Wroclaw, Poland (PMN)—"Era New Horizon," Poland’s largest film festival, was held for the 10th time in the southern city of Wroclaw from July 22 to August 1, 2010. It featured 480 films from more than 50 countries, in addition to competitions, concerts, shows, lectures, workshops and public showings.

Last year, the festival attracted an audience of over 100,000. This year’s event included a review of Turkish films, a show of films by Laura Mulvey, a legendary British feminist cinema theoretician and director, and a retrospective of Jean Luc Godard, a founding member of French New Wave, who turns 80 this year. Stephen and Timothy Quay, American puppet animators residing in London, also had a review of their surrealist films at the festival.

Discussions, film showings and an exhibition of some previously unpublished photographs marked the 10 years since the death of Wojciech Jerzy Has, one of Poland’s foremost film directors.

Among the highlights of the festival was a show by musician Mike Patton appearing with his original "Mondo Cane" project, and a performance by Michel van der Aa, a contemporary opera composer from the Netherlands. His adaptation of "The Book of Disquiet" by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa is a starting point for a hypnotic show combining film, theater and music.

Gdansk, Poland (PMN)—Two hundred and forty architectural firms from across the world will submit their designs for a Museum of World War II, which will be built in Gdansk. The deadline for presenting preliminary concepts of the designs was August 13, 2010.

The architects have been selected from among 328 applications from 42 countries. The largest number of firms taking part in the competition comes from Poland, followed by the United States, France, Germany, Britain and Spain.

An international jury includes leading Polish and foreign architects, art historians and artists, such as Daniel Libeskind, George Ferguson, Hans Stimmann, Tomasz Konior, and Jack Lohman, the director of the Museum of London. It will announce its verdict on September 1. A discussion panel will be held later to exchange views on the prize-winning designs.

Construction work is planned to begin next year and the opening of the Museum of World War II is scheduled for September 1, 2014, the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of war. It is to document the history of the war in the context of both "big politics" of the time and the experiences of ordinary people in Poland and other countries.

Warsaw (PMN)—A Japanese sweets and chewing gum concern, Lotte group will acquire Wedel, the Polish confectionery producer. The Polish company has been put up for sale by American giant Kraft Foods, which recently acquired Cadbury, the British confectionery producer and former owner of Wedel. The European Commission (EC) approved the acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft Foods on the condition that the latter concern will sell its chocolate businesses in Poland and Romania.

Previously, the market speculated that among Wedel’s potential buyers were Hershey, Nestle and Jutrzenka. Still, Lotte, which is one of the 25 largest food concerns in the world, is connected with Hershey, the American confectionery giant. Both companies established a joint venture in China that produces Hershey and Lotte products for the Chinese market.

Kraft Foods has not revealed the value of the transaction. According to the market estimates, Wedel is worth around $260 million..

The acquisition of Wedel by Lotte came as a big surprise to the market. To date, the Japanese giant has not been present on the Eastern European markets and its strategy for the region remains unknown.

Warsaw (PMN)—A Polish journalist regarded as an authoritative and experienced writer on Chinese affairs has been refused an entry visa to China. Konrad Godlewski, a freelancer commissioned by Gazeta Wyborcza [Election Gazette], Poland's largest daily newspaper, was denied entry to the country to cover the China-Europe forum in Chengdu.

Godlewski was told he had been blacklisted by Chinese authorities in Beijing. No reason was given.

"This is a tragedy for me. My dream was to be a correspondent in China. Now I feel like a fisherman whose boat has been stolen," Godlewski stated.

He believes his blacklisting may have been sparked by his acting as a translator for an interview in May between Wang Lixiong, a prominent Chinese writer and critic of China’s Tibetan policy, and the Dalai Lama.

The rejection of Godlewski’s visa application comes three months after another Polish journalist, Maria Kruczkowska, was denied a Chinese visa. She reported on China for 11 years, and had previously visited the country several times without incident. However, she was blacklisted for writing a critical article about China and the 2008 Olympic Games.

The International Press Institute press freedom manager Anthony Mills said, "We expect China to abide by universal press freedom values. This includes allowing foreign journalists to cover developments inside China, just as Chinese journalists should be allowed to cover events elsewhere in the world."

Click Here for broadcast from Polish Radio July 15, 2010 - 3 min.51 sec.  – Allow Time For MP3 Download –

Warsaw (PMN)—It was been a difficult road for U.S.-Russian relations during late June and early July, 2010. The images of Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev chomping on cheeseburgers in Washington brought some hope of a new era of reconciliation. However, the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies in the U.S. only days later and the U.S. Secretary Of State’s tour of eastern Europe and the South Caucasus have given reason to question whether relations have truly been improved.

Arms control was one of the most controversial issues raised throughout Hillary Clinton’s recent five-day tour of the Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Last April, as a sign towards improved U.S.-Russian relations, Obama and Medvedev signed an arms control treaty that would see both countries cut their nuclear arsenals by a third by 2017. However, Russia said then that it was prepared to withdraw from the treaty if the U.S. increased its missile defense system in any way, even to counteract a potential threat from Iran, that would pose a direct threat to Russia's strategic nuclear forces.

It is certain that the missile-shield pact that Clinton signed with Poland during her visit will not be appreciated by the Kremlin. Despite her protestations that the move is not a direct attack on Russia, it will certainly make Russia less willing to collaborate with the U.S. on this issue.

