals of his presidency. He stressed the deal was reached thanks to the two governments and one presidency.

Poland and US finalise antimissile deal Created: 14.08.2008 19:49  Polish and US negotiators have signed a preliminary agreement on placing an antimissile shield in northern Poland, after nearly two years of negotiations. The announcement on Thursday evening involves the condition demanded by Warsaw that an additional arsenal of Patriot missiles be stationed in Poland without time limits. Washington, it is believed, had been offering Patriots for a limited time period, even as short as one year. American troops will jointly run the antimissile base and there will be a US garrison in Poland by 2012. After long, protracted talks between the...

On the eve of the MotherÂ’s Day, which is celebrated in Poland every year on the 26th of May since 1923, residents of the Polish capital together with guests from different cities and countries, could take part in the third annual March for Life and Family - a joyful celebration of traditional values and a call for respect for the fundamental human right to life. Several thousand people, many families with children and youth, marched through the heart of Warsaw on Sunday in a joyful affirmation of Judeo-Christian values. Participants called for respect for the natural family and fundamental human...

Mysterious church and palace from the beginning of the 1st millennium A.D. discovered by Polish archaeologists in Sudan Archaeological site in SelibAt the beginning of this year, archaeologists from Warsaw University, headed by Dr Bogdan Żurawski discovered the remains of an Early Christian church and an even older palace. "During research in the area of Selib, a village located on the right bank of the Nile, between the 4th and 3rd cataract, the remains of a building erected on the plan of a huge rectangle were found. It soon turned out that this was one of the most unique churches...

Text of report in English by Polish national independent news agency PAP Warsaw, 27 February: Two Polish soldiers died and one was injured on Tuesday [26 February] when their Humvee vehicle hit a roadside bomb near their base in Afghanistan, the Polish Defence Ministry has said. The explosive device blew up the vehicle some 3 kilometres from the Polish base in Sharana in the Paktika province, the ministry said. According to the report the wounded soldier's life is not in danger. The soldiers were returning to the base after a humanitarian mission when one of vehicles in a column drove...

Tribute to Voytek, the smoking, drinking fighting, soldier bear By ROBERT FAIRBAIRN HE ENJOYED a cigarette and a bottle of cold beer and could carry more mortar rounds than any other soldier. But Voytek wasn't one of the ordinary dogs of war – he was a battling bear. Adopted by the Polish army, the European brown bear "fought" at the bloody Battle of Monte Cassino before dying, not of a bullet wound, but of old age, in Edinburgh Zoo. Now a campaign has been started to build a monument to him. Voytek was adopted as a cub in the Middle...

Mitt Romney showed that you can go home again. After disappointing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney's turning point came in a decisive, 9-point victory in Michigan on Tuesday, putting him back in the thick of a muddled GOP race. Romney grew up in Michigan, and his father George was the head of American Motors and then a popular governor in the 1960s. Romney stressed his native-son appeal ("this is personal - my parents are buried here"), promised he "would not rest as president" until the state's dismal economy turned around, and spent more than $2 million on TV...

REDZIKOWO, Poland - Among the people living around this disused Polish air base, there is little enthusiasm for the missile interceptor station likely to be built here as part of a U.S. missile defense system. Poland's new government is sounding increasingly skeptical about the plan, arguing that it won't boost Polish security, and that sentiment is echoed throughout this farming region near the Baltic Sea coast. The main fear is that the area will become a target for retaliation by Russia, which vigorously opposes President Bush's plan. "If they build the missile defense base here, it'll be a magnet and...

YouTube parody of Dziekanski death triggers controversy Jorge Barrera , CanWest News Service Published: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 OTTAWA - A YouTube video parodying the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski has drawn censure from the RCMP and criticism from some in the Polish community. The video, posted Dec. 23 and titled "Mega Man vs. Polish immigrant," shows an early version of hit Nintendo video game character Mega Man zapping to death another game character superimposed with Dziekanski's face. Dziekanski died in October after he was Tasered by RCMP officers in Vancouver International Airport. Kamloops, B.C., resident Jurek Baltakis, who...

CLIFTON -- Christmas may have ended, but Izabela Glowka is only part way into her holiday season.  For the Clifton resident and some traditional Eastern European Roman Catholics, Christmas begins with a daytime fast on Dec. 24 and only ends with a feast on Jan. 1.  Many Europeans adhere to the Octave, the eight days of Christmas.  In Poland, where residents are ardent followers of the tradition, banks close and workers relax at home with their families for the entire week.  They didn't get the day off, but many Poles living locally skipped work on Wednesday to mark St....

