Polish diplomats wrongly relied on Pakistan’s constant reassurances that the talks with the Taliban were on the right course, writes RZECZPOSPOLITA.

Press reviewed by Elzbieta Krajewska

The brutal death of the Polish engineer held hostage by the Taliban in Pakistan is still front-page material in most of the dailies. RZECZPOSPOLITA wonders “Did the government fail to fully realize the threat?” reporting that last October the Polish Prime Minister had officially thanked Pakistani authorities for their efforts to free the kidnapped Pole. DZIENNIK asks “Did he have to die?” publishing a still from the videotape of the execution, moments before the 43-year-old geologist from Kraków was murdered and writing that the man had believed to the very end that he was going to be released. The daily also reports that some Pakistani reporters were offering the film of the execution for sale: “the taped murder of a foreigner is merely an opportunity to earn some money” writes DZIENNIK. Tabloid SUPEREXPRESS tells Foreign Minister Sikorski to resign, blaming him that “for four months he couldn’t get the hostage out of the hands of his killers”. Meanwhile FAKT rages “we must avenge him”, also quoting the man’s last words recorded minutes before the murder. Part of what he says is: “there are good people here, they have a hard life but they are ordinary, peaceful; I’ve been here so long and I’ve seen they have ordinary families, children”.
 
GAZETA WYBORCZA reports that a Polish fraudster has been arrested in Chile – for organizing the same pyramid scheme which he had operated in Poland in 1993 and which then cost naïve “investors” a total of 8 million USD. Two people committed suicide. The man disappeared and for the past 16 years has been on the wanted list. Now he will end up either in a Polish or a Chilean jail.
 
Over to METRO, the paper distributed in the Warsaw underground which worries over the handwriting of Polish kids. It’s terrible… Kids nowadays don’t have to write longhand – a lot of their schoolwork is done on the computer. But one of the leading authorities on the Polish language, professor Jerzy Bralczyk, doesn’t see a problem. Our greatest 19th century poet, Adam Mickiewicz, he says, as quoted by the daily, had awful handwriting!
 
And lastly, the Warsaw city daily ŻYCIE WARSZAWY informs that the Polish Post Office is well prepared for Valentine’s Day with a stamp featuring a four-leaf clover and the words “I love you” in Polish – and you can also have a personalized stamp with your own photo on it. So there are people who still send Valentine’s cards by post, muses the daily…