Aquapark Opens in Zakopane
Great news for waterbabies heading to the Tatras on holiday! The largest Aqua Park in Poland has finally opened, just in time for peak tourist season. What with...

City Focus

Cleaning up Zakopane 2006
The Zakopane council last week acknowledged the efforts of school children partaking in the "Cleaning up Zakopane 2006" program which takes place in autumn and ...

City Focus

Opening of 'Zakopane Aquapark' Nears
Late December has been set as the date of the eagerly anticipated opening of the Zakopane 'Aquapark'. The aqua park will add an interesting architectural eleme...

City Focus

Batman Returns
Adam Malysz scooped his second World Cup event of the year this weekend, marking an emphatic return to form for the ski-jumping legend. The slight Polish star, ...

Comment

Festival of Highland Folklore
Fans of folklore will be in seventh heaven this week in Zakopane, as one of the town's best loved events has just got underway. The 38th International Festival ...

City Focus

Resistance Fighter Honoured
Poland's President Lech Kacznyski was in Zakopane yesterday to honour a controversial WWII resistance fighter - Jozef Kuras, codenamed 'Ogien' (Fire). Kuras ope...

Current Affairs

Avant-garde In Zakopane
Plans are afoot to launch a museum of avant-garde art in Zakopane, with a view to opening in late 2008. A delightful turn of the century villa has been selected...

Art and Culture

Poland to repair ailing football
Poland's ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) wants state support for mass sports and a debate on repairing Poland's ailing football, PiS parliamentary leader Prz...

Comment

Bollywood comes to Zakopane
Shah Rukh Khan may have immortalised Switzerland in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, mandolin in hand amid lush green fields speckled with yellow blossoms, but thi...

Art and Culture

Vodka War
Poland and Hungary are quarrelling over the definition of vodka. For the Poles vodka is “an alcoholic beverage derived from cereals or potatoes.” Historically v...

Comment

Celebrating Szymanowski
Music and mountain lovers have a treat in store this weekend with the 30th anniversary of the Karol Szymanowski Museum in Zakopane. After Chopin, Szymanowsk...

Art and Culture

Silver For Poland
Poland’s Tomasz Sikora has won the silver medal at the Winter Games in Turin. He put up an almost flawless performance in the 15-kilometre mass-start biathlon e...

Comment

Pope's Aide Becomes Cardinal
Archbishop of Krakow Stanislaw Dziwisz has been named cardinal by Pope Benedict. While the appointment is seen as a victory for the Church’s more open wing in P...

Current Affairs

Olympic Adventures
Poland’s Adam Malysz has won 7th place in the K95 ski jumping competition. After the first round, the Polish athlete lay 8th and managed to improve his result b...

Comment

Pope's Car Is No Auctioneer's Paradise
Bidders at Christie's auction house offered up to $71,820 for a 1958 car that once belonged to the late Pope John Paul II, but the seller decided the sum was no...

Comment

Reflections On Poland
In a long article reflecting on the current state of Poland, a leading authority noted that today 'there is a stronger sense than ever of "two Polands": one mor...

Comment

The Italian Job
Forty-six Polish aces are poised to take part in the Winter Olympics, which begin tomorrow in Turin, Northern Italy. Poland will be represented in nine event...

Comment

Bollywood Hits Poland
Bollywood bonanzas are not normally known for getting jiggy with it at -20 centigrade. But the producers of 'Fanaah' - a tale of troubled love set against the b...

Comment

Winter Deals Further Blows
Heavy snowfall caused roofs across Poland to collapse Tuesday, but no deaths were reported just nine days after the country's worst building disaster claimed 65...

Current Affairs

British MP Will Bike To Poland
Former Conservative MP Edwina Currie has had more than her fair share of thrills and spills, but her new venture should win her more friends than foes. Long ...

Comment

Cartoon Furore Continues
Head of the Muslim Religious Union in Poland Tomasz Miskiewicz demanded an apology from the editor-in-chief of the Rzeczpospolita daily which reprinted caricatu...

Comment

Fresh Election On The Cards
Parliament has just missed a crucial deadline to pass the 2006 budget. A snap general election now seems probable. The Polish constitution says that if the ...

Current Affairs

Reform In Wake Of Roof Collapse
Poland's prime minister said new federal regulations would allow authorities to close buildings whose roofs aren't cleared of snow, and investigators picked thr...

Current Affairs

Government Closes Buildings At Risk
The government has ordered the temporary closure of some large buildings fearing their roofs may collapse in a repeat of a weekend disaster that killed 67 peopl...

Current Affairs

Poles Pay Tribute
Poles came from around the country to Katowice today to lay flowers and light candles in memory of the 62 people who died when the roof of an exhibition hall co...