A joke that aired on the new Fox television show "Back to You" suggesting that Poles are Nazi collaborators has enraged some Polish Americans. They are calling for the owner of Fox, Rupert Murdoch, to apologize. The chairman of the Polish American Congress's anti-bigotry committee, Frank Milewski, said he wrote a letter in response to the episode calling on Mr. Murdoch to meet with Polish Christians who survived Nazi concentration camps and Poles who have been honored by Israel for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.

Warsaw - Poland's new Defence Minister Bogdan Klich says Polish troops will be withdrawn from Iraq in 2008. On Friday, the new Polish centre-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk was sworn in. He succeeds Jaroslaw Kaczynski who was defeated in elections following scandals and disputes within his coalition. Mr Tusk also profited from his campaign promise to withdraw Poland's soldiers from Iraq. An opinion poll conducted in June indicated 80 percent of Poles were against the continuing deployment. Under the last government, Poland was a close ally of the United States and took part in the invasion of Iraq...

Stratford woman fights deportation to Poland RICHARD WEIZEL Article Last Updated: 11/03/2007 11:16:52 PM EDT STRATFORD — Three years ago Polish citizens Adam and Renata Laszczak believed they were about to realize the American Dream. Then, suddenly, it became more like an American tragedy. After emigrating in 1998 from Miechow, a town just outside Crocow, the young couple were married in the United States and by 2004 were the proud parents of twin seven-month old girls. Adam worked for a construction company in Fairfield, while Renata took care of the twins, Angelica and Jessica. Adam, who was legally in the...

Gdansk shipyard protests against Poland's incoming liberal government 29.10.2007 Several hundred workers of the legendary Gdansk shipyard have been rallying to protest what they fear will be a delay or even complete stop of the privatization of the shipyard, once the liberal Civic Platform party comes into power in Poland. Car tires were buring, fire crackers exploding and shipyard workers were chanting "Solidarity will win again" and "Liberals keep your hands off the shipyard". Trade union members have handed in a petition to proper authorities asking them not to interfere with the privatization process of the shipyard

Polish phrase cards handed out to firefightersFirefighters in Lancashire are being handed Polish phrase-cards with sentences including 'What is on fire?' and 'Are you hurt?' to help cope with an influx of eastern Europeans. Free Polish classes are also on offer to firefighters, to help make them understood by the 50,000 Polish immigrants who have settled in Lancashire neighbourhoods. Most have arrived since the country was admitted to the European Union. But Polish communities are said to be instinctively suspicious of any uniformed services due to experiences in their homeland. The card has been produced to try and gain their...

Recently detained, interrogated and released former Minister of Interior Janusz Kaczmarek has been accused of leaking information about a scheme to frame Andrzej Lepper. Evidence was made public to justify his being taken into custody for interrogation. But no indication of his motive for anything he is accused of is apparent.

Polish MEPs boycott UN conference 'We can call this conference anti-Israeli,' Polish MEP says Yaakov Lappin Published: 08.16.07, 20:49 / Israel News A conference of UN NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to be hosted at the European Parliament this month, will be boycotted by Polish Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from across the political spectrum, who say that the conference is biased against Israel. The meeting, set to take place at the European Parliament on August 30 - 31, has been organized by the UN's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People."...

<p>Russia escalated its war of words with Europe yesterday when Sergei Ivanov, the first deputy prime minister, threatened to deploy missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania.</p> <p>Mr Ivanov, a Kremlin hawk seen as President Vladimir Putin's favoured successor, said this would become necessary if the United States rejected Russia's proposal for the location of a missile defence shield.</p>

Is there a Polish Ping list someone could direct this to please? I need a Polish translation (well an English paragraph translated into Polish). Brief, about 4 or 5 lines. If someone is fluent in Polish, I'd be most grateful if you could please freepmail me. Thanks!

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A planned Russian-German natural gas pipeline along the Baltic seabed will cut through a disputed coastal zone that comes under Polish and Danish regulations, Poland's economy minister said Wednesday. Minister Piotr Wozniak said plans for the 750-mile pipeline show it will slice through a stretch of some 62 miles of water that Poland and Denmark are in conflict over, with each country claiming it as an exclusive economic zone. Still, Poland insisted that its regulations should apply in the area, and that the pipeline's construction must comply with them. Several coastal nations have expressed concern over...