By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
A Polish university researcher driven by nationalistic and anti-Semitic hatred was arrested for planning to detonate a four-ton bomb in front of the Parliament building in Warsaw with the president, prime minister, government ministers and lawmakers inside, authorities said Tuesday.
Poles voted Sunday in parliamentary elections to determine whether Poland continues on its conciliatory course with Russia and Germany, or whether it returns to a more combative stance with those historic foes.
Poland's conservative opposition almost closed the gap on the governing liberals in an opinion poll released Sunday, with a week to go to the Oct. 9 general election.
Poland on Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of a plane crash that killed not only its president and other key leaders but also, ultimately, efforts to improve relations with Russia, its historic enemy.
Interim president Bronislaw Komorowski appeared to have held off a last-minute surge from the identical twin brother of the late president, who died in an April plane crash that shocked the country and forced Sunday's early election.
More than two months after Poland's president was killed in a plane crash, Poles voted Sunday to choose his successor. Exit polls showed interim President and Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski leading former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, but without the 50 percent needed for outright victory.
A somber election season in Poland was prolonged by two weeks Sunday when a first round of voting produced no immediate successor to Lech Kaczynski, the president killed more than two months ago in a plane crash.
LEBANON
LEBANON
The relationship with U.S. allies in Central and Eastern Europe is emerging as one of the key factors of 21st-century alliance-building for the United States. In these countries the memory of Communist oppression is still fresh, and the appreciation for their security relationship with the United States is keen. Recent Russian revanchism under President Vladimir Putin has only made it more so. The United States for its part is looking at a challenging world of the 21st century where several powerful players will increasingly challenge American power.
Threat in Mexico
Threat in Mexico
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
WARSAW — Poland's all-or-nothing negotiating style helped the post-communist state win concessions over a new treaty to which EU leaders agreed in the wee hours yesterday morning, but at the cost of relations with some key partners in the 27-nation bloc.
"It depends on a lot of factors, above all on how the situation there is going to develop and how our cooperation with the United States is going to shape up," President Lech Kaczynski said.
"After today, Poland is capable of much better cooperation with France, Britain and also Germany," he said.