Current Affairs

Zakopane Ski Jump World Cup
The biggest event of the winter calendar, the Ski-Jump World Cup 2006, touches down in Zakopane this weekend, as the town prepares to witness an epic battle of ...

City Focus

Gold For Polish Ski-Surfer
Jagna Marczulaitis of Poland edged Daniela Meuli of Switzerland to win the parallel slalom event at a snowboarding World Cup on Sunday. Sara Fischer of Swed...

Comment

Snowboard Showdown
Jan Michaelis of Germany and Paulina Ligocka of Poland won snowboard World Cup halfpipe events Friday. Michaelis won his first event of the season ahead of ...

Comment

Poland To Host Miss World
In these politically correct times, the British are somewhat awkward about their creation of the Miss World beauty contest. However, viewers have voted with the...

Comment

A crisp, colorful Polish alpine retreat
ZAKOPANE, Poland (AP) -- You could say Zakopane, Poland, is blessed. After all, it was the late Pope John Paul's favorite recreation spot. He spent a lot of...

City Focus

Bargain Flights To Poland
If you're on the look out for some great deals on flights to Poland, look no further. Centralwings, LOT Polish Airlines’ cut-price alter-ego, is offering fli...

Comment

Man Who Shot Pope Freed
Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II, was released from his Turkish jail today after serving over 25 years behind bars. Agca was a right-wing ...

Current Affairs

Uproar In Parliament
The Polish Sejm (parliament) descended into farce yesterday when the Speaker of the House refused to set in motion a vote on the new budget. Opposition MPs c...

Current Affairs

Pole Joins Potter Adventure
Oscar nominated cinematographer Slawomir Idziak has won the commission to film the next Harry Potter movie, 'The Order of the Phoenix.' Idziak, who won fame ...

Art and Culture

Polish Countess Meets Big Brother
A Polish Countess whose father once led Radio Free Europe has taken her place in Britain's notorious Celebrity Big Brother House. Rula Lenska (b.1947, Cambr...

Comment

Pope Plans Polish Trip
The Vatican envoy for papal tours Alberto Gasparri arrived in Poland today with the aim of touring the route of the planned visit by Pope Benedict XVI to that c...

Current Affairs

Ten ambassadors recalled
Poland’s new conservative right wing government has recalled ten ambassadors believed to be linked with the former communist regime. Diplomats who have held pos...

Current Affairs

If You Can't Beat 'Em
Father Adam Boniecki, editor of the prestigious journal Tygodnik Powszechny (Universal Weekly) recently lamented that Poles now seemed more interested in shoppi...

Comment

Polish President 'Statesman of 2005'
Aleksander Kwasniewski has received the award of the prestigious European weekly European Voice as statesman of the year 2005.T he Polish head of state has been...

Current Affairs

Warsaw Pact A Pandora's Box
Politicians representing opposition groups have called the defense minister’s decision on declassifying documents of the defunct Warsaw Pact a “media operation”...

Current Affairs

Poland May Yet Host Cup
UEFA have shortlisted Italy and joint bids from Croatia/Hungary and Poland/Ukraine to host the the European Championship in 2012, rejecting rival bids from Gree...

Comment

Kaczynski Wins Presidency
Conservative Lech Kaczynski won Poland's presidential run-off on Sunday on a platform combining traditionalist Catholic values with promises to curb corruption ...

Current Affairs

Ryanair Revs Up for Poland
Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 low fares airline announced yesterday that with just 10 days to go to the launch of five more Polish destinations, Poland is set for a l...

Comment

Premiere Of Papal Film
He may never have seen Oscar-winner Jon Voight as a male prostitute in "Midnight Cowboy," but Pope Benedict XVI will be among the first to see him portray the l...

Comment

More Mischief On Campaign Trail
Opponents of the liberal candidate for the presidency, Donald Tusk, have attempted to find materials concerning his parents in German archives. One such per...

Current Affairs

Bring back the Soviets?
Having cast their ballots, the two big guns in this years presidential election, Donald Tusk and Lech Kaczynski, seem destined for a runoff election later this ...

Current Affairs

Return Of The Moonstealers
Poland's presidential race is still wide open but conservative contender Lech Kaczynski already has something to celebrate -- a movie he starred in as a child w...

Comment

Transition Poles
Nearly a quarter of Poles are keen to go abroad in search of employment, a study published Wednesday reveals. The 'Social Diagnosis 2005' study revealed 22....

Comment

Environment Remains Stumbling Block
Poland could miss out on billions of euros in aid because the European Commission has doubts if the country's newly amended environment protection law meets EU ...

Current Affairs

Talks Off To A Rocky Start
Polish centre-right parties clashed on Thursday at their first meeting to form a ruling coalition after winning Sunday's election, with signs a new government c...

Current Affairs