ALLEGED MOSSAD SPY
ARRESTED IN POLAND

Warsaw (PMN)—An alleged Mossad spy from Israel, using the name Uri Brodsky, wanted in connection with the hit-squad slaying of a Hamas agent in Dubai, has been arrested in Poland, officials said on June 19, 2010. He is suspected of working for the Mossad in Germany and helping to issue a fake German passport to a member of the Mossad operation that allegedly killed Hamas agent Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.

Brodsky was arrested in upon his arrival in Poland because of a European arrest warrant issued by Germany, which is now seeking his extradition.

Monika Lewandowska, a spokesman for Polish prosecutors, confirmed that the suspect was arrested at the city’s international airport on June 4. She told reporters that the arrest warrant was made "in connection with the murder of a Hamas member in Dubai." The suspect appeared before a Polish court on June 6, and was ordered to remain in temporary arrest for up to 40 days.

In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said that it was aware of the man's fate. Police in the United Arab Emirates said the elaborate hit squad linked to the January 19 slaying in Dubai involved some 25 suspects, most of them carrying fake passports from European nations.

Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has said he is nearly certain that Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, masterminded the killing. The brazen assault in a luxury hotel and its alleged perpetrators were widely captured by security cameras. Some footage, released by Dubai’s police, showed alleged members of the hit squad disguised as tourists, wearing baggy shorts, sneakers and baseball caps, and carrying tennis rackets.

At the time, Israel said it didn't know who was responsible for the killing, but welcomed it.

Opole, Poland (PMN)—The body of Dariusz Ratajczak, who was found guilty by a Polish court in 2002 of claiming that the Nazis never planned the Holocaust, was found dead in a shopping center parking lot on June 11, 2010, in the western city of Opole. The body, which was severely decomposed, was identified by Ratajczak’s family.

Judging by the state of the body and high temperatures, it was determined that the man had been dead for up to two weeks. Security guards at the Karolinka shopping center claimed, however, that the historian’s Renault Kangoo was left at the car park on the same day that it was discovered.

The cause of Ratajczak’s death was uncertain. Police thought it unlikely that he was murdered, however, because no injuries were found on the body during the autopsy.

Police found documents in the car that belonged to 48-year-old revisionist historian Ratajczak. They established that the man, who had problems with finding a job in Poland, planned to go to Holland or Belgium to work in a company that sells flowers. For that purpose he bought the Renault Kangoo, in which his body was found between the front and rear seats, and in which he might have recently lived in.

In 2000, Ratajczak was fired from the University of Opole, where he worked for eleven years, and banned from teaching at other universities for three years after the publication of his book "Tematy niebezpieczne" ["Dangerous Themes"], in which he claimed that it was not possible to kill millions of in the Auschwitz death camp gas chambers and that Nazis did not have a plan to mass murder Jews.

Warsaw (PMN)—Polish music and musicians figured prominently in June, 2010, at the St. Magnus Festival in the Orkney Islands, one of United Kingdom’s major music events. Its Director, Glenys Hughes, wrote in the Festival brochure, "We welcome, as special guests, an array of world-class Polish musicians, and, in his bicentennial year, we celebrate the genius of Poland’s greatest composer, Fryderyk Chopin."

In addition to Chopin, the program of the event included works by Karol Szymanowski, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Grazyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutoslawski, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki and representatives of the younger generation, Pawel Mykietyn and Aleksander Kosciow, both of whom were the Festival guests.

The list of performers included the pianists Ewa Kupiec, Jan Krzysztof Broja and Leszek Mozdzer, the cellist Andrzej Bauer, the Royal String Quartet from Warsaw and Trebunie Tutki, a family band from the Tatra Mountains. In one of the concerts, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Poland’s Michal Dworzynski.

Adrian Thomas, a renowned specialist on Polish music presented a talk on the legacy of Chopin’s music for both writers and composers.

Strasbourg, France (PMN)—The Council of Europe’s anti-racism agency stated in June, 2010, that racial discrimination and anti-Semitism remain a problem in Poland despite efforts to stamp them out. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said in a broadly critical report, "Discriminatory attitudes persist in many fields, including employment, housing and law enforcement.

Anti-Semitism remains a problem, the report said, and "a particularly worrying aspect is its tacit acceptance by a media group belonging to a Catholic organization and sometimes by mainstream political parties." The media group mentioned was assumed by many to be a reference to Radio Maryja.

The agency noted with concern that anti-Semitic publications are still sold openly in kiosks in Warsaw and other cities. However, the report acknowledged that "most people agree that today Poland has become again an important center of Jewish culture to be enjoyed by its citizens, residents and visitors.

The report found that some football fans in Poland, which is a co-host of the European Championships in 2012 along with Ukraine, exhibit racist behavior, while numerous websites and publications encouraged ethnic and religious hatred. Extreme rightwing organizations were cited as a factor.

In its conclusions and recommendations, the agency said authorities should continue efforts to prosecute all racially motivated offences, including those committed on the Internet.

London, England (PMN)—The Economist, a respected British publication, reported on June 17, 2010, that "retailers of luxury goods like the look of Poland"

British carmaker Aston Martin opened its first Polish dealership this spring. The city will soon also get Bentley and Ferrari showrooms, and the sellers of expensive cars will be joined by purveyors of pricey fashion brands. Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior boutiques are in the offing. The global market for luxury goods shrank by as much as 13% in 2009, say some estimates, but high-end goods are flourishing in Poland.