During her visit to Poland, Clinton also broached the idea of exploiting the country’s shale gas supplies, thus reopening the gaping wound that is Europe’s ongoing energy power struggle. American moves to expand and develop shale production in Europe would strengthen the position of European consumers in dealing with Russia and pose a threat to Gazprom’s monopoly, forcing it to make concessions and co-operate with other countries.

Warsaw (PMN)—A Polish court agreed on July 7, 2010, to extradite a suspected Israeli spy to Germany in connection with the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai. "The ruling means that the court partially agreed with the German Federal Republic and decided that our client can be extradited to German authorities," said Brodsky’s lawyer, Krzysztof Stepinski.

Polish authorities detained a man using the name Uri Brodsky at the Warsaw airport in June after Germany issued a European arrest warrant for the person responsible for fraudulently obtaining a German passport. The document is believed to have been used by a member of a hit squad that Dubai says assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel room in January on behalf of Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any role in the assassination.

Brodsky, who hid his face under a hood, was escorted into the courtroom by seven heavily armed policemen. He did not speak during the hearing.

Dubai has accused Israel of being behind the killing and provided the names of more than two dozen alleged members of a team it says tracked and killed the Palestinian, using fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports.

Warsaw (PMN)—A decision by controversial artist Rafal Betlejewski to burn down a barn to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre of Jews in 1941, is getting mixed reactions from the Jewish minority in Poland. Betlejewski, an artist known for his controversial art project entitled "I Miss You Jew," said "this drastic act is an attempt to revive the community of suffering. I would like to wake up from a pharmacological coma."

The artist has asked Poles to write down their sins on white pieces of paper which will be burnt in the barn.

Many Jewish organizations are reported to be outraged by the stunt, although the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, has not commented on Betlejewski’s "happening."

According to the Piotr Kadlcik, chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities in Poland, "the gaps in Polish-Jewish relations will not be filled by the burning down of a barn … I am afraid that this kind of event, which includes the burning of a barn to the playing of an orchestra […] will [mark this anniversary] by turning it into a folk happening, in a bad sense of the term," Kadlcik continues.

The local mayor of Tomaszow Mazowiecki, the district where the barn is to be burned, has also not given permission for Betlejewski’s stunt, as he was allegedly duped into allowing the action to go ahead after Betlejewski told authorities that the barn is to be part of a film set depicting a scene from World War II.

Warsaw (PMN)—A group of Italian filmmakers is currently touring southern Poland in search for location sites for an international project of RAI Television, tentatively entitled "The Battle of Vienna."

The central character of the film is Marco d’Aviano, a wandering preacher for the Capuchin monastic order, who is credited with rallying Catholics and Protestants on the eve of the Battle of Vienna of 1683. The practical result of this alliance was the relief of Vienna, in which King Jan III Sobieski of Poland led an army of 70,000 troops, composed of Poles and Germans, against 100,000 Turks conducting a siege of the capital of the Habsburg Empire. This military success was crucial to halting the advance of Turkish soldiers into Europe.

The character of d’Aviano is to be played by Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar award for his role in Roman Polanski’s "The Pianist". Harvey Keitel is to portray King Jan Sobieski. The cast will also to include Polish actors Piotr Adamczyk, Borys Szyc, Tomasz Karolak and Alicja Bachleda-Curus.

The Italians are also holding talks on hiring Polish companies to cooperate in the production process, such as construction firms. The tour is organized by the local government of the Podkarpacie Province, which sees the production as a major chance for the promotion of the region and a boost to its economy.

Warsaw (PMN)—According to democracy and human-rights advocacy group Freedom House, Poland’s democratic credentials have taken a hit. The Democracy Score of the non-governmental organization (NGO) for Poland in its most recent annual Nations in Transit report dropped from 2.25 in 2009 to 2.32 in 2010.

According to the report’s authors, the continuous decline in Poland’s score since 2004 is a clear indication that the country’s democratic system is still dealing with deficiencies in the government. The report said that this year’s presidential elections had visibly affected the productivity of the executive branch and caused authorities to ignore the pressing problem of corruption at high levels.

Poland did not do poorly in every category. In the electoral process section, Poland’s rating advanced in 2010 as a result of last year’s transparent European Parliamentary elections. Its local democratic governance category rating also improved from 2.00 to 1.75.

But, Poland’s civil society rating showed no improvement due to what Freedom House saw as government intrusion in the education system. Poland’s national democratic governance rating also stagnated. The authors blamed the country’s high budget deficit and the removal of the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) director for the score.

Freedom House’s annual Nations in Transit survey looks at democratic developments and deficiencies for 29 countries in former communist states in Europe and Asia.

Tbilisi, Georgia (PMN)—Poland will continue to support Georgia’s territorial integrity, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told his Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze on July 13, 2010, at a joint briefing in Tbilisi. The briefing was held after a meeting between Vashadze and Sikorski. After the talks, a dialogue was held in an enlarged format with the participation of delegations from foreign ministries of both countries.

Regarding the term "occupation" used by the United States in regard to Russia’s actions in Georgia, Sikorski stressed that Poland has already been using this word f or some time. "We call for the rigorous enforcement of the ceasefire agreement dated August 12, 2008," he said. "We will continue to exert pressure on Russia to achieve the execution of the document."

The Polish official added that newly elected Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski defined his foreign policy priorities at a meeting at the Foreign Ministry. "Our political priorities remain unchanged," he said. "Although the political climate has changed, Warsaw will continue to support Georgia’s integration into NATO."

In his turn, Vashadze called Poland a reliable partner that supports Georgia’s "commitment to NATO and the EU. Its advice is used in our relations with the EU," he said.