Criminal suicides cause top administration dismissals and Warsaw market chain offers discounts to pensioners.

Presented by Slawek Szefs

All papers report on the Tuesday inauguration ceremony of the 44th US president. ‘The New America of Obama’ headlines RZECZPOSPOLITA quoting excerpts from his address at the steps of the Capitol. GAZETA WYBORCZA keeps its front page simple with a big OBAMA title laid on the American Stars & Stripes, noting that the son of an African man and white American woman has become the first black president of the United States. The paper’s commentary bears the title from a statement by the head of Poland’s Presidential Office Michal Kaminski who said: ‘We’re keeping our fingers crossed for president Obama’. The Washington correspondent of DZIENNIK writes that none of the hundreds of thousands of gathered for the ceremony had any doubt that they were witness to a historical event. ‘America Anew’ is the newspaper’s headline with a front page comment – ‘Political messiah on an earthly throne’.

ZYCIE WARSZAWY, the Warsaw city daily, has some good news for prospective clients of the capital’s ambulance service. A new computer system will enable quick identification of available hospital beds or even surgical theaters in wards specializing in the patient’s specific injury or illness. But specialists claim there is still much to be done to meet the deadline set for the opening of the Euro 2012 football championships when larger than usual numbers of foreign visitors and fans are expected in Warsaw.

The tabloid FAKT comments on the mysterious series of deaths of criminals convicted to long prison terms for kidnapping and subsequently murdering the son of a well prospering businessman. Three of the main four accused have allegedly committed suicide year after year in jail. The third man just before testifying in a case which was to reveal persons, possibly within the police force, who might have been involved in the abduction and later stalled the investigation. The president called the developments outraging and shameful for prison authorities and investigators, while the PM dismissed the justice minister and one of his deputies, as well as the head of the penitentiary service and national prosecutor. FAKT points to the last of the four convicted kidnappers who has so far kept to himself knowledge about the people behind the crime. Will he, too, consider suicide, it wonders.

SUPER EXPRESS reports on a sales campaign initiated by one of Warsaw’s chains of grocery markets to help less well off senior citizens. It extended a standing invitation to pensioners to do their shopping on Mondays and Tuesdays from 7 am to 3 pm with a 10 percent discount on all purchased products. The response has been tremendous and now the chain’s managers are encouraging other stores to follow their example. This is not a charity action, they claim. Closer scrutiny simply revealed that older people constitute a sizeable part of customers. Pensioners can buy cheaper, which makes them happy, we sell more and that makes us happy, the managers explain. Two birds with one stone…