Last year Poland was the only member of the European Union to avoid a recession and the economy still looks lively. A recent French study ranked Warsaw the third-friendliest city in Europe for entrepreneurs. It seems obvious that as Poles get richer, they are developing a taste for luxury.

Consultants KPMG calculate that some 2.5 million Poles now earn at least $1,100 a month, and they are ready to devote 13% of their disposable income to luxury items. Moreover, the ranks of those with financial assets of $1 million or more are growing particularly fast, swelling by 11% in 2007-09.

The Economist says that 30-something shoppers, who came of age after the fall of communism, are happy to flaunt their wealth and retailers are responding to the demand. It is estimated that over half of the world’s premium brands now have an official distributor in Poland, with luxury cars especially well represented.

Kyiv, Ukraine (PMN)—According to Jan Pieklo, Executive Director of the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI, the issue of the further direction of Ukrainian-Polish relations mostly depends on Kyiv. "It makes no difference for Polish-Ukrainian relations who becomes the Polish president, Kaczynski or Komorowski," he said during a Kyiv-Warsaw videoconference on June 21, 2010.

The head of the Global Strategies Institute, Vadym Karasiov, also said there would be no big changes for Ukraine after either Kaczynski or Komorowski becomes the new president of Poland.

Ukrainian expert Bohdan Sokolovsky said "There is no doubt that Moscow will be the moderator of Polish-Ukrainian relations." He added that the new Ukrainian government will take policy decisions that meet Moscow’s approval and on those grounds it will build its own policy.

Paris, France (PMN)—The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Poland and Russia backed a proposal on June 23, 2010, for a joint European Union-Russia security committee to resolve regional crises. The meeting in Paris was the first time Russia has joined in discussions with the Weimar Triangle countries of France, Germany and Poland, a sign of increased strategic relations. The three-way consultations began in 1991, but had languished recently, before ministers pledged last year to revive the forum.

Bernard Kouchner of France, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Radek Sikorski of Poland and Guido Westerwelle of Germany also touched on a dispute between Russia and its ex-Soviet neighbor Belarus over natural gas, as well as the deadly ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan and the war in Afghanistan.

The meeting came weeks after Germany and Russia proposed a joint European Union-Russian security committee aimed at resolving regional crises and conflicts, saying that contact between the EU and Russia on security matters needs to progress to a higher level.

The proposed new forum, called the EU-Russia Political and Security Committee, would work on the ministerial level, with the European Union (EU) High Representative Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in charge. Its main purpose would be to set guidelines for joint EU-Russia crisis management, including military operations. A first problem to be addressed could be the Trans-Dniester conflict, in which Russian troops have been stationed in a separatist area of Moldova for nearly two decades since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Bristol, England (PMN)—An alleged conman who set up a charity supporting Eastern Europeans in Bristol, England, has been arrested by police in connection with claims of serious offenses in Poland. Jacek Jerzy Jaskolski, known in Bristol as Jay Jay Martin, is also being investigated for alleged fraud offenses against the Royal British Legion.

Jaskolski, who once introduced himself as a diplomat’s son, was arrested in a raid on June 23, 2010, under a European warrant of arrest in connection with thefts in Poland in 2000. He was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates for an extradition hearing.

He was featured on a Polish police website showing photographs of wanted suspects and a Bristol police officer of Polish descent began investigating.

It is understood that police were probing an allegation that Jaskolski, chairman of the Bristol-based Central and East European Society and Central and East European Society Information Centre, obtained money from the Royal British Legion, from whom it is claimed that he was renting residential premises. Police were called in to investigate alleged financial irregularities.

Jaskolski, who referred to himself as a businessman, was the voluntary treasurer of Bristol East Labor Party five or six years ago.

Warsaw (PMN)—The Moscow Patriarchate and the Catholic Church are working on a joint document covering church contribution to Russia-Poland reconciliation. The first session of the working group took place in Warsaw on June 24, 2010. The Moscow Patriarchate was represented by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations, and the representative of the Catholic Church in Poland was the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Henryk Muszynski.

The working group discussed two versions of the document prepared by the Orthodox and Catholic delegations, reached agreement on its structure and main contents, and decided that they will consider the grievances of the past in the spirit of Christ compassion and mutual forgiveness, whereas experts will make thorough research into the authenticity of historical facts and interpret them.

The major part of the document will contain definitions of the spheres of cooperation between the two Churches at present and in the future for the good of the peoples of Poland and Russia.

The next session is due to take place in Moscow.

Warsaw (PMN)—Poland may have failed to qualify for the World Cup, but vuvuzela-mania is good news for Piotr Zawadzinski, who runs a small plastic floor-tile firm in Warsaw.

Zawadzinski told the newspaper Metro that gathering dust in the back of his workshop was a machine for making plastic products such as hula-hoops and bottles, bought years ago in a bankruptcy sale. He is now giving it a new lease of life turning out vuvuzelas, the modern version of an Australian aboriginal horn used to cheer on teams at football (soccer) matches.

Zawadzinski said he can produce four vuvuzelas a minute at a cost of $0.15 (15 cents) per instrument. Selling a thousand for up to $2.40 each would cover the cost of his machine, he added.

Chinese-made vuvuzelas imported by Poles surfing the wave currently fetch six to eight zloty on allegro.pl, the Polish version of EBay.

The tuneless, deafening plastic vuvuzelas became the defining sound of South Africa's World Cup, leaving television networks hunting for ways to filter out the constant buzz.

Vuvuzelas have also inspired Polish trade unionists seeking new ways to grab attention at rallies, beyond their usual sirens, air-horns and fireworks.