The condition of Prime Minister Leszek Miller, hurt in a helicopter crash last week, is improving, say doctors at one of Warsaw’s clinics where the 14 people injured in the crash have been hospitalised. Prime Minister Miller, who has two fractured vertebrae, said that in spite of everything he intends to be at the EU summit in Brussels this week, although his enthusiasm is not shared by doctors.
Speaking from his hospital bed in an interview for Polish Radio today, Premier Miller said that American military bases in Poland could mean better Nato protection, as well as economic prospects and new jobs, although it could also bring increased threat of terrorist attacks. The Prime Minister was referring to today’s visit by officials from the Pentagon for the first talks on the possibility to construct Nato military bases in Poland. The delegation is led by deputy US defence secretary Douglas Feith.
It is vital to buy new planes for transporting top officials in Poland, said Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdziński, adding that the first planes of a new fleet may be purchased next year. Minister Szmajdziński said that the existing fleet ‘fulfils all safety conditions’ but was nearing its use-by date and a decision on new aircraft was forthcoming. Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Jerzy Hausner said he believed the purchase should be delayed, ‘in spite of everything’. A discussion on a new VIP fleet rose after Thursday’s crash of a 26-year-old Mi-8 helicopter with the Polish Prime Minister on board. The prime minister and several accompanying persons, as well as the pilots of the helicopter were injured in the crash.
Poland’s first budget airline, Air Polonia, launched today with flights from Warsaw to Gdańsk. Most of the 30 passengers on the virgin flight proved to be journalists. In spite of this Air Polonia is confident that it will be able to attract ordinary commuters. The ticket to Warsaw costs between 75 and 280 zloty (from around 20 to 70 USD) and is highly competitive with prices for the railway connection. In mid-December the airline launches flights to London and has announced that at the turn of April it wants to begin flying from Warsaw to Paris, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Brussels, Stockholm, Frankfurt and Cologne.
The Catholic University of Lublin today celebrates its 85th anniversary. The university was created in 1918 and signed into being in 1938 by Roman Catholic and State officials and is described as a private college. The motto of the university is “Deo et Patriae” (God and Homeland). KUL as it is known has 6 departments, including theology, law, mathematics and philosophy. It has 18 thousand curricular students.
The Baltic seaside resort of Łeba has just closed its 5th annual festival devoted to... cod, which is the biggest event of its kind organized in Poland. The fish became the focus of around 200 dishes prepared by local restaurateurs, representatives of canneries and ethnic minorities, as well as visitors from abroad. The hit of the festival was a cod and onion dish from Gudhjen on the Island of Bornholm. Among others, the three thousand guests at the festival could sample smoked, baked, fried, roasted or battered cod as well as caviare.
A look at the weather in Poland today: clear over the west and south-west. The remainder is in for a glum and cloudy day with some brighter spells and snow flurries or sleet, especially in the north-east, and rain in the northern Baltic sea regions. Maximum temperature from minus 2 deg.C locally in the south to plus 7 on the coast. Wind light and moderate, to strong in the north-east and east, mainly westerly